Colossians 2:5, commentary and pictures

Though absent in the flesh, Paul was present with the believers in spirit, joying and beholding their order and orderly conduct and life, and the steadfastness and firmness of their faith in Christ, and that firm steadfastness was a cause for his rejoicing. This beholding of order and steadfast faith is commended amid danger, and the exhortation stands for believers now as a binding law of unity. The steadfast faith in which Paul rejoiced is spiritual order linked with being rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith as taught.

The verse belongs to a warning against being beguiled by enticing words and ideas not grounded in Christ, including fanciful doctrines and strange doctrines, deceptive theories, human reasoning, and philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ, turning believers from Christ rather than keeping them firm in faith. Safety is in Christ alone as the only security, requiring walking in Christ Jesus as He was received, rooted and built up in Him and established in faith with thanksgiving and abounding therein, and studying the Word and securing its large, rich, full, abundant and assuring promises. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and believers are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power, in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The passage urges toward spiritual understanding and Christian maturity, connecting faith in Christ with reaching the highest standard of Christian perfection.

The verse calls for hearts comforted and knit together and joined together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledging of God and of Christ, and this loving unity is a great need essential to success in the Lord's work. Disregarding unity and love for one another transgresses the law of God as verily as transgressing the fourth commandment. It is folly to turn from Christ to humanity for help, for what Christ is to believers and what they may be to Him as His helping hand is to be appreciated so the salvation of God is seen. The chapter is a treasure house of encouragement to the believer to be read prayerfully and carefully for understanding, holding rich, full, abundant and assuring promises of God to be received and studied and secured, so that by staying keen, wide awake and spiritual-minded the soul is not imperiled by yielding to the enticements of the enemy.

True service in this light makes believers self-denying and self-sacrificing, keeping individual holiness and consecration before them, so that through sanctification of the truth they abound in works of benevolence for the uplifting of others. Stedfastness of faith in Christ means firmness of purpose to stand firmly for Bible truth and for principle as firm as a rock, holding firm allegiance to God. It means cherishing the sense of representing God, constantly striving to be what God desires, improving God-given opportunities to become a faithful, all-round Christian and missionary worker together with God under the guidance of the great Physician, keeping influence as it should be, and cherishing love for the Sabbath rather than observing it as a form. Without this stedfastness one becomes unimpressionable in regard to religious matters, influenced by unconsecrated associations and by those who in spirit and practice are departing from righteousness, following the habits and footsteps of brilliant but unbalanced persons who have not balance enough to hold them firm in allegiance to God, and becoming less and less prepared to act out God's plan. Beholding order applies also to the school community, where God's angels walk among teachers and students, observing their order and diligence.