(2.) The practical part of the epistle (3-4) enforces various duties naturally
flowing from the doctrines expounded. They are exhorted to mind things
that are above (3:1-4), to mortify every evil principle of their nature, and
to put on the new man (3:5-14). Many special duties of the Christian life
are also insisted upon as the fitting evidence of the Christian character.
Tychicus was the bearer of the letter, as he was also of that to the
Ephesians and to Philemon, and he would tell them of the state of the
apostle (4:7-9). After friendly greetings (10-14), he bids them interchange
this letter with that he had sent to the neighbouring church of Laodicea. He
then closes this brief but striking epistle with his usual autograph
salutation. There is a remarkable resemblance between this epistle and that
to the Ephesians (q.v.). The genuineness of this epistle has not been called
in question.
- COLOUR The subject of colours holds an important place in the
Scriptures.
White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to
milk (Genesis 49:12), manna (Exodus 16:31), snow (Isaiah 1:18), horses
(Zechariah 1:8), raiment (Ecclesiastes 9:8). Another Hebrew word so
rendered is applied to marble (Esther 1:6), and a cognate word to the lily
(Cant. 2:16). A different term, meaning “dazzling,” is applied to the
countenance (Cant. 5:10).
This colour was an emblem of purity and innocence (Mark 16:5; John
20:12; Revelation 19:8, 14), of joy (Ecclesiastes 9:8), and also of victory
(Zechariah 6:3; Revelation 6:2). The hangings of the tabernacle court
(Exodus 27:9; 38:9), the coats, mitres, bonnets, and breeches of the priests
(Exodus 39:27,28), and the dress of the high priest on the day of
Atonement (Leviticus 16:4,32), were white.
Black, applied to the hair (Leviticus 13:31; Cant. 5:11), the complexion
(Cant. 1:5), and to horses (Zechariah 6:2,6). The word rendered “brown”
in Genesis 30:32 (R.V., “black”) means properly “scorched”, i.e., the
colour produced by the influence of the sun’s rays. “Black” in Job 30:30
means dirty, blackened by sorrow and disease. The word is applied to a
mourner’s robes (Jeremiah 8:21; 14:2), to a clouded sky (1 Kings 18:45),
to night (Micah 3:6; Jeremiah 4:28), and to a brook rendered turbid by
melted snow (Job 6:16). It is used as symbolical of evil in Zechariah 6:2, 6