What Does Colossians 2:5 Mean?

(5) **Absent in the flesh.**—Comp. 1Corinthians 5:3, “I as absent in body and present in spirit.” **Your order, and the stedfastness.**—The word “order” is used in 1Corinthians 14:40; the word “stedfastness,” or *solidity, *is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, though the verb from which it is derived is found in Acts 3:7; Acts 3:16; Acts 16:5, and the original adjective, from which the verb is derived, in 1Peter 5:9, “stedfast in the faith.” From the days of the ancient Greek interpreters downwards, it has been noted that both words have military associations—the one being used for discipline generally, and the other for the firm compact solidity of the phalanx; and (as in Ephesians 6:11-17) that the use of them may have been suggested by St. Paul’s captivity under military guard. If both words be referred to their “faith,” the Apostle obviously characterises it as having right “order” (or, *harmony*) in its various parts, and a strong “solidity” against all trials.