(e) He passes now to a series of special exhor tations and warnings, which occupy two chapters (ii :6; iv :6 sq.), and fall into five subdivisions.
(a) The first of these (ii:6-19), is in its main purpose an exhortation to retain their hold on and to develop into all its practical consequences the personal relation to Christ which the gospel had made known to them. As this was the point on which the Colossians had most to fear from false teachers, the exhortation (verses 6, 7) is accom panied by an explicit warning (verse 8), and a careful statement of the grounds on which the Christian who grasps the true conception of the Person of Christ is assured of a complete moral development, and receives, by union in baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ, the reality of that separation from his evil nature which had been foreshadowed by circumcision (verses 9-15). In the light of this thought, the at tractiveness of outward observances for the at tainment of purity and the necessity for angelic mediation disappear (verses t6-19).
(b) In the second subdivision (ii :3o-iii :4), union with the death of Christ is shown to be a deliverance from formal and material restrictions, and union with His resurrection determines the true sphere of Christian thought and life.
(c) The third subdivision develops the same thought in its present practical application to moral effort, with relation (I) to the appetites and passions (the members on the earth) which need to be done to death, and the evil habits which must be stripped off (iii :5-11), and (2) to the new graces which the Christian must seek to acquire (verses 12-14), and the new principles by which he should regulate his practice (verses 15-t7).
(d) The fourth subdivision (iii :18-iv :1), ap plies the new principle to the fundamental rela tions of family life, husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants.
(c) The last subdivision (iv:2-6) contains an exhortation to perseverance in prayer, and to dis cretion in their relations with the heathen world.
(d) The letter closes with a commendation of the messengers, Tychicus and Onesimus, by whose hands it was sent (iv :7-o), and a group of per sonal salutations (verses to-16).