Note 20 at Col. 1:23: The word "If" here makes our holiness, blamelessness, and unreproveableness conditional on us continuing in the faith. This has led some to believe that we may have been saved by God's grace but our actions keep us saved. That's not so.

It's our faith in what Jesus did for us that saved us and our faith has to continue to be in Christ and not in ourselves to maintain salvation. Our holiness, righteousness, and justification are gifts that we receive in our spirits through Jesus. But these things are not irrevocable. We can't lose our salvation through not being good enough, but we can reject it. We weren't forced to be saved and the Lord won't force us to stay saved. We have to hold on to faith in Christ as our only hope of salvation (see note 4 at 1 Cor. 15:2, p. 954; see note 4 at Gal. 4:11, p. 1074; see note at Heb. 6:4).

Note 21 at Col. 1:23: The Greek word which was translated "grounded" here is THEMELIOO and it literally means, "to lay a basis for." It was translated "founded" in Matthew 7:25 and Luke 6:48 when Jesus gave the parable of the man who built his house upon the rock. The house withstood the flood because it was "founded" upon a rock.

This same Greek word was translated "foundation" in Hebrews 1:10 speaking of Jesus laying the "foundation" of the earth; it was translated as "settle" in 1 Peter 5:10, and "grounded" in Ephesians 3:17.

Paul is describing someone who has a good foundation in and is well established in the faith.

Note 22 at Col. 1:23: The English word "settle" was translated from the Greek word HEDRAIOS which means "sedentary, i.e. (by impl.) immovable." This is not describing someone who is just acquainted with faith, but one who is so well established that he can't be moved from his faith in Christ.

Note 23 at Col. 1:23: Paul's statement that the gospel has been preached to every creature which is under heaven is not to be taken literally. This is not the case because the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." The gospel reaching every person is one of the occurrences that will usher in the second coming of the Lord and that hasn't happened yet. Paul himself said he tried to preach the gospel where Christ was not named (Rom. 15:20). That means people had not been reached yet.

This statement is to be taken as a hyperbole. That is an intentional exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis. This is the same way children speak when they say, "But Mom, everyone is doing it!" They don't mean every single person is doing it but they are clearly exaggerating to make their point. They would not defend that statement literally.

This is the same way Paul spoke earlier in this chapter in verse 6. He is not claiming that every single individual in the world during his time had heard the gospel. But the gospel was spreading so fast and so far that even the Pharisees of Jesus' day said, "Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him" (Jn. 12:19). They certainly had not "gone after" Jesus, so this is understood to be a hyperbole, i.e. an exaggeration to emphasize a point.