Supplemental note Colossians 2:20-23

Supplemental note Colossians 2:20-23

Some years ago the practical reality of this passage was made clear to me in the experience of a friend whom I will call George. George managed a Christian retreat center. The retreat center offered full service week and/or weekend programming. It was pretty popular and was booked about 50 weeks a year. They had a wide range of clients from youth groups to senior adults events, family reunions, military groups, business leaders and religious groups from almost every segment of society. Religious groups made up the largest segment of the client base and youth programming was the bulk of the religious clientele. The director, George, shared with me an observation I don’t think I will ever forget. He said the group that had the highest level of sexual promiscuous behavior was a highly conservative religious group. They were typified by their conservative stand on dress, appearance, and conduct, particularly for women. The ladies and girls would wear no make up or jewelry. They didn’t cut their hair or if they did only rarely and the older women would wear it in tight buns on the back of her head. Their clothes were plain and were mostly ankle length skirts, button shirts buttoned to the top button and frequently tennis shoes, but never sandals. For this group the ritual of modesty was a priority!

However once at the retreat center and programs were underway no group had a greater tendency to have teen couples disappear into the woods and copulate. These were very modestly dressed kids. This is not to say modestly dressed kids are always sexually promiscuous. Nor is it to say modesty in some way was the culprit. It is to say that a long skirt and a high button shirt are powerless to control lust. “It is as easy to flip up a long skirt as a short one” to quote George. All their rituals and rules have the appearance of righteousness, “…but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” to quote Paul.  Something is very wrong in our faith and heart when we imagine that any rule or regulation can accomplish what is only possible by relationship with God the Father through the Son and activated by the Holy Spirit.

“Lord, move me to purity by the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN”

Colossians 2:20-23

Colossians 2:20-23

The false teachers, under the guidance of their dark masters, desire to separate Christians from Christ, the head. This is a state in which they lived before coming to Christ. But when they became Christians, they were separated from the dark powers and their control, a separation as complete as if they were dead to them. The dark powers want to regain control, and so, along with their doctrines described in verse 18, they also offer rituals and regulations for living.

What is described in verses 21-22 is both an attempt to distract us from the good we have in Christ and to reinforce a false way to salvation. The Galatians, in their legalism, attempted the same by keeping the law of Moses. Here is a different legalism that attempts to save by gaining knowledge through keeping rules. Any attempt to gain salvation by rule-keeping and obedience is a damned lie in the most literal sense of the word. The dark powers accomplish a great victory for evil when they direct our attention to rules and regulations in obedience as evidence of our own righteousness or as a means to salvation. As Christians, we do live by a high moral ethic or standard, but that is the result of the prompting of the Holy Spirit and in loving thanks to God. It is never to earn salvation.

People from many different religions all look very pious because they strictly keep some rules, which are often arbitrary. The list of rules is almost endless. Don’t eat pork, don’t use electricity, pray five times a day facing a certain direction, don’t wear makeup, cross yourself at the end of prayers, don’t sing with the piano, wear a tie when you go to church, and women must wear ankle-length dresses. Looking at the rituals, it may seem that these people are very holy. A life that is totally given to keeping strict regulations can seem impressive, but these rituals are powerless against the power of the flesh in each of us.

Real holiness, real commitment to Christ, cannot be hidden; it will shine out in daily life. But it comes from the power of the Spirit and not by the effort or the effects of rules.

“Lord, help me live a holy life empowered by Your Spirit. AMEN”

Colossians 2:16-19

Colossians 2:16-19

We come to a “therefore” passage. A “therefore” passage is where Paul will make a theological pronouncement and then make a practical application. Anytime you see “therefore” in one of Paul’s letters, it typically serves as a link between a theological statement and its application. Because of the six things accomplished by Christ, listed by Paul in verses 10-15, he tells disciples how to live. Paul begins with a command that we allow no one to judge regarding eating and drinking. This is more than food choices but the matter of ascetic lifestyles. The false teachers taught a sort of self-denial for a false reason. They thought that since angels don’t eat and drink because they are spiritual, then believers shouldn’t eat or drink if they want to be spiritual. They set up their own standard of being holy based on certain abstinences and condemned anyone who didn’t follow their prescribed practices. They base the rules on the Old Testament law. But Paul says these laws are merely shadows of the substance that is in Christ. The word “substance” literally means “body.” The Old Testament rituals were shadows cast by the body of Christ.

Apparently the false teachers have already done damage because Paul says, “Let no one keep defrauding you.” The word “defrauding” is best understood as a referee that makes bad calls that cheat a player. Don’t play a game with a corrupt referee, and do not seek spiritual guidance from a person that will cheat you of what you have in Christ and what Christ has accomplished for you. Apparently here is what these false teachers did with a perverted kind of humility: they claimed not to be able to approach God. This denies both God‘s love and His goodness. The false teachers claiming humility, instead, went to Angels. Because of their supposed humility, the angels gave them visions and a superior and secret knowledge. Remember not all angels are good guys. As a result, these false teachers were a massive combination of arrogance, being inflated, and ignorance, being without Christ. In reality they were driven by carnal selfishness and a sin-dominated mind.

When someone claims that God or a spirit told them something, we must be careful. The worst and most dangerous heresies rise from supposed extra revelation received, reportedly, from angels. These teachings enslave us, cut us off from the head, Jesus Christ, and we become pawns or tools for the false teachers and their organizations. 

“Give me the grace to live faithfully in what Christ has done for me. AMEN”

Colossians 2:8–15

Colossians 2:8–15

We all have choices, and those choices have consequences. In this passage, Paul contrasts two choices and demonstrates the dynamic of the better choice. Paul begins by describing the lesser choice. In verse eight, Paul is not condemning philosophy per se but rather that which is empty, vain, or void. This philosophy has its origin in men and is ordered around the world’s principles. This is in contrast to having our lives ordered around Christ. A great many worldly political, philosophical, economic, and ideological movements will try to appeal to faith. Even the Nazis claimed to want to support Christianity. But the question for each idea and choice is, “Will this move me as a disciple toward Christ or away from Him?”

In the following verses, Paul describes the wonder of Christ and how He interacts with His followers. Who is this Christ, and why would He be superior to what the world offers? He is the one in whom the completeness of deity dwells in bodily form. Jesus, Paul asserts, is God made flesh. Note the use of the present tense. Because Jesus is the God-man, certain things have been accomplished for His followers, and Paul begins a list. First, in Him His disciples are made complete, or full, or filled up. Second, He is the head over all rule and authority. As in Colossians 1:18, this is a reference to angels. We do not need angels to provide us salvation, as the false teachers had said. Third, the power of our sin nature, or flesh, is cut away by Christ. In the Old Testament, that which marked a man as not being one of God’s chosen people was cut away in the act of circumcision. The power of our sin nature is removed from us in baptism. In our own power a person can never live a life pleasing to God because the flesh is too strong, but in baptism that sin nature is cut away. Fourth, not only was our sin nature cut away when we were baptized, but we also went from being dead to being alive because we were forgiven. Fifth, the certificate of our debt was forgiven. This is no vague general list; the word literally means “handwritten.” This is your personal list of every evil deed you have ever done. That complete list of all our sins was nailed to the cross. Sixth, the fallen angelic powers are completely disarmed. They had two key strongholds on us: the flesh and the list of wrongs. But now they are reduced to a carnival sideshow.

“Lord, thank You for the hope I have in Jesus. AMEN”

Colossians 2:6-8

Colossians 2:6-8

Our problem is not that we do not believe. Many ‘Christians’ actually believe. The problem is often these believers do not know what to believe; we don’t believe the truth. Human beings are profoundly spiritual beings; we are drawn to faith like a moth to a light. From Stone Age animists to atheistic scientists, all humans look for explanations, wonder, and the object of faith that gives the reason for existence. To ‘believe’ is no big accomplishment. Many people who self-identify as Christians say they believe, but their beliefs are sloppy, shallow, misguided, and self-serving. In a word, they are wrong. Why is this? It is generally a combination of the church's sloppy, shallow, misguided, and selfish teaching and the individual’s satisfaction with a sloppy faith and an unawareness of anything more. We have focused on the benefits of faith, or, perhaps we should say, the supposed benefits of faith, but have not focused on the faith itself. 

For Paul, faith begins with the lordship of Christ. The false teachers of Colossae would undermine the person and the work of Christ and thereby compromise His authority or lordship. In contrast, Paul says the way you received Christ as Lord, or master, or absolute and final authority is the way that you need to live daily. The day-by-day, hour-by-hour, moment-by-moment living with Jesus Christ as our Master is the goal. Our goal is not to sign up with some kind of cosmic welfare office or have a divine sugar daddy.

How do we do this walk of daily living under the Lordship of Jesus? Paul explains in Colossians 2:7. This verse is a delight of Greek grammar, but time does not permit a full explanation here. Paul makes five quick points with five key words. 

1. Rooted: beginning with a solid foundation 

2. Built up: roughly to grow in wisdom. 

3. Established: to make stronger. 

4. Taught or instructed: This is how it happens; without good instruction, we will never grow. 

5. Thankfulness: an appreciation of what Christ has done through faith with and in us.

This is too rarely presented in many churches. We have presented Jesus as a good, friendly guy that can grant our wishes and make life what we want it to be. We are content to live or to be left in the shallow misunderstanding and results of a faith that is discontented and ungrateful but ever demanding more for ourselves. The only solution is to return to an understanding of the lordship of Christ, and that is found only in Scripture.

“Jesus You are my Lord and my God. AMEN”

Colossians 2:1-5

Colossians 2:1-5

Having set forward the sound doctrine of the person in the work of Christ, Paul turns to his concerns for and the needs of his audience. Anywhere the people of God lived, Paul cared for them, so even though he did not personally know the church at Colossi and Laodicea, he cared for them. False teachers who tried to blend Gnostic philosophy with Christian faith endangered the church. As with all false teaching, they diminished Christ as they offered an alternative faith. They thought that Jesus was not truly God, and they proposed a secret knowledge that offered more than Christ. In response to this false teaching, Paul wants the Colossians to have their hearts encouraged. In the language of the New Testament, “heart” is more than emotion, as it is for us. Heart meant the emotions, and the mind, and the capacity to be determined to act—what we might say is the will. When a Christian community has correct moral/ethical teaching and the right emotions, and it is determined to live out these teachings, rest assured that comes out of knowing who Christ is. Paul uses three words that were very important to the false teachers of Gnosticism: “wisdom,” “mystery,” and “knowledge.” These were what the Gnostics sought and claimed they had found or could find apart from Jesus. Paul says the real treasure of “wisdom, mystery, and knowledge” is found only in Jesus.

Paul presumes that there is a concerted effort to delude and deceive Christians. Believers must live with the constant awareness that false teachings are constantly going to try to lead us astray. It usually begins by means of an addition. The false teachers will start by adding to the faith some “holy“ cause. But ultimately this results in the “addition” taking priority by making Jesus a means to accomplish their end or agenda. “Jesus and the environment,” “Jesus and social justice,” “Jesus and tax reform,” and “Jesus and pass interference” are all equally foolish. The result is that, sooner or later, that which comes in as a second becomes the top priority. Paul is simpler than that; he wants faith in Christ alone. It is unlikely that Paul’s comment about being “with you in spirit” is a mystical thing. More likely it is that he shares the same conviction and heart in spite of the miles that separate them. 

In verse 4, Paul expresses his concern about the danger and possibility of someone deluding them. He used two military terms in verse five to make the point. The words “good discipline” and “stability” could have come from any NCO. Like soldiers ready for a fight, the church is in a battle array and position. And like soldiers facing a fight, to run in the face of the enemy is disastrous. In ancient war, if you turned to run, you were exposed to the enemy; you also prevented the man behind you from being able to fight, but worst of all, you would encourage desertion by other soldiers. This is the most disastrous thing that can befall an army: to have soldiers in the face of the enemy break ranks and flee. “Good discipline” and “stability” were vital to keep the soldiers from running. For believers, a correct understanding of who Christ is and what He accomplished develops these characteristics. Note also that Paul presumes conflict and assumes that our strength is because of our faith in Christ. We will not run in the face of the enemy.

“Lord, help me to be strong in the face of the enemy. AMEN”