“For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:1-3.
The first three verses of this chapter have been shown above to recap what has gone before, and to point out that these three verses are all one sentence. This sentence is summed up in verse 4 below.
“Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.” Colossians 2:4.
It is the goal of the letter to the Colossians, to refute the heresies which have crept into an otherwise good church.
“For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…” Colossians 2:5-6.
Though this seems like something that is just for the apostle, it would be a good idea to do as he did for the churches; “…though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit”, Christians could be with their assembly in spirit when they cannot attend church for some reason on Sunday or any other important meeting.
If a believer is sick or out of town it is possible for them to pray for their group during worship, that the gospel would be preached, souls would be saved, children will learn, and the entire body will be built up.
While praying, pray for the pastor, Sunday school teachers, individuals who come to mind, difficulties to be overcome, and for peace and love to spread out within the assembly.
Quite a concept is it not, being with your fellow Christians from miles away, and having an impact on the meeting?
Here is a thought. If your church is closed because of the coronavirus perhaps your pastor could set up a message board on the church computer which would open on Sundays during your usual hours of worship.
Your pastor could put up a short message and the church members could post passages of Scripture or a few words of a hymn, a prayer, or thoughts on a Bible passage. Worship lifts up Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Focus on Jesus during these worship services, not criticisms, hysteria over the current crisis, political messages, or questions that should be asked in private.
These Christian messages should be posted after your pastor’s opening message and within the time frame set for worship and no later.
Unless the worship is on a roll and the Holy Spirit is obviously leading it on. God’s Holy Spirit should always lead worship not a clock.
Individual messages could be limited to 60 or 70 words, whatever the Holy Spirit leads your pastor to set them at.
“…rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” Colossians 2:5b.
This church was not yet irreversibly corrupted, there was still good order in the services and Christ was worshipped.
Unlike the Corinthian church which had taken on a more carnal form of worship, by indulging the flesh in getting drunk during the church love feasts, and misusing the gifts of tongues and prophecy.
The many errors in this church included divisions among the believers, such as, “I am of Paul”… “I am of Apollos”…“I am of Cephas”… “I am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:12.
Tolerance of sexual immorality, a man taking his father’s wife and so on; Paul finalizes his instructions to this worldly church by writing.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40.
Paul is telling the Corinthian church to do the same thing for which he is commending the Colossian church.
“…the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” Colossians 2:5b is a reference to their sound base which was Christ alone. Their good order is something that those from outside could observe.
Again, looking at Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church we can see how this would be so.
“Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is judged by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification [building up].” 1 Corinthians 14:23-26.
By way of explanation, the early churches were house-churches and on Sunday the members would come together for a worship service in which various members would give out a psalm for them all to sing, or one would read a passage of Scripture, or teach, or pray; this is what Paul is describing and encouraging them to do in the last two sentences of 1 Corinthians 14:26 above.
Yet though the Colossians were inwardly steadfast in their faith in Christ and outwardly of good order, there was the danger of a slow form of syncretism (the union of different or opposing principles, or practices).
In this manner, Christ could be replaced or placed in an inferior position to angels, philosophy (Gnosticism), or Jewish legalism.
Whenever a heresy is introduced into the church, Christ is displaced and in time the heretical practice becomes central and Christ becomes a lesser doctrine.
The combination of works and faith in Jesus is one example of this sort of syncretism. Early on the church found itself confronting Jewish heretics who said that Christians also needed to be circumcised, and to keep the law in order to be saved.
“You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Galatians 5:4-9.
Today, many still feel that you have to work to get to heaven, a thing which even some churches teach.
Greek thought came in saying that Christ could not have been God incarnate because deity cannot inhabit sinful flesh.
Years went by before the official church doctrine finally embraced the fact that Christ is God in the flesh, a position which is clearly stated in Scripture again and again.
You will find as you study the Bible that many of the epistles (letters) were written to combat some form of heresy or error which had crept into the church.
Some of these letters are: Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, 2 Peter, 1 John, and Jude, which is the last book before Revelation.
Satan never sleeps and he and his army of fallen angels are constantly trying to infiltrate the church of Jesus Christ with their doctrines of demons.
Those of you who remember the movie Jurassic Park will recall how the Tyrannosaurus Rex was constantly testing the electrified fence surrounding him even though it had a 10,000 volt charge running through it; until one day it was turned off.
People mock men who are constantly worrying about heresy in the church; until one day the charge is turned off and a good church is crippled. It has happened countless times in the last two thousand years.
Just as constant vigilance is necessary to retain our freedom in America today, so vigilance is needed to maintain the liberty we have in Christ.
“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4.
The Apostle Paul now gives us the formula for maintaining a healthy church and keeping out error.
“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…” Colossians 2:6.
How did the Colossians received the Lord Jesus but through faith in the simplicity of the gospel, and it was as Christ the King and Lord that their acceptance of Him was complete, taking Him as Lord of their lives.
This would imply the rejection of all the idolatrous things that they had done and worshipped before receiving Christ. Why then should they return to the weak and beggarly things that did nothing for them before?
This verse is central to the entire book of Colossians, in that as they had received Christ as Lord and Savior, why would they need to consult angels, or accept doctrines that made Him an inferior being, or keep rules, rites, or works to maintain their salvation?
These things appeal only to the flesh and do not build up the believer in Christ.
Indeed, quite the opposite, they exalt the individual lifting them up in intellectual pride and degrade the person and sacrifice of Christ.
Again, what is the gospel of Christ and what is the simplicity of it?
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
There is nothing to add to this, there is no secret handshake, no penance, no be good and do good, no praying to saints, no mystery teachings, nothing.
Just the basic flat-footed too simple to be true gospel of Jesus Christ, which by our heartfelt acceptance of it in its simplicity we receive eternal salvation.
We are saved from eternal damnation in hell, and saved to a life with a personal relationship with the creator of all things, God in Christ, with a future in heaven with Him forever.
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [appeasement or payment] for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.
There is another very endearing aspect to the words in Colossians 2:6. “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…”
How did you receive Him?
“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Mark 10:14b-15.
After all of the intellectual gymnastics and spiritual wanderings through other religions, those who accept Christ, all wind up accepting Him with the simple faith of a little child. As you accepted Him in childlike faith, so walk with Him in childlike faith.
“…rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:7.
Having been rooted in the unshakable foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they, and we, are to be built up in Him through fellowship with other Christians, prayer, and study of Scripture; and having been rooted in the firm foundation of Christ, we are to become unshakably established in the faith, that the whole tree, so to speak, can weather any storm.
The phrase, “…as you have been taught” is part of this verse too. Meaning as you have been taught by the apostles in the case of the Colossians, and not by others. And in our case, it means as you have been taught by the Scriptures.
Everything is measured by the Scriptures, not by a book written by a PhD in theology, or a minister who comes in fresh from seminary with new or progressive ideas. The question is always, does Scripture agree with these ideas, or are they contrary?
Often we are told that the Bible must be updated to deal with modern problems in changing times.
The truth is that mankind has not changed one bit since he was placed on this earth, and that will not change until the end of time.
True, we have cars instead of donkeys, email and cell phones instead of runners, atomic weapons instead of spears, but man’s sinful destructive nature has not changed nor will it without Christ.
Colossians 2:5-7a taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 1-9-14, updated on 3-21-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.