“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, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:5-7.
The above quote has been included for context. We will only concern ourselves with verses 7b to verse 10 in this post, the previous verses in Colossians 2:5-7a having been covered in earlier posts.
The last phrase in Colossians 2:7 is “…abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
Scripture teaches us to continually give thanks; if we truly walk with the Lord Jesus, we will overflow with thanksgiving because of the blessings that flow to and through those who desire to follow Christ.
For the believer who makes little effort to grow in Christ, it is still a good idea to give thanks because when we do, it highlights the blessings we receive from God and makes us more aware of His care for us. Thanksgiving moves us to draw nearer to God. This is very practical advice.
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34.
“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:8.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good!” Oh that all Christians would lift up their hands in thanksgiving to the Lord for giving us this wonderful country.
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good!” Oh, that all of us would realize that the Lord is in control and that He is good!
Lift up your hands and thank Him and ask Him to remove the evil leaders that have sold this country into slavery to the basest of men.
Oh, that everyone would lift up their hands and plead that the Lord would return this country to being a city set on a hill that the world would glorify Him with us. Even if it is just for a star-burst of time!
Oh, that Christians throughout the world would lift up their hands and plead for mercy upon men everywhere. That all would know that it is God in Christ who rules the affairs of men and nature.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8.
The alternate words given for the word “cheat” are, “to plunder you or take you captive”, this would indicate that everyone who comes into the church with a strange doctrine is not deluded or naïve.
On the contrary, many are doing this maliciously and with the intent of either subverting the church or profiting off of them.
The means of avoiding being taken in by these conmen is given in the verse prior to this one. The Christian is to be.
“…rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught” Colossians 2:7a.
And not just the Christian but the entire church must be immersed in the word of God to keep error from coming in.
One of the dictionary’s definitions of a philosopher is, “A person who offers his views or theories on profound questions in ethics, metaphysics, logic, and other related fields.”
Ethics is basically, “a system of moral principles”; metaphysics, in philosophy concerns, “the ultimate nature of existence, reality, and experience”; logic, “investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference.”
The Bible gives us a system of ethics which is unshakable and unchanging.
The Bible gives us the answer to the ultimate nature of existence, reality, and experience.
The Bible gives us God’s truth and the truth sets us free, not only from superstition, but from having to decide what is correct or reliable.
Men sneer and call the Bible a crutch, and a series of myths, but it is they who are crippled and blind to life’s reality.
It has been said that “We mock what we don’t understand.” But it is even truer that “We mock what we reject.”
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17.
Philosophy is a complicated system even more complex than the definitions shown earlier allow for, but you have the idea.
The primary thing wrong with philosophy is that in trying to come up with a cohesive system to explain life on earth, the philosophers always leave God and man’s sin nature out of the equation. Philosophy is part of the reason the world is in such a mess.
This only leaves the traditions of men and the basic principles of this world, passed down to them through the millennia.
Couple this with the perceived chaos in the world (which even puzzles Christians), and you have an unsolvable problem.
This problem becomes even worse when you consider that Satan and his fallen angels are constantly blinding these searchers for the truth of life.
That philosophy can damage the church is evident in the liberal churches throughout the world that are, slowly destroying the souls of men and women in every place they infest.
Denying the inerrancy of Scripture, denying the virgin birth, denying the miracles of Christ, denying that He is God incarnate, denying the efficacy of His sacrifice on the cross, denying sin itself, denying the existence of hell, often denying the existence of God, saying that He is the god within us. Holding to the theory of evolution and denying the worldwide flood.
It is well said of these men.
“Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves; they are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Jude 11-13.
You see these things and cringe, yet our adversary the devil is still not done with the Christian church, not only does he have the counterfeit liberal churches, he has been able to sneak some of these pernicious doctrines into the mainstream churches.
But there is a much greater danger to Christ’s church on the horizon, or should I say is crashing down upon us even now. The name of this new philosophy is “politically correct”, and it is a great danger both from within and without the Christian church.
There are a number of things that the Christian should do because our Lord wants us to, not because we are told to by a bunch of godless hypocrites. We should not use racial epithets, because the same God took us from our mother’s womb as he did them.
“Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?” Job 31:15.
We should not call each other foul names regarding parentage, or make filthy remarks concerning someone’s mother because we are to love one another.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12.
We should be polite to others because Jesus does not want us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Romans 12:3.
“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32.
Godless men who believe we evolved from a rock, and having rejected God’s word and denying the sin nature, believe that by somehow modifying man’s behavior they can make this world a Utopian paradise.
Communism, socialism, and the inability to stop evil through philosophy are three of their unacknowledged failures, undeterred by failure men in their ivory towers have come up with the next failure, politically correct language.
Politically correct language is an attempt to change social reality by changing language.
A woman named Edna Andrews defines politically correct language in this manner: “the usage of culturally inclusive and gender-neutral language is based upon the concept that ‘language represents thought. And may even control thought.”
In other words, if it is illegal to call someone an sob, the one who would call someone an sob will stop thinking of the other person on those terms. Seemingly then, if the bell does not ring, we will not salivate. Jesus has something to say about this thought.
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Matthew 15:18-20.
Politically correct language is not English though it uses English words, it is a made up language of rules which are in opposition to Scripture even to the point now of calling the Scriptures hate speech because, so often God’s word clashes with their own made up language.
This clash should not surprise us because politically correct is the product of God hating men.
When someone quotes Scripture condemning homosexuality, it is homophobic speech, those against abortion are woman haters (misogynist).
Christians are intolerant and haters, people who oppose the socialist agenda are terrorists, and anyone who opposes the politically correct are against free speech.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Isaiah 5:20-21.
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.” Isaiah 59:2-5.
“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.” Isaiah 59:14-15.
I have heard Christians defend the abomination of politically correct language because someone mentioned that homosexuality was a sin, and quoted from Scripture, which of course is not PC, it is hate speech.
No Christian should ever, ever, take the side of godless men against Scripture.
This verse bears repeating.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8.
This language is already being used in the courts of law, which means eventually someone is going to bring a Christian pastor into court to try them for hate speech.
A pastor in a Scandinavian country has already been jailed for speaking out against homosexuality from the pulpit. Do not think for one moment that it will not happen here eventually if this is not stopped. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is already being abridged.
Many pastors are not speaking out against sin from the pulpit out fear of the powers behind this form of censorship called politically correct.
Others because they have fallen under its spell have stopped talking about hell and give out a happy gospel speaking of salvation as a way to have a good life, true enough.
But the gospel is more than that by far and should not be short-changed just because of dysfunctional social changes brought on by pressure from the media and other haters of God.
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:9-10.
We are complete in Jesus, we do not need philosophy to tell us the meaning of life, nor how to speak, nor do we need the opinion of the man on the street, nor angels, nor spiritualists, nor necromancers, nor little green men, because we have.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory” Colossians 1:27 last phrase, and “you are complete in Him” Colossians 2:10a.
For those in Jesus there is peace, wisdom, and knowledge in us through Him who is “head of all principality and power.” And there is such power in Christ Jesus that one day we know this.
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11.
No matter what, this is the believer’s hope of glory.
Colossians 2:7b-10 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 1-9-14, updated on 3-24-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.