Paul was concerned that the Colossians would fall under the spell of the false teachers. This daily devotional looks at what Paul warned them against and what Paul wanted them to accept.
Nuggets
- We need to take care so that we do no become captives of a worldview philosophy that takes us away from Christ.
- Instead of a worldview philosophy, the gospel is built on Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
Paul gave the Colossians two options from which to choose. They could choose to follow the false teachers, or they could follow the Christ of the cross.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
What We Aren’t Supposed to Follow
“Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ” (Col. 2: 8 CSB)
We need to take care so that we do not become captives of a worldview philosophy that takes us away from Christ.
Paul was getting real with the Colossians. He didn’t say the false teachers were going to sway their opinions.
What Paul said was that the false teachers were going to take them captive. He liked that theme that started with something Jesus said.
- “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin’” (Jn. 8: 34 ESV)
- “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5: 1: ESV)
- “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6: 6 ESV)
Because of that, the Colossians had to be on guard. They had to watch and pray to discern whether what they were hearing was from God or not.
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What Paul was telling the Colossians was that the threat was real. It wasn’t something he was making up to scare them into obedience.
This was a real, dangerous threat.
Paul said the false teachers’ argument was based on philosophy. I like Vinet’s and Thomas’ descriptions of what philosophy is. He wrote,
- “Philosophy, taken in its simplest acceptation, is only a higher degree of good sense, which, not pretending to know all things, desires to have a thorough knowledge of those objects, the knowledge of which has been placed within our reach.”
- “When applied to any particular department of knowledge, it stands for the collection of general laws or principles under which all the subordinate phenomena of facts relating to that subject are comprehended.”
Resources
Thomas called it a system of knowledge. It is mankind’s attempt to figure things out. That isn’t going to happen.
- “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8-9 ESV).
- “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3: 5 ESV).
Vinet pointed out that Paul did not reject this philosophy. Instead, he was cautioning the Colossians as he did Timothy. “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,’” (I Tim. 6: 20 ESV).
I read this to say we have to evaluate what we are hearing and reading and see where it came from and to what it is taking us. If it is taking us away from God, we need to leave it alone.
We talk a lot about the worldview philosophy. Alexander gave us a list of five different deficiencies in it. Davenant saw it is vane and deceitful.
- Traditional
- Human
- Elementary
- Material
- Secular
Resource
Glossary
God doesn’t want us to base our thinking on the temporary things of this world. He wants us to base it on Him.
Maclaren reminded us another way false teachers deceive us. They try to tell us they have an add-on to what God is asking us to do.
Resource
Some of the Jewish false teachers tried this. One example is when they tried to get the Gentiles to submit to circumcision to receive salvation.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Davenant told us about philosophy’s place. He wrote, “Philosophy is to be listened to when it pronounces about things subject to itself, but when it would determine concerning the worship of God and salvation, etc., which are beyond the grasp of reason and depend wholly on revelation, it brings nothing solid or true.”
Resource
I thought it was interesting that Paul broke out the traditions from the philosophy. I think there was an important distinction.
It is easy to say that the false teachers only have a worldview perspective. It is harder to swallow that religious tradition and ceremony may be just as wrong.
Jesus battled the Pharisees because they were more interested in getting a pat on the back for their playing at loving God. Jesus wanted them to have, instead, a great relationship and totally serve God.
Person of Interest
Thomas noted that philosophy flows it from tradition. In other words, it is man’s system of knowledge, not God’s.
What We Aren’t Supposed to Follow
“For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ” (Col. 2: 9 CSB)
Instead of a worldview philosophy, the gospel is built on Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.
Palmer told us that, since we are made in God’s image, we have the desire to worship Him implanted without us.
Glossary
Let’s start at the back end of the verse. Maclaren reinforced that salvation only comes through Jesus. We can only gain this salvation through faith.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Glossary
“For the entire fullness of God’s nature …” (Col. 2: 9 CSB) is talking about the attributes of God. We spent a whole series discussing what those were.
To read a devotion in the Finding Our Center series, click on the button below
What happens to those attributes? “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ” (Col. 2: 9 CSB).
The attributes of God are present in Jesus’s nature. That is because Jesus and God are One.
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Then Jesus dwells within us. Palmer called it a “… sharing of our common life, with its sorrows and joys.”
Resource
Jesus dwells within us from day one of salvation. We are to receive the attributes as we navigate the Sanctification Road. That will be a life-time process to change our character to be like His.
- Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
Glossary
Payson took the fullness of God’s nature another way. He equated it to perfection. That is completeness or maturity. Payson wrote,
“So the text means all the natural and moral attributes, everything which renders the Divine nature complete. It cannot mean anything less, for if one perfection were taken away there would be something wanting to, and therefore destructive of the fulness of the Godhead.”
Resource
I read that as Jesus’ possession of the attributes of God made Him the perfect Sacrifice.
All of this was summed up by Maclaren. He wrote, “So we are pointed to the glorified humanity of Christ as the abode now and for ever of all the fulness of the Divine nature which is thereby brought very near to us.”
Resource
Making the Connections
Okay. I need to think through Maclaren’s sentence. He wrote, “We can but be approximating to the possession of the infinite treasure, and since the treasure is infinite, and we can indefnitely grow in capacity of receiving God, there must be an eternal continuance of the filling, and an eternal increase of the measure of what fills us.”
Resource
- We are to imitate the character of Jesus, because then we would be imitating God.
- But since we have the Adam Chromosome that makes us sinners, we run into difficulty pulling that off.
- What saves our bacon is that this won’t only happen while we are on earth.
- It will occur throughout eternity.
God has such a complex character that He will need all of eternity for us to fully learn Who He is.
How Do We Apply This?
- We must go to the One Who can provide salvation.
- We must navigate the Sanctification Road to gain His character.
Resource
Father God. You love us so much. You keep us safe from false teachers so that we can gain Your character as we navigate the Sanctification Road. Help us to grow even more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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