“For in
him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and
power:” (Col 2:9-10)
BACKGROUND
The
epistle to the Colossians and the book of John’s
gospel address the same problem – heresies
of the 1st century flooding into the church.
Now John
in the Gospel of John counteracts the more obvious problem of ‘Christ
is not
God’, and indeed, all the variations on that eg ‘half man/half God’,
‘Christ a
mere phantom’, ‘Christ just a god’ and so on.
But Colossians
deals with the infiltrating Trojan horse of the worldly wise gnostics
with all
their deeper and hidden knowledge, being an ungodly, evil and poisonous
brew of
Greek philosophy, Judaism, Oriental religions and higher intellectual
thought.
Paul never
went to Colossae, the church being
established by Epaphras, working himself into the ground, labouring
fervently
for them (Col 4:12), who also ended up in prison with Paul (Philemon 1:23).
THEME
1.Get God’s wisdom
and his spiritual understanding
(Col 1:9) revealed in Christ
2.
You
are complete and sufficient in Christ
in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9)
3. Heaven and earth were created by Christ not the angels (not the NIV ‘through’)
(Col 1:16,17). The Colossian Heresy that Paul writes to counteract was
based on
their understanding that Christ could not, and would not, create a
sinful
world. It must have been made by successive emanations of angels that
had
become more sinful, eventuating in a fallen world far removed from a
perfect and
sinless Christ.
4.
In essence
Paul says “Dear Colossian people, please
ignore all the books and gurus telling you how to overcome the flesh by
a
deeper and more satisfying spiritual life with voluntary
humility (Col 2:18), philosophy
and vain deceit (Col 2:8), fleshy mind
inventions of starving yourself
(Col 2:21,23), will worship (Col 2:23) and rudiments
of the world (Col 2:8). Why? The
flesh is not honoured by, and can never be satisfied, by these things
(Col 2:23).
Why? They come
from the
fleshy mind
(Col 2:18) and flesh can never satisfy flesh. Jesus Christ
is 100% sufficient to overcome the flesh – not
the man made programs of legalism, rituals, mysticism and philosophy.
Instead of
letting Dr Christ attend to them, they were receiving
house calls from four physicians of no value (Job
13:4)
– Dr Law, Dr Philosophy, Dr Religion and
Dr Ascetic.
Dr Law, well
described in
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, prescribes solid efforts of the flesh
to keep
God’s commandments and thereby heal the sin–sick soul. He directs us to
Mt
Sinai to live in a town called Morality.
Dr
Philosophy, whose
medicine is ‘vain deceit’ after the tradition of men, which turn men’s
thoughts
to their own crude notions (rudiments of the world) and cunning
follies, that
only land them in deeper sin because of their pride and unbelief. This
false
Doctor, using the worldly wisdom of situation ethics (“the end result
is always
justified by any means to obtain it”), minimises and makes excuses for
sin.
Dr
Religion,
whose
remedies for sin consist of heavy
doses of voluntary humility, worshipping of angels, keeping feasts and
observing days. These are rounds of piety that the flesh enjoys but
which never
change the heart nor arrests the plague of sin.
As the
reader would know, this spiritual Doctor,
while condemning legalism in all its manipulating, dominating and
oppressive
forms, turns out to be the worst legalist of all. Why? He has put aside
God’s
rules so that he may enforce his rules on others.
Dr
Ascetic, prescribes
starvations, fasts and the neglecting of the body along
with strict man-made ordinances and will worship, but which
the apostle says are “…not in any honour
to the satisfying of the flesh.” (Col 2:23). They are of no avail against the indulgences of the
flesh. The flesh scoffs with scorn and derision at these empty and
worthless
attempts to appease its raging and unlimited appetites.
THE END
RESULT?
The
Colossian church were to send Paul’s
letter to the Laodicean church about 10 miles away (Col 2:1; Col 4:15-16). This
church
had become an odious mixture of East and West - of the Greek, the Jew,
the
Orient. It reminds me of the ‘Melting Pot’ song
“Rabbis
and the friars
Vishnus
and the gurus
The
Beatles or the sun god
It
doesn’t really matter what religion you choose”
Now
here’s the modern day church version:
1.
Take a bit
of christian-ees
Wrap him
up in Bhudd-ees
Add
Feminists and Sodom-ees
And a
little bitty bit of watertithingmembership
(Oh
yeah yeah yeah)
Voluntree
humilitee
No
restrictions
dietree
Worshipping
the Pastree
You got
a recipe for Get-a-Long Church
Just
pass the plate …
You
knowa you knowa you know know …
CH:
Don’t
you wish’a you hadda churcha like-a we got
Gettin’
filled, gettin’ stoned, gettin’ fleeced
From our
houses and all we got
Keep it
going for’a manyee hours or more
Turning
out barking stoned dead people by the score
2.
Worldly
rudimentals
Get rid
of fundamentals
Catholics
or the Pentals
Well it
doesn’t really matter what believin’ you choose
(Oh No
No No)
The
people with the feelings
With
all the tongues and healings
The
messages are tasteful
Well it
really doesn’t matter what’a bible you choose
That’s a
Gooda the News
(You
know you know you know….)
3.
Girls are
leading
singees
Women do
the preachees
Psychologee
degrees
You got
the people thinking “Am I you or are you mees?”
Past
mem’ry recollections
We’re
taking up collections
Tongues
and meditations
Studied
Greek studied Hebrew “I’maDoctorFlossafee”
(No
doctrine No doctrine No doctrine nonononono…)
Now if
they could have read the message of
the Revelation of St John to the church at Laodicea (not
that they could as it would be written 20 years after Paul
writes to the Colossians) they would see how their church would end up.
Yes,
you’ve got it! One giant baked pudding
of sewerage, consisting of an unholy mixture of higher
university intellectual
thought combined with Roman Catholic
starvations, meditations, candles,
whippings and flagellations,
stirred in with very large spoonfuls of Greek
philosophical thought and flavoured with ‘christian’
rock and roll, Copeland, Prince, Myer, Hinn and Hills
TV, and cooked in an Essene oven, having first
been sprinkled
with large dustings of modern ‘pop’
psychology, ‘tongues’, church voting,
water baptisms, church membership and
set to a temperature suitable for an ascetic Budda
having a meeting with
some Hindus, Greenies, sodomites
and feminists.
Correct!
Welcome to the modern day Laodicean
church – found anywhere on any corner.
CHAPTER
SUMMARIES
C1 = Christ is God and
creator
C2 = Fullness of the
Godhead bodily
C3 = Seek those things
above
C4 = Various fellow
labourers
Ch 1 = Christ is God and
creator
In his
prayer for the Colossian church
(v9-14) Paul introduces the words ‘wisdom
(v9,28) fruit (v6,10) spiritual
understanding (v9) truth (v5,6) that are of God.
The
problem was this church were lapping up and displaying the world’s
wisdom,
truth and fruit without God’s spiritual understanding.
They
were trying to be complete and fulfilled without Christ.
Paul
outlines that Christ is creator (v16)
head of the church (v18) and has the fullness of the Father (v19). They
are
urged not to move away from the hope of the gospel (v23).
He
establishes his authority with his
credentials of afflictions (v24, 25) and assures them that he labours
and strives
to bring them to perfection in Christ (v29).
Ch 2 = Fulness of the
Godhead bodily
Paul
exposes their lack of understanding of spiritual
circumcision with the classic
verse in all scripture (v11). And here’s the mystery they had failed to
comprehend and Paul was needing to reinforce and emphasize – that of
spiritual
circumcision. He tells them that a believer, a saved man or woman, a
Christian,
is not a murderer or a liar or an adulterer but his flesh is.
Now the
new birth, getting saved, being put
into the death of Christ is a spiritual
circumcision which cuts off your soul from the flesh. The ‘real you’, which is the inner man (Eph
3:16) is not responsible
for your fleshy sins (Rom 7:15-18). And of course some may wish to hide
behind
this truth. But because the ‘fleshy you’
commits your sins as works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21), you
will reap the consequences of these flesh sins in your flesh! And
here’s the thing – these fleshy sins cannot affect the salvation of
your soul.
Under the
Old Testament, because the saints
didn’t possess eternal security like the Christian today, they could
lose their
salvation. Why, they could never be put into the death of Christ and
therefore
have their soul separated from their flesh.
Now Like
Luther before he realized he was a
schizophrenic consisting ‘two’ people, a saved man trapped in a body of
flesh,
he underwent all sorts of physical deprivation and tortures. And here’s
the key,
he never understood the following verse:
“In whom
also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of
the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” (Col
2:11).
See that?
When you get saved your soul is separated from the sins of the
flesh – they are cut off from your soul! You are saved but your body is
still a
raging, stinking mess of vile and putrid sin.
They were
trying all sorts of things to get rid of their sins. These
included philosophy, traditions of men, rudiments of the world (v8),
voluntary
humility (this ‘skill’ Luther as a Catholic excelled in), worshipping
of angels
because they supposedly created the universe not Christ (v18), diet
restrictions (v21, neglecting of the body and will worship (v23).
Ch 3 = Seek those things
above
So with
that in mind, he assures them, those
that are saved (v1) to set their
affection on things above (v2). Good advice. He warns that there
are
certain sins (v5) they need to be rid of (v5,8,9) to escape God’s
wrath. He
emphasizes good behaviours to practice (v12-13) above which charity
is the chief which he calls the
bond of perfectness (V14).
Paul
endorses Bible study and soaking up the
word (v16) and this will give you wisdom and teaching (v16) such that
you’ll be
able to admonish one another (v16).
He then
has specific instructions for wives,
husbands, children, fathers and
servants (v18-22)
Ch 4 = Various fellow
labourers
A special
word for masters (v1) is given and
he mentions various people, including himself, with an itemization of
what
everyone is up to (v3-18). Again he stresses they get wisdom (v5).
By Harley Hitchcock.
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CHAPTER SUMMARIES)
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