STUDY
THE BIBLE 23 (STB-23)
“THE
BOOK OF COLOSSIANS”
The
Gnostic Heresy
(secret knowledge)
The
Colossian saints had a complete
misunderstanding of spiritual circumcision, were resorting to
various sorts
of secret and hidden knowledge, and were putting Jesus Christ aside.
“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 (4:12), and who also ended up in prison with Paul (Philemon
1:23).
THEME
1. Get God’s wisdom
and his spiritual understanding
(1:9) revealed in Christ
2. You
are complete and sufficient in Christ
in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily (2:9)
3. Heaven and earth were created by Christ not the angels (not the NIV ‘through’)
(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. Therefore it must have been made by a successive series 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 (2:18),
philosophy and vain deceit (2:8),
fleshy mind inventions of starving yourself (2:21,23),
will
worship (2:23) and rudiments of the
world (2:8). Why? The flesh is not honoured by, and can never be
satisfied,
by these things (2:23). Why? They come from the fleshy mind (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.
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.
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.
THE END
RESULT?
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.
Correct!
Welcome to
the modern day Laodicean church – found today anywhere, and 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).
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)
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).
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Harley Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
