Colossians Lesson 2

Colossians 1:15-29
Chapters 4, 5, and 6 in Lucas

Paul doesn’t address the false teaching in Colossae directly by outlining the false teaching. We know they had some false teachers who were probably at least influenced by Gnosticism and the Colossians were being told they needed more for salvation and that they didn’t have the whole story. This is still a standard line of argument for cults and false religions. The idea of special knowledge or revelation is a current trap used by the enemy of your soul when he comes disguised as an angel of light.

One example of the concept of special knowledge is “The Secret”. Larry King has just recorded special editions for his CNN program based on “The Secret” entitled “Beyond Positive Thinking” based on the premise that there is a “universal law” that our thoughts create our lives. A woman named Rhonda Byrne came up with this version but of course the Colossians were hearing the same story in the first century AD. Ms. Byrne says, “The Secret is released to the world! This ground-breaking feature length movie presentation reveals The Great Secret of the universe. It has been passed throughout the ages, traveling through centuries... to reach you, mankind, and humankind. This is The Secret to everything - the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.” So it appears as a religion with greed as the basic motivator but it certainly sound like a seeker sensitive presentation. Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Jesus says to lose your life if you want to find it and the greatest will be the servant of all. I don’t think Jesus was aware of seeker sensitive presentations.

Special revelation is also a popular story these days and “The Secret” folks seem to have some alliances at least informally with the material from Neale Donald Walsch who is responsible for the poorly named “Conversations with God”. It would be better named worshiping my flesh. We are supposed to believe that a generally misunderstood god (little g on purpose) has confided in Mr. Walsch and said, “My purpose in creating you, MY spiritual offspring, was for ME to know MYSELF as God. I have no way to do that except through you.” In this heresy we are asked to believe that God’s knowledge is limited and that He can only know Himself fully by knowing us. God did not create us out of a need. He created out of abundance and so that we as creations can glorify Him. Praise His name for He is perfect and complete without any darkness or lack of knowledge. Mr. Walsch goes on to blaspheme further by claiming that God told would say, “Is it FEAR that you need in order to be, do and have what is intrinsically right? Must you be THREATENED in order to ‘be good’? Who gets the final say about that? I tell you this; YOU are your own rule maker. You set the guidelines.” Since God has taught us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom something so transparently designed to appeal to our sinful nature as this statement should be laughable. Unfortunately the ignorance of Scripture and a rejection of its authority characterize this age and without the anchor of Scripture, mankind is drifting and seeking for teachers who scratch them where they itch.

Colossians is a book that stands against these attacks against the sufficiency of Christ and strengthens our desire to walk in the Sprit and not fulfill the demands of our old natures. This week’s lesson begins with verses that seem almost like a psalm..

Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Christ is a perfectly and completely represents God. You can’t ask Jesus to “show you God” because Jesus will just tell you that if you’ve seen Him then you’ve seen God. It is a request that simply shows your ignorance … Jesus said to Philip, ““Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (NIV; John 14:9). In his commentary, Calvin observes that “we must be careful not to look for Him anywhere else, for apart from Christ whatever offers itself to us in the name of God will turn out to be an idol”.

Christ is the firstborn over all creation. This is a scripture that is often twisted and I wonder if Paul wouldn’t be standing up yelling when people distort this verse if it were not for the perfect peace in which he now stands. You may someday (if you haven’t already) have a Mormon or JW tell you that this scripture means that Jesus was first born and this means that He is a creation and for some cults that we’ll eventually be like Him in stature. When we say that James Nasmith was the father of basketball it doesn’t mean he was the father in a physical sense with a woman who gave birth to a basketball or even the first kids who ran around playing basketball. This is way of speaking that works in our culture and we all know what we mean with regard to his preeminence of Mr. Nasmith in the game of basketball. In a similar manner, this is a reference to Christ’s status and position as the heir of all things. In Scripture the term “firstborn” is much richer in meaning that it is in our day. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and existed before all creation. He is fully God and fully man. In fact, Paul immediately and clearly begins to explain and expand his meaning that all things were created by Jesus. That would be all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, all created by Him and for Him. The fact of Christ’s position being worthy of all glory and honor is then repeated as He is seen as before all things, holding all things together, and head of the body, the church.

The primary take home lesson is that there is no spiritual authority above Christ. The Gospel is a clear expression of the highest and best. There is no “secret” you must learn to gain spiritual maturity apart from Christ. There is no part of God in other traditions that you are missing by following Christ. If someone is having conversations with God that contradict the Gospel taught in Scripture then I pray they would stumble and fall so that they might know the truth. After establishing the perfection and completeness of God’s revelation in Christ then Paul moves on to explain what Christ has done for you specifically.

Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Here is double imputation again. You were alienated from God and were opposed to the work of God but Christ’s death has reconciled you. Your sins on the Cross so that you can be holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation.

When you read, “if you continue in your faith” remember that Paul is talking to a church and while a believer may depart from following God for a long time and be in serious sin, God will ultimately correct and restore them as a Father. A local church does not, as a group, have the assurance of salvation given to an individual. For example, in Revelation God threatens to come and remove the lampstand of the church at Ephesus because they have left their first love. The reason Paul put the “if” in for this group of believers is because if they depart from this atonement (at one ment) and hope they received from Epaphras then they will have departed from the Gospel and the remnant of believers may be moved out to another place but that local Church will be dead. In other words, this is life and death discussion for this particular local church.

Colossians 1:24-27 (NIV)
Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Paul never moans about the suffering that he has been through and is even ready for more as it builds the body of Christ. He knows that these afflictions are Christ’s afflictions and that as Christ’s servant he identifies with the body of Christ and Christ. How could you complain about an affliction that Christ shares with you for the sake of His body, which is the church? You’d have to rejoice if you had your head screwed on right. I would probably complain but Paul had it right. Paul rejoiced in the suffering because he knew that Christ was present in the midst of his trial and participated with him in the trial. This is so real to Paul that he calls the trials “Christ’s afflictions” and they are really and fully as the Holy Spirit enabled Paul and can enable us in service.

There are other keywords here because of the attack on the Colossians. These keywords are good for us too in an age in which we are told we need to know the secret to have a full life. Paul says “fullness” and “mystery” and those are keywords for the attack of Gnostics.

The word for fullness is πληρόω [/play·ro·o/] and indicates that a vessel is filled to the top or brim. It means complete and perfect in every aspect. This strikes at the Gnostics false teaching that the Colossians don’t have a complete and full Gospel.

In the Greek the work for mystery is μυστήριον [/moos·tay·ree·on/] and is derived from a word that means to shut the mouth. Remember when something so surprising and beyond understanding would make a southerner say “Well shut my mouth”. This word runs right at the heart of the Gnostics because it means religious secrets known only to the initiated and not to ordinary people like you and me. Paul is making it clear that he has fully declared the mystery of the Gospel to the Colossians. They don’t need to look elsewhere for truth.

Colossians 1:28-29 (NIV)
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. 

The purpose of instruction and teaching is so that we can be perfect in Christ. We know that our standing in holiness before God is based on the work of Christ and it is important to recognize here what perfection means in the Greek is maturity as the end-product of discipleship. If we are to be pressing on for the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus then we are working to grow to maturity in the sense of the Greek word because it doesn’t indicate holy it indicates full grown. Listen to what Paul says in another place (that we just studied).

Philippians 3:12-16 (NIV)
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Paul is using slight variations on the same root word here when he says perfect and mature. Here your NIV translation has some problems in which the ESV is a little bit better at not switching the translation around. Here the Colossians word translated perfect is translated mature and the word translated perfect has the same root but is a finished maturity. So the NIV changes words where the ESV is consistent on this point. Think of the work in Colossians as mature and here the verse helps you understand what Paul is getting at. Even Paul isn’t fully perfected but this attitude of diligent pursuit of what we have been called to is a sign of a mature Christian.

I love this last bit, “Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” That is the bottom line isn’t it. I’m not being moved in fear of losing my salvation or trying to be good enough to earn my salvation. On the contrary, I’m motivated by the surpassing Grace of God that has set my feet on the Rock and tells me to live like the child of my Father.