In Christ Alone

IN CHRIST ALONE (COLOSSIANS 1)

Many years ago, a believer who served regularly but attended church sporadically was asked to stop serving in the praise team. Unhappy with the decision, the person dropped out of church altogether, but was approached by Jehovah Witnesses at work.

The person was drawn by the cult’s continual coming and care. When believers visited the person absent from church, the person replied, “The new group was more attentive to my needs.” The person would try to convince visitor to watch a video.

Cults from Jehovah Witnesses to Eastern Lightning are everywhere. Jehovah Witnesses affirm that God—Jehovah—is the most high. Jesus Christ is God’s agent, through whom sinful humans can be reconciled to God. Eastern Lightning, on the other hand, holds that Jesus has returned as a Chinese woman, worshiped by the religious group as Almighty God, hence its official name.

The early church had no lack of warning against false Christs and false prophets (Matt 24:24) and false teachers (2 Peter 2:1). 2 Peter 2:1 says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves.”

From Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons in the past to the Chinese cult Eastern Lightning, cults deny the deity of Christ

What are cults? What competing and counterfeit teaching did the early church face? Why is it hard to tell the true from the false? The three sections deal with the church (vv 1-16), the church (vv 17-23) and Christ, and the church and the world (vv 24-29).

Look Out for Believers

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 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.

It’s been said:

“Mrs. Prayer Meeting died recently at the First Neglected Church on Worldly Avenue. Born many years ago in the midst of great revivals, she was a strong, healthy child, fed largely on testimony and spiritual holiness, soon growing into world-wide prominence. She was one of the most influential members of the famous Church family. But for the past several years, Sister Prayer Meeting has been failing in health, gradually wasting away until rendered helpless by stiffness of knees, until her death was caused through lukewarmness and coldness of heart. Lack of spiritual food, coupled with the lack of faith, shameless desertion of her friends and non-support, were contributing causes of her death. Only a few were present at her funeral, sobbing over memories of her past beauty and power. Carefully selected pallbearers were asked to bear the remains tenderly away, but failed to appear. Her body rests in a beautiful cemetery of bygone memories and glories, awaiting the summer from above.!”