“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. 5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.”
I recently celebrated the anniversary of my birth. I do that once each year. On a day near that date I received a card in the mail from a man in the Colorado Baptist Convention, congratulating me for having another birthday.
Now on the one hand I could receive that card as just a polite and thoughtful acknowledgement from this representative of the CBGC that he probably sends out to all of the pastors he works in association with, and say to myself, ‘Well, that’s nice that he takes the time and effort to recognize the pastors on their birthday and send out this form of encouragement to them’, and leave it at that.
But at the bottom of this card there was a personal note, a brief one, but one that ended with the words, ‘Please know that you are prayed for’. Now what makes this a special blessing to me is that I know that this man in particular says exactly what he means, and that this was not an empty promise.
I paused after reading those words and thought to myself that even though I seldom see his face and only talk to him a handful of times in the course of any given year, he is praying for me and for the ministry in which I am engaged.
That thought caused me to consider that although I do not stop often to think about it, there may very well be others who pray for me also, as I also pray for some folks I seldom see or talk to just because I know they are as in need of the Lord’s help and leading and strengthening and encouragement as I.
You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all warriors in the same army under the same King and we are engaged in a very real war; and in war no one fights alone.
ENCOURAGEMENT
When Paul writes to the Colossian believers that he is in a great struggle on their behalf, it is not to boast or to engender pity among them for him in his imprisonment or his personal sufferings. It is to encourage them, as he specifically states here in the text.
Now if we think about his physical circumstances his usage of the word ‘struggle’ may sound out of place, until we come to realize that he is referring to a spiritual struggle, in a spiritual battle.
In the last verse of chapter 1 he used the words ‘labor’ and ‘striving’ in reference to the power of God working within him. This verse 1 of chapter 2 is only a continuation of that thought.
And I think it is important to note here that the people he is saying this to have never seen him in person nor has he ever seen them.
Paul understood and taught something that often escapes our thinking, but actually should guide much of our thinking and our practice if we were to constantly have this truth before us. That is, that since we do not war against flesh and blood but, as he tells the Ephesians, ‘against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (6:12), and since our Christian existence is not of the temporal and spatial as are our physical forms, we ought to be thinking and praying and spiritually struggling for our brothers and sisters everywhere, whether near or far, whether we know them by name or not, whether we are acutely aware of their present circumstances or not.
Because Christians, the Bible tells us all we need to know in order to understand that the Spirit of Christ lives in all believers and the spirit of the world is anti-Christ, therefore their spiritual needs and struggles and concerns are exactly the same as our own. There is no need to wonder how to pray for the brethren in any given place; we only need pray for them as we would covet their prayers for us.
Now that is not to say that it is wrong to intercede for others concerning their physical needs when those are made known. Of course we should be prepared and delighted to do that for one another. But on the spiritual level, praying for things that have an eternal value is much more important and should take priority over the flesh and the things that pertain to what is passing away.
Paul’s struggle, by his own declaration, was not that they would be kept from persecution and harm. In other words he is not telling them here that he is fervently praying that they will be free from tribulation. What he is fervent about, the purpose and goal of his struggle, not only for them but Christians elsewhere and everywhere, is that their hearts would be encouraged, and that encouragement would be fomented by their mutual uniting love.
Christians, we should be very tolerant, and very forgiving of one another, and hair-trigger ready to demonstrate Christ-like love for each other.
The true and universal church of Jesus Christ in this world is a spiritual entity above and apart from the world and the spirit of the world and how it must grieve the Father of us all when we treat one another and think and speak of one another as enemies or as lesser beings in our pretension and self-pride.
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked why he rejected Christianity even though he often quoted the Sermon on the Mount and spoke highly of Jesus, replied, “Oh, I like your Christ. I just don’t like your Christians. Your Christians so often are nothing like your Christ.”
And while we can argue that the criticism that comes upon the church from those outside the church is often based on a lack of understanding of what the church is or who Christ is, we have to admit if we are honest that if those on the outside were seeing more of Christ on the inside there may be very many more of them willing to investigate and consider the faith.
Paul prayed for and encouraged a unity born of demonstrated love among the brethren at Colossae because he knew that all else the church and Christians are to be is the fruit of that. When Christ-like sacrificial love is absent in any church body, there can be no spiritual growth, no spiritual understanding or knowledge, and no demonstration of the stability that comes with maturity. God is love. If the manifestation of His love is missing in the church then He is missing in the church and it is not a church at all.
The other side of that coin is that when believers dwell with one another in Christ-like love, demonstrating a diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit among them, the Holy Spirit of God will bless them and grow them and reveal Christ to them and bear fruit in their lives, and they will win spiritual battles together as one in Him.
UNDERSTANDING
Now let me reiterate this to you; it is so very important that we comprehend the depth of this need for unity and mutual love in the faith. I repeat, the Apostle John says to us that God is love. God is the very definition of love. If love is absent, God is absent. By that I do not contradict the doctrine of the Omnipresence of God. What I mean to say is that He will not be working in and through a group of religious people who do not love and who simply congregate to fulfill religious ritual and have their minds comforted and their egos boosted.
Notice the order in which Paul places his key points in this section. He wants them encouraged to continue in love for one another. It is only after this that he talks of understanding the mystery of the gospel, - not in the sense of their initial salvation, but understanding that comes afterward as the Holy Spirit reveals things to them pertaining to their spiritual inheritance in Christ - and after that, their Godly behavior and steadfastness. This is the order of things.
So he first lets them know that he struggles in prayer for them that they might be encouraged in heart and in spirit to continue in this unity and love and only then does he add, “…attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding…”
When God is at work in His church and His people are yielded to Him, subjected willingly to one another in love, determining together to seek Him and glorify Him as one, they begin to have a sense of what Paul calls here, ‘the full assurance of understanding’ that results in a true knowledge of Christ Himself.
Again let me point out here that Paul uses the term ‘mystery’, but this is not a mystery any longer to the true believer in Christ. It is something that in times past was a mystery that even the Old Testament prophets sought to comprehend, and it remains a mystery to those outside of Christ. But for the Holy Spirit filled Christ-follower the mystery has been revealed.
Paul spoke of this in chapter one, which we have already studied, and he repeats his theme here. The mystery, or if I may use the word here, the ‘secret’ of being right with God and attaining to full spiritual understanding and assurance of glorification with Him, is fully revealed in Christ.
You have recently heard me repeat Spurgeon’s assertion that the way to expose the crookedness of a stick is to lay a straight one along side of it.
With that illustration in mind I call your attention once more to the teachings of the charlatans of our day – the prosperity lite preachers, the word faith proclaimers who teach that we have the power in our own words to speak health and wealth and wholeness into our lives and the lives of our loved ones and so forth – and I ask you to compare those doctrines to Paul’s and witness their perversion.
The wealth that Paul promises in verse 2 is not a physical, worldly wealth. It is spiritual and it speaks of riches far beyond anything the physical world could ever hope to provide. It has to do with the comprehension of the spiritual treasures of Godly wisdom and knowledge pertaining to eternity and glorification with God and it is found fully and only in Christ.
Let me repeat here that Paul was combating a problem just as real to the Colossians as to the church today, and it was the same problem; the same evil spirit, that appeals to the fleshly nature and entices people to trust in human wisdom and knowledge, subtracting Christ from the picture altogether.
They are deluded, to use Paul’s terminology. The word he employs gives us a picture of someone coming close, almost as if to whisper in the ear, and to lead the hearer away by deceit.
In the 16th chapter of Romans Paul gives warning about these people for the same reason, and we should be reminded here that he is talking about people that are in the church, not obvious enemies, but those who smile and pose as friends and brothers. In Romans 16:17-18 he uses these phrases:
“…those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned…” and “…by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting…”
This is why Paul and any true teacher of the Word is constantly repeating the call to stay in the Word; return to the basics; be reminded of the word of truth that first came to you pertaining to Christ and the good news of your salvation. Do not give an ear to the flatterers and the ones who, as he says in Romans, are ‘slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites”, meaning their fleshly lusts, and who would call you away to the same error.
Another definition given to the word is to ‘reckon wrongly’, indicating twisted thinking.
This may be the best definition of the way men think in their fallen state. In the absence of Christ and His wisdom and knowledge, all the wisdom and knowledge that is of this world is twisted, perverted, wrong, inherently deceitful. Those who are enticed by it are turned away from truth and can only ‘reckon wrongly’.
Paul didn’t want them to be deluded in such a way, so he wanted to assure them that it is in Christ that the so called ‘hidden’ treasures are found; true Godly wisdom and knowledge that leads to life.
STABILITY
As I went through and researched for this sermon I was impressed with the frequency with which the New Testament writers stressed the need for stability, for firmness, for standing firm, and so forth, in the faith.
I found it in Colossians 4:12 where Paul tells his readers that their servant Epaphras, who was with Paul at the moment prayed for their ability to stand in full assurance that they were in God’s will.
I found it in 1 Peter 5:9 where Peter exhorts his readers to resist the devil, firm in their faith. Then there is the sixth chapter of Ephesians where we read of the gospel armor and Paul’s admonition to do all to prepare and once done to stand firm.
And there is the letter to the Hebrews that contains several passages of encouragement to hold fast our confidence and our hope firm until the end.
We find these same words in the first letter to the Corinthians, in Galatians, in both letters to the Thessalonians, in Philippians; in most cases in direct reference to persecution or the coming in of wolves seeking to deceive and destroy with empty philosophy and false teaching.
I think this is a very important point to stress in these times in which we live. We don’t see very much stability going on around us, do we? Not in society in general, not in the government, and not in the church.
Let’s leave society and government alone for the time being. We must not talk politics from the pulpit and we certainly must be in agreement that unchurched society is falling apart around us. So let’s just talk about the church.
Think about the things you’ve seen and heard in just the last five years of your own personal experience and exposure. We don’t have to name people or even speak of specific events and incidents.
Churches split or fall apart. Pastors come and go like patrons to a pawn shop, and in a sadly large percentage of the time they go on bad terms and come to a church that is full of disenchanted, disgruntled people.
Within the numbers of most congregations are people who are divorcing or thinking about it, in financial upheaval, bogged down by addictions, baffled by the dysfunction in their families, shaken loose from their moorings by every bit of trouble that comes into their lives, tossed about by the slightest wind of doctrine; in short, not looking really any different than the folks floundering in the unchurched society they live and work and play in.
On the one hand, of course, we know and understand that people are people and that the Fall continues to affect even the believer, since he still has the fallen nature in his flesh. So there will be problems and there will be the inappropriate and faulty response to problems that marks the sin nature.
However from those who have the Holy Spirit in them there ought to also be a very marked difference between them and those who struggle only according to the flesh.
I think the things Paul is saying here show us what should be the catalyst of that difference. A supernatural love expressed in the power of the Spirit, an increasing awareness and assurance that comes with understanding of Christ and the Godly wisdom and knowledge of the word of truth, the gospel, and the resultant steadfastness and stability that demonstrates the peace of God in the life.
Did that sound like gibberish? In short, there needs to be a grand scale resurgence in the church of this sort of teaching that came from the Apostles. Not worldly counsel on how to deal with the temporal problems that are common to everyone, not seminars and classes on how to deal with difficult people or regain control of finances or how to raise strong-willed children. There needs to be a return to teaching the doctrines of the faith, the precepts of the Word pertaining to faith and faithfulness, and encouragement pertaining to the completeness of redemption and the eternal sureness of acceptance with God and glorification in His kingdom.
These are the things that give a Christ-follower the spiritual tools he needs to function as a Spirit-filled believer in the face of tribulation instead of responding as the world does with a knee-jerk to every unpleasant surprise.
WALK DON’T SIT
The last thing I want to take notice of from these verses for today is this admonition of verse 6 to walk in Christ.
Let me digress just a step. He has said in verse 5 something that has already been alluded to; that he is not with them in body and in fact has never seen them, but that he is with them in spirit.
He is reacting to the good reports he has received of their good behavior as a body of believers and their stability in the faith, so he is telling them that since the church is a spiritual entity he is with them in a very real and significant sense, whether they’ve ever seen each other and even if they never see each other in this world.
So now he says, as though he is at the front of the battle line carrying the banner for all to see in order to give them encouragement and direction even if they are in the back row, ‘march on’. March on! Walk on! Walk in the way of this Christ you have believed, not allowing yourself to be deceived by the smooth-talkers, but standing firm on the truths you were rooted in, encouraging one another in love, with thankfulness in your heart to the Father who has revealed the mysteries of eternity to you.
In war, no one fights alone. Armies do not move forward as individuals. They march in step and they fight for one another. I remember one of the old gentlemen of the Airborne Rangers who was interviewed during the “Band of Brothers” miniseries, saying (and this is not an exact quote but the essence is here), that when they signed up for the Army and began training it was because they wanted to go fight for their country. But once they were dropped behind enemy lines and were in the thick of things, they were only fighting for the guy next to them.
I want to jump from that thought to another story for a similar illustration and then I’m done.
One of the things I enjoy most about the movies made from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” is the camaraderie among the various groups of friends and traveling partners as the character, Frodo, made his way to the mountain where he was to destroy the powerful, evil ring that was a threat to all mankind and which he had vowed to drop into the fires of the mountain, Mordor.
The journey had been long and arduous. Both Frodo and his friend, Sam were at their physical and emotional limit. As they climbed the mountain toward the cave entrance that would lead to the place Frodo must drop the ring, Frodo couldn’t go another step. He could not even stand. All of Sam’s encouraging words were no longer effective because Frodo just didn’t have any more to give.
Since he was the only one who could carry the ring because of its mysterious power to tempt and overwhelm, there was only one thing to do. Sam said, “I may not be able to carry the ring, Mr Frodo, but I can carry you!” And he put the exhausted Frodo over his shoulder and carried him the rest of the way to their goal.
Christians, that is how we of the family of Christ should be to one another. We can’t usually literally bear one another’s burdens, but we can bear one another. We can lift each other up and make sure that no one gets left behind, so to speak, feeling like they are alone and deserted.
Spurgeon, speaking of the perseverance of the saints, said:
“There is a tendency in the human mind to stop short of the heavenly mark. As soon as ever we have attained to the first principles of religion, have passed through baptism, and understand the resurrection of the dead, there is a tendency in us to sit still; to say, “I have passed from death unto life; here I may take my stand and rest;” whereas, the Christian life was intended not to be a sitting still, but a race, a perpetual motion.” Final Perseverance, C.H. Spurgeon, March 23, 1856
It’s more than a race, Christians, although that is one New Testament word used to describe the believer’s progression, so it is not wrong; but another example used is that of battle and the duties of soldiers, and the application is equally valid.
We serve the Master in whom is revealed all the hidden secrets of the past, all the mysteries of eternity and glory in the presence of the Lord of Glory, and He calls to us the thing we ought to be calling to one another; ‘just a little farther up…a little farther on…’ I may not always be able to bear your burden, but He bore your heaviest one. And now I can help bear you up, being knit together in love, and encouraging you with the assurances of the truths that built us up and established us in the faith. And you can do the same for me, whether we’re able to be in physical proximity to one another or not. Because, Christians, we’re in a war here, and in war no one fights alone. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. March on. We needn’t be concerned to silence the charlatans. Just don’t give them an ear. Be listening to the Holy Spirit in you. Be listening to the voices that remind you of the basics. Be attentive to the spiritual needs of those in the foxhole with you.
You’re never alone.
