{Not a manuscript: transcribed from cassette recording}
Well I trust you have your Bibles with you, so please take them with me and let’s read our passage again this morning. Let’s open up to Colossians chapter 2 and let’s read verses 8 through 10 together. The apostle Paul writing to the church in Colossae warns them. He says:
"See to it (or beware) that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority".
The key verse in this passage, and that’s reflected in the title of our study the past two weeks, "Complete in Christ", the key verse in this passage is in verse 10 where Paul says, "in Him you have been made complete". In other words, the believer is in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ the believer is complete. He finds his or her sufficiency in Him and in Him alone.
This simple but also neglected truth, the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks, particularly how Christians so often live their lives in denial of Christ’s sufficiency, vainly trying to find fulfillment, answers, keys to spiritual growth elsewhere, other than through Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s through some extra-biblical revelation or through some experience, or through some new counseling technique, or through human ingenuity. Whatever it is, it’s not in accordance with the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.
During my study this past week, I read a story that illustrates the foolishness of looking elsewhere for fulfillment. It's a story about two men who lived earlier this century, two men by the name of Homer and Langley Collyer.
"Homer and Langley Collyer were sons of a respected New York doctor. Both men had earned college degrees. In fact, Homer had studied at Columbia University to become an attorney. When their father, the elderly Dr. Collyer, died in the early part of this century, his sons inherited the family home and the family fortune. And the two men, both bachelors, were now financially secure.
But the Collyer brothers chose a peculiar lifestyle not at all consistent with their new-found material status or their inheritance. They lived in almost total seclusion. They boarded up their home. They locked their doors. They shut off all their utilities, including the water. And no one was ever seen coming into or out of the house. From the outside, the house appeared empty.
Though the Collyer family had been quite prominent, almost no one in New York society remembered Homer or Langley Collyer by the time World War II ended.
On March 21, 1947, police received an anonymous telephone tip that a man had died inside the boarded-up home. They were unable to get in through the front door. So they entered the house through a second-story window, and inside they found Homer Collyer's corpse on a bed. He died clutching the February 22, 1920 issue of the Jewish Morning Journal, though he had been totally blind for several years. But then there was another equally grotesque discovery.
It seems that the brothers were collectors. They collected everything--especially junk. Their house was filled with junk, broken machinery, auto parts, boxes, appliances, folding chairs, musical instruments, rags, assorted odds and ends, old newspapers stacked upon end. Virtually all of it though was worthless. An enormous mountain of trash blocked the front door. Investigators were forced to continue using the upstairs window for weeks while excavators worked to clear a path to the door.
Nearly three weeks later, as the workmen were still hauling heaps of refuse away, somebody made a grizzly discovery. Langley Collyer's body was buried beneath a pile of rubbish some six feet away from where Homer had died. Langley had been crushed to death in a crude booby trap that he had built to protect his precious collection from thieves.
The garbage was eventually all removed from the Collyer’s house. And they weighed it and it totaled over 140 tons. No one every learned why the brothers were stockpiling for years their pathetic treasure, except one old friend of the family recalled that Langley once said he was saving newspapers so Homer could read them some day when his eyesight improved. They died as paupers, though they had an inheritance."
Homer & Langley Collyer make a sad but fitting parable of the way many true believers in Jesus Christ in the church live. The Collyer's inheritance was sufficient for all of their needs, yet they lived their lives in unnecessary, self-imposed deprivation, neglecting the abundant resources that were rightfully theirs to enjoy. Homer and Langley turned their home into a squalid dump, spurning their father's legacy. They, like the prodigal son of Luke 15, binged instead on scraps of the world.
Get the connection here? The sufficiency of Jesus Christ for our every need, not necessarily for wants, but for our every need. The prophet Jeremiah put it this way in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13, "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
That's what it means to make Jesus Christ anything less than all-sufficient for everything that you need, for everything that is your life. It's forsaking the fountain of living waters for broken-down, polluted wells.
Now there are very grave consequences to this. Heretical churches and heretical movements don't necessarily become so overnight. It's usually a slow process. It usually begins with a subtle denial of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ or the subtle denial of the authority and the inerrancy of God's Word.
It begins with a position that the Bible isn't all that we need or that Christ isn’t all that we need. It begins with a slow movement away from the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and the Word of God to a trust in human methodology or psychology. And it begins a long free-fall that begins with a single slip down the slope.
Dr. Robert Thomas, professor of New Testament at The Master's Seminary, echoes this when he writes:
"People don't often go heretical all at once. It's gradual. And they do not do so intentionally most of the time. They slip into it through shoddiness and laziness in handling the word of truth. All it takes to start the road to heresy is a craving for something new and different, a flashy new idea, along with a little laziness or carelessness or lack of precision in handling the truth of God. All around us today are startling reminders of doctrinal slippage and outright failure. In case after case someone who should have known the truth of God better failed in upholding that truth."
So what's the answer? What’s the key? Four words: DOCTRINAL AND PERSONAL INTEGRITY. Integrity in your doctrine and integrity in your life. And again, doctrinal integrity is the grounds for personal integrity, because doctrine always precedes duty. How we live springs from what we believe. So be precise in your handling of God's Word, and be a doer and not a hearer only, because a hearer and not a doer is one who’s what? Deceived (James 1:22).
One of my favorite all-time quotes is from one of the great Puritans, Richard Rogers. When Rogers was asked why he was so meticulous in his approach to God's Word, he replied "I serve a precise God." We serve a precise God. So we should be precise in our handling of His holy and inerrant Word.
So I again whole-heartedly agree with Dr. Thomas when he writes:
"Precision (and he’s talking about precision in handling God’s Word) is a compelling desire to master the truth of God in more definitive terms, to facilitate a more accurate presentation of that truth to others and to safeguard against doctrinal slippage that leads to error and false doctrine." He goes on to say that "Everyone will not appreciate precision and willingly assent to its importance. We live in a world that would have us to be satisfied, in certain cases, with rough estimate, particularly when it comes to theological matters. It takes a lot of patience and ‘thick skin’ to put up with the criticism and outright opposition that will come when God's servant insists on accuracy. There are too many ‘ball-park’ interpreters and expositors today. The theological atmosphere of evangelicalism is saturated with a dense fog of uncertainty and misplaced emphasis in handling the Word of God. Many churches are on the rocks because of careless hermeneutics (that’s careless Biblical interpretation), ignorance of Biblical languages, and unsystematic theology. Rough estimates as to what this or that passage means will not do. We need qualified expositors who will take the time and make the necessary sacrifices to do their homework well and bring clarity to the minds of God's people as they read and study God's holy Word."
There are pastors leading mega-churches who can't even adequately study the Bible for themselves, much less teach it to their congregation.
Some time ago, I was having lunch with a pastor of one of the larger churches in the Valley. And he shared with me his shock from learning that a fellow-pastor of one of the largest churches in the Valley here, who normally preaches 10 or 15 minute sermons, had to go to a lay leader in his church to learn how to do in-depth Bible study, because he didn’t know how to do it himself. True story.
Doctrinal integrity isn't going to be maintained by seminaries if the pastors and church leaders aren't going to, or aren't equipped to do it themselves. That’s the point. Now where integrity begins and ends, doctrinal integrity and the integrity of our lives as believers, is with a true knowledge of Jesus Christ and His Word.
And we spent some time last week looking in detail at the false teaching that was threatening the Colossian church, the Colossian heresy. And I’m not going to review that. We spent maybe a half-hour talking about that last week. So if you weren't here, I'd encourage you to get the tape, because that back-drop is very important for the context. But we’re not going to go back into that.
But one of the things that I said was that all heresy and all pseudo-doctrine is "false gnosis". And "gnosis" is the Greek word for "knowledge". So it’s false knowledge. So we who would be among those who uphold doctrinal and personal integrity should be those that insist on true "gnosis" or true knowledge. And that kind of leads us into our outline, the true "gnosis" or true knowledge of Christ. And we mentioned that a true knowledge of Christ involves four things, and that’s really taking this out of our passage, verses 8 through 10: knowing your enemy, knowing His (that is, Christ’s) Deity, knowing His sufficiency, and knowing His authority.
And we mentioned last time that your enemy is always deception, deceit, falsity, lies. Whether it's the deceit of Satan or the deceit that springs from the human heart, as we’re so reminded by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV), "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?".
So wherever the deception springs, your enemy is deceit. And the epitome of all deceit is that which would misrepresent the very words of God, from Satan’s lies in the garden in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'? ... You surely shall not die!", to the lies of the religionists of Jesus’ day. And Jesus in John chapter 8 verse 44 told them that "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies." And then to Paul’s prophetic statement in First Timothy 4:1, that "the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons".
So all false doctrine is demon doctrine because all false doctrine would misrepresent the very words of God. And all false doctrine leads to captivity and not liberty. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Free to be what? Free to be a bond-servant of Jesus Christ.
But this was the apostle Paul’s concern that the Colossians not be taken captive. Again look with me at verse 8: "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." So don’t be taken captive! Don’t be taken captive! Don’t be taken captive! It’s the word "sulagogeo". It’s only used here in the New Testament. In fact, up until this point, it’s not even found in literature that pre-dates the New Testament. It may be a term that Paul even coined himself. It’s a compound word from "sulo", which means "booty", and "ago", "to lead away or carry", and was later used of a plundering army taking away booty or captives, taking away the spoils. So it has the idea of "to carry away a prize won in battle". And as one dictionary put it, "This verb, ‘sulagogeo’, gives the picture of prisoners being led away with a rope around their necks, like the long strings of captives portrayed on Assyrian monuments".
That's the picture! That's the concern! That should be the concern of every pastor/teacher, every church leader, every mature Christian, that the church not be taken captive, that no one within the church be taken captive by error or by false teaching. And again, "see to it", the word that Paul uses here, "blepete", "beware", "watch out". It’s a present imperative. This is something to continually guard yourself from. Continually see to it that no one take you captive. And my promise is, as long as I have anything to do with it, Cornerstone will do all it can to see to it that no one here is taken captive.
The ramifications are that we may never be a "popular" church. We may never draw the masses. But that's OK, because if we ever become "popular", if we ever draw the masses, I’ll think something’s wrong. Whoever said the truth is inherently popular.
Matthew 7:13 and 14, what did Jesus say, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. That's where the masses go; that's the popular way, the wide way. But He goes on to say in verse 14, "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it".
As one author so bluntly states: "Many preachers today are fearful only of offending people; hence they preach an insipid, powerless message that is in fact offending to God." Let’s worry about offending God and not worry so much about offending others.
As I stated last week, that's the legacy, this fear of offending others, that’s the legacy and one of my many concerns with the modern church growth movement. And I think we could outline the four cardinal tenets of the church growth movement. Number 1, don’t offend. Number 2, don’t bore people; don’t preach long sermons. Number 3, never, never preach doctrine. And number 4, meet people’s felt needs; make them feel good about themselves.
This is self-esteem champion Robert Schuller's philosophy of ministry. This is what Robert Schuller says: "For the church to address the unchurched with a theocentric (that means a God-centered) attitude is to invite failure in mission. The nonchurched who have no vital belief in a relationship with God will spurn, reject, or simply ignore the theologian, church spokesperson, preacher, or missionary who approaches with Bible in hand, theology on the brain and the lips, and expects nonreligious persons to suspend their doubts and swallow the theocentric assertions as fact." Schuller’s entire premise is built around the assertion that the unregenerate are transformed through human ingenuity and not through the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God.
Contrast that with what the apostle Paul taught and with what the apostle Paul said, with what the Word of God says in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, (why?) for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes". Paul says I just lay the truth out there. God will take care of how the heart responds to that. That’s not my concern.
In Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, he said, "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ." I’m not trying to please men. And when I receive a flyer in the mail from a church that invites me to come because it’s a place where I can mold the church in my image, make the church the way I want it to be, I have to ask myself, who’s pleasing whom. Is the church pleasing men or is the church pleasing God?
Paul in Cessarea in Acts chapter 24, he’s under arrest, he’s brought before the Roman Procurator Felix. It says in verse 24 that Felix arrives with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess. He sends for Paul, and Felix hears Paul speak about faith in Christ Jesus. Paul, ever the missionary, whenever he had the opportunity, he shared Jesus Christ with people. So what did Paul say? He discussed three things: righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. "Righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come? Paul, come on man, you’re going to scare the guy away. You need to go to a seeker evangelism seminar and learn how to share Christ in a non-threatening way with people. You don’t want to talk about the judgment to come. You don’t talk about righteousness, holiness. Come on." And what’s it say? "Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go away for the present, and when I find time, I will summon you’". Now I’m not suggesting here that we go out of our way to threaten people or to offend people. But what I am saying is that we are to proclaim the truth and let the results fall as they may. That’s up to God. We are to proclaim the truth and trust in the power of the gospel, the news about Christ to change lives, and not trust in our methodology, not worry about offending people.
I say all of this to emphasize that there are false philosophies that have infiltrated the church in our own day. And just as Paul warned the Colossians not to be taken captive, so we are to be warned in the same way.
"See to it (watch out) that no one takes you captive through philosophia (philos, love; sophos, wisdom; through the love of wisdom)". And Paul’s not talking about God’s wisdom. Paul’s talking about so-called human wisdom, false wisdom, pseudo "gnosis", that Paul talks about in First Timothy 6:20 when he says, "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’". It’s not God’s knowledge he’s talking about here. It’s false knowledge. And he’s directly addressing the false teachers, the Colossian errorists, who were threatening the church here. And no doubt, they were going around saying, "We have philosophy. We love wisdom. We have the true wisdom. We have true ‘gnosis’, true knowledge. Follow us. Don’t listen to Paul. Well, Paul’s on base with some things, but he doesn’t have the full knowledge. He doesn’t have the full gospel. You get it from us. You get it here." And Paul goes throughout this letter countering their false knowledge. They claim to have true wisdom. They claim to have special insights.
Creation (1:16-17):
We saw that in chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. These false teachers claimed to have special insight into the creation, into who created. They said that God didn’t create directly and Jesus Christ certainly didn’t create. God created through intermediaries, because the creation is evil and God’s good. So a good God couldn’t directly create a creation. And what’s Paul say? "By Him (Christ) all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible ... He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
Christ (1:15,19; 2:9):
These false teachers had their own opinion of Christ, that He was a created being, that He was an angel, but He certainly wasn’t God. And what’s Paul say in verse 15. "He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God (He’s the icon, the stamp of God), the first-born of all creation."
Angels (2:18):
These false teachers had their own idea about angels and even worshipped angels. And in chapter 2 verse 18, Paul says "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels".
Justification (1:20,22; 2:6a):
These false teachers had their own ideas about justification, how a person is made right with God. They said it comes through true enlightenment, through some experience. And Paul says it’s through Jesus Christ, chapter 1 verse 20, "through Him (through Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace". How, through some special knowledge? No, "through the blood of His cross". And verse 22, "He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach". And in chapter 2 verse 6, "as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord", and the implication is you’ve received Him by grace through faith, not through some special mystical knowledge.
Sanctification (2:6b; 3:16):
These false teachers had their idea about sanctification, what it meant to grow in their so-called Christian lives, as they would put it. And that also was attained through some special mystical knowledge and experience or through legalism or self-denial. And Paul says no it’s the same thing, "as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so (continue to) walk in Him". You’ve received Him by grace through faith, you continue by grace through faith. You grow in the Christian life by letting "the word of Christ richly dwell within you", chapter 3 verse 16.
So this was what Paul was dealing with, incipient Gnosticism and Jewish mysticism kind of blended into one false teaching. But above all, it was a denial of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And I hope you really take this seriously. Either Jesus Christ is sufficient for everything or He isn’t. And this denial of His sufficiency is found in many forms. I encountered it this week. I had a meeting with a gal this past week, a graphic designer. She used to go to a good church not far from here. And I got talking to her and she said, "Well, yeah, the church had some problems, and now I go to Central Christian Church." And I thought, well that’s kind of interesting. I was just kind of thinking to myself, and praying that maybe God would give me some insight or an open door to talk with her. Because I knew of some of the discrepancies in doctrine between the church that she went to and the church that she’s going to now. And she even said, "Yeah, you know, I’m just going now on Sunday morning; I’m not really involved". And I asked her, I said, "Well, how do you view the differences in doctrine between the two churches? Do you notice anything? Is the church you’re going to now say that you have to be baptized to be saved?" And she looked at me and said, "Wow, you know, that’s funny you said that. My 10-year-old daughter went to camp. She just got back. And she prayed to receive Christ while she was at camp. And she told her counselor ‘Boy, I’m so happy, I’m a Christian now’. And her counselor said ‘Oh, no, no, you’re not a Christian yet, you have to be baptized first. Then, you will be Christian.’" And she said, "When I heard that, you know, I told my daughter, ‘No, that’s not how it is.’" Cf. Paul in Phil. 3:1 and Gal. 5:12. And I had a chance right there to encourage this woman to really seek out what that church was teaching and to find a church that upholds the sufficiency of Jesus Christ where she can be involved.
But this is one of many examples of those who would deny the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in one way or another. And it’s all false "philosophia". It’s all false philosophy. It’s false wisdom. But you know something? False wisdom may look like true wisdom on the outside, but in reality it's empty. In fact, as Paul says it here, it’s empty deceit.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception". This is the deception of false teaching or false philosophy. The conjunction here, the Greek word "kai", could even be translated "even empty deceit" or "philosophy which is empty deceit" or "empty deceptive philosophy". The word "deceit", "apate", was used of the seductive deception that comes from wealth in Mark chapter 4 verse 19 and "the deceitfulness of sin" in Hebrews 3:13. So, it’s empty deceit. But what does it mean to be deceived?
Well look at James chapter 1. There’s a good illustration here. James chapter 1 verse 13. "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." So James is dealing here with people who would say, "Well, yeah, I’m tempted to sin, but it’s God’s fault. He made me. He’s sovereign over my circumstances. So it’s His fault that I’m being tempted." And James says here, no don’t say that. Don’t say that you’re being tempted by God, because God literally here "aprasmas", God is untemptable. He is atemptable. He can’t be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. "But each one", verse 14, "is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death". Verse 16, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren". But I want you to note verse 14, because James uses two interesting words here. He says that each one is tempted by his own lust, being carried away (lured) and enticed. The word "lured" (exelko) was a word that was used of a hunter baiting a trap to catch his game. And the word "enticed" ("deleazo") was used of fishing. It meant to catch fish by bait. This is what deception is. Especially the second word, "deleazo", a word that pictures a juicy worm being dangled before the fish, and the fish is drawn to the bait which looks attractive on the outside but conceals (what?) a deadly hook. So what does it mean to be deceived? It's to stick your head in a steel trap; it's to take in the attractive bait that conceals the deadly hook. But the key is, it doesn't look like what it is. No one advertises error as error, do they? Does the Mormon church down the street put up on their sign, "Come here. We will show you the way to hell". No! It's the opposite. It’s attractive. It might even taste good--initially! But the reality is it's deadly. It’s deceptive.
Furthermore, it’s empty ("kenes"). It’s empty deceit. And that’s a stark contrast to the fullness of the truth, the fullness of the truth that Paul talks about in chapter 1 verses 26 and 27, "the mystery manifested to His (God’s) saints to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory". That’s the fullness of truth. Chapter 2 verse 3, "Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". Chapter 2 verse 7, the fullness of the truth in realizing that if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, if you’ve submitted your life to Him as Savior and Lord that you are "having been firmly rooted (past tense) and now being built up in Him (Christ) and established in your faith, ... , overflowing with gratitude". That’s the fullness of the truth of God.
Not false philosophy characterized by empty deceit and also characterized by that which is "according to the tradition of men". This is the origin of false teaching. It’s from the devices of men and not the voice of God. The word "tradition" here (paradosis) literally means "a handing down" or "a handing over" (it was a word used of "betrayal", handing somebody over to authorities, a word very popular with Jews and Greeks. The later Gnostic teachers used this word (paradosis) of their own authoritative teachings which were handed down from generation to generation. But it's basically a neutral word. It can be used positively or negatively. It’s used in a positive sense in First Corinthians 11 verse 2, where Paul says, "I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you." So it can be a positive word. In Second Thessalonians 2:15, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us". So there are good traditions. But they are the traditions of God. Here, what are they? Traditions of whom? Men "Anthropos". It’s of men. Any given tradition is either of God or of men or ultimately from Satan. In the evening study on hermeneutics a couple of weeks ago, I shared this quote: "Wherever our interpretation is at fault (in other words, wherever our interpretation of the Bible is at fault), we have made substitution of the voice of man for the voice of God." Did you hear that? That's the danger. That's the initial error that leads to the traditions of men. I don't care if it's infant baptism; I don’t care if it’s the presence of Christ in the eucharist; I don’t care if it’s baptismal regeneration, praying a rosary, confessing sins to a priest, or denying God's sovereignty. I don’t care what it is. It's the voice of man, not of God.
And further, it’s "according to the elementary principles of the world" as Paul states here in verse 8. Now there’s some debate here as to what Paul is referring to. What are "the elementary principles of the world"? The noun "stoicheio" is understood in several different ways. I just checked a few different translations. The King James translates it "rudiments", the NIV translates it "basic principles", the NAS translates it "elementary principles", the New English Bible, "elemental spirits". And I just simply translate it "elements". But what does it refer to? Well, a "stoichos" was anything in a row or series. It was used of the letters of the alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma, delta; or in our vernacular, a, b, c, d). It was used of numbers in a series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It was used of soldiers in rank and file down a line. So what it had to do with was anything in a series. So it came to be understood in the sense of elementary things (like the ABC’s of life). So really, to boil it down here, it can refer to one of two things, either elementary practices or elements of the "kosmos" (elements of the world). In other words, either elementary practices like the "ABC’s" of life or immature human reasoning and philosophy. Or I should say really those two go together. The "ABC’s" of life and immature human reasoning and philosophy. And that’s the way Paul uses it in Galatians 4:3, "we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world". The world’s way, the wisdom of the world, elemental things. Or it can be used in the sense of angelic beings (or specifically, perhaps here, fallen angelic beings, kind of in keeping with Paul’s running debate with the Colossians errorists, who believed in these intermediaries who were created). The First Century Jewish writer Philo speaks of the Greeks who venerate the four stoicheia (earth, water, wind, and fire). So it can refer to one of those two different ideas: elementary things or spirit beings. Well, which is it? Well I think the
immediate context here favors the former; but the broad context favors the latter. The only other place that Paul uses this word in this book is in Colossians chapter 2 verse 20, where he says "you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world". And there I think he’s talking about false worldly wisdom, that you’ve died with Christ to that, so don’t let it impact you. So I’m not really sure which one it is, cause I think it could be either.
But most importantly, most assuredly, this false philosophy, this false doctrine is not according to something. What? Yea, Christ. That’s what it says there in verse 8: "rather than according to Christ". That’s the key. It’s not according to Christ. Just as grace plus anything else (works, anything) equals zero. You add anything to grace, you negate grace. In the same way, Christ plus anything else equals zero. You can't make any additions to Jesus Christ or you subtract from his all-sufficiency. So everything we do, everything we are as believers in Jesus Christ must be kata Christon (must be according to Jesus Christ).
So Paul says, "See to it that no one takes you captive (don’t be held hostage) through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles (the basic principles) of the world, rather than according to Christ". The implication is here, "Believer, be captive to Christ and to Him alone". He is sufficient.
In a preface to one of his sermons, Charles Haddon Spurgeon confronted some of the pastors of his own day with this parable:
"In the days of Nero there was great shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of corn to be purchased at Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel went down to the sea coast, and there he noticed many hungry people straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were to come from Alexandria with corn. So there was a great shortage of food, but there was an abundance of corn in Alexandria in Egypt. So people waited on the coastline, waited for the ship to come in with corn. They were hungry. They were starving.
When these vessels came to the shore, one by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for on board the galleys there was nothing but sand which the tyrant emperor had compelled them to bring for use in the arena. It was infamous cruelty, when men were dying of hunger to command trading vessels to go to and fro, and bring nothing else but sand for gladiatorial shows, when wheat was so greatly needed.
Then the merchant whose ship was docked by the wharf said to his shipmaster, ‘take care that you bring nothing back with you from Alexandria but corn; and whereas before you brought in loads of sand, don't dare bring in as much sand as that which could fit upon a penny this time. Bring nothing else, I say, but wheat; for these people are dying, and now we must keep our vessels for this one business of bringing food for them.’"
Spurgeon went on to observe:
"Alas! I have seen certain mighty galleys of late loaded with nothing but mere sand of philosophy and speculation, and I have said within myself, ‘Nay, I will bear nothing on my ship but the revealed truth of God and bread of life so greatly needed by the people.’"
I'm with Spurgeon. I will bear nothing in my ship but the revealed truth of God, and the bread of life, Jesus Christ. How about you? Is the Word of God, is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, all-sufficient for you? If you’re a Christian, He was sufficient to save you. That’s what the gospel is all about. But now is He sufficient for you in every area of your life, for every need of your life, in your relationships, in your marriage, at your job, for your every spiritual and material need? Is He sufficient? To say no is to deny His sufficiency. But to say yes and glibly live your life as if you mean no is also to deny His sufficiency. He is sufficient. And if that’s true, the mandate is clear. We need to teach and proclaim that truth and uphold it and encourage one another in the living of that in our lives.
Let’s pray. Lord, that is an awesome truth. Jesus Christ is sufficient whatever our need is, whatever our weakness is, He is sufficient. Oh God, I wish I could more clearly hammer that message home, not only in my own heart, but in the hearts and lives of these people here. There are so many areas of our lives where we fret, where we try to fill voids, where we go off and walk in our own power, rather than according to Christ ..... (END OF TAPE).
