Colossians 2:1-23 [NLT]
November 7, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
Paul’s encouragement and teaching on heritical teaching:
To this point, Paul has been very encouraging and uplifting to the church in Colossae, but here he broadens his appeal for encouragement a bit as we see him reaching out to more believers in v.1-5
[show v1-5 now]
1I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. 2I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. 3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. 5For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
Here we find Paul reaching out, not only to the church in Colossae, but also to a church in a city called Laodicea as well as to those other believers who do not know him personally. This as Paul’s encouragement to basically ANYONE who would eventually read this letter…
[show highlighted v1 here]
But let’s go to the church in Laodicea for a moment, where do we know that name from? We know this city from the letters of Paul and the writings of John in the book of Revelation. The city of Laodicea is mentioned 6 times in the NT and 4 are by Paul here in this letter to the Colossian church.
Laodicea was a city in the Lycus valley and the neighboring towns were Colossae and another town named Hierapolis. Paul mentions both Laodicea and Hierapolis in this letter to the Colossian church in 4:13.
So we can be certain of a few things by Paul mention of Laodicea here and in ch4… WHAT he was about to teach… WHAT he was about to address was happening in the entire valley and he wanted the teaching to be known to ALL believers, not just those in Colossae.
The heresy that Paul was about to address and instruct against was spreading and Paul did not want any believer to fall prey to its enticing and misleading message.
Paul encourages the Colossian believers but that encouragement is also offered here to the church in Laodicea as well… and as Paul says, to any other believer who had not met him… Paul encourages before he admonishes!
But when we get to v6-7 Paul continues in that encouragement but specifies from where the encouragement should emanate… Jesus! Look what Paul says in v6-7: [show v6-7 now]
6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Paul was encouraging these believers, but then he encourages them with Christ. Just as you accepted Christ as Lord… is his advice…
When we accept Christ as LORD, we accept Him as the SOLE and UNIQUE path to God. As well as this be a great encouragement to these believers, this is also the beginning of Paul’s argument against this heresy being taught in the Lycus valley in these three towns of Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis…
The first thing Paul teaches is Jesus as sufficient for all belief and faith… Look what he says here:
[show highlighted v7 now]
7Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.
As Jesus illustrated the Kingdom as a vine garden and Jesus being the Vine and us being the branches… Paul also says for us to GROW in Christ… to allow the roots of our lives to embed themselves in Christ!
The roots of our lives is where we get our life… our life emanates from Christ, our life is built solely upon Christ!
Paul wanted the believers of these churches to know and understand that their lives could NOT be founded on anything BUT Jesus…
Jesus was and is the only foundation upon which we can build an eternal home that will dwell with God. If we build anywhere else, we are building on ground that will crumble and our foundation will crumble along with it…
Later in v7 we find Paul giving us a result if we are willing to submit to the Lord… if we are willing to live IN Christ in our lives and dwell with God in our lives!
[show 2nd highlighted v7 now]
Paul says, “…Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness...”
Here Paul is telling them that when they allow Jesus to be the ONLY foundation… THE foundation in their lives that they will grow in faith and that they will begin to understand more and more the truth they were taught…
Paul implies here at the end of v7 that the more they know the truth God has for them the more thankful they are going to be… it will bubble up and out in their lives… so much so that others will take notice!
So Paul is encouraging these believers, not only in Colossae but also in Laodicea and Hierapolis… encouraging them to not stray from the foundation of Christ already laid within them… to NOT try to add anything to Christ, for HE is sufficient for their forgiveness, salvation and redemption!
Then Paul begins to plead with these believers… seeking to convince them to NOT listen to those who were bringing a different message. Let’s read v8
[show v8 now]
8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Here Paul continues stressing his point that these believers NOT allow anyone (regardless of who they were… what position they hold) to capture them with empty philosophies…
[show highlighted v8 now]
The term ‘capture’ here is the Greek word soo-laag-oh-gohn which literally means to forcibly take hold of and carry off to an unwanted destination.
It is akin to our word for kidnapping…and basically this is what these men were doing, they were spiritually kidnapping these new believers into going to a spiritual place that was NOT where they needed or wanted to be…
Here Paul warns the believers to NOT allow this to happen! But how are they capturing these believers, what ‘tools’ are they using… Paul goes on to describe the methods and tools these men were using:
[show 2nd highlighted v8 now]
Paul says, “…with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world…”
Let’s look at what Paul means by “Empty philosophies” & “high sounding nonsense” & “human thinking…”
The HCSB translates this part of the verse like this…
[show 2nd highlighted v8 - HCSB now]
“…no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition…”
The actual term used here by Paul begins with the Greek word ah-pah-teh which is where we get our English word for apathy which means a lack of enthusiasm or an emotional emptiness
But the Greek word means to deceive or be deceitful… which when we look at apathy… that is really what we are doing when we are apathetic… we are deceiving ourselves about the importance of a matter!
We say we don’t care and we deceive ourselves into believing that it doesn’t matter when it really does have great significance.
That is what Paul is telling these believers… He is stating that they cannot allow these men to deceive them into believing something that is NOT the truth…
These men were polished in their delivery and made it sound as if what they were teaching was ok and that it would not matter… but it DID and Paul wanted these believers to NOT be captured by their emptiness!
What Paul is alluding to here is how human thought can be coerced by human tradition… we hear something that SOUNDS good to our ‘natural’ self and we tend to take it as truth. Much of God’s word goes against our ‘natural’ state and must be accepted in spite of our natural tendencies… Here Paul is warning these believers to NOT be taken in by human thinking or human reasoning…BUT to cling to Christ!
[show 3rd highlighted v8 now]
Spiritual powers of this world…Paul also mentions in this verse the ‘spiritual powers of this world…’ which refer to Satan and his dominion. Paul teaches about this battle in another letter to a church when he wrote to the church in Ephesus that “… we battle not against flesh and blood but … against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”
This verse here implies where Paul knew from whom this teaching was coming… it was from our Enemy and it was sent to divide and destroy the church! This is a spiritual war is what Paul is saying here and DON’T get yourself captured by the Enemy and his evil and misleading plans! Don’t fall prey to His limitations on Christ…
Paul felt that those teaching this doctrine did not hold Christ in high esteem, but felt Christ was but that Christ was merely a way to a better end…
They were teaching that Christ was good, but that there was something better and something DEEPER than Christ… but Paul discounts that teaching in the next 2 verses…
[show v9 now]
9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
The Gnostic teachers would teach that there was a special knowledge that you had to acheive to be saved but they also taught something about Jesus that Paul vehemently denied…
They taught that Jesus wasn’t actually a person in the flesh, because they believed that the ‘flesh’ was sinful and spirit was holy. They believed that God could not inhabit the flesh and still be holy. So, they taught that Jesus only APPEARED to be here in the flesh, but that he was actually a spirit made to look like he was fleshly…
However, Paul taught that Jesus was fully human as well as fully God… Scripture in other places ALSO teaches us about this DUAL nature of Jesus Christ… Jesus was God wrapped IN FLESH! (John 1:14)
Here AGAIN in v10 Paul details the EXCLUSIVITY of Christ in the salvation process…look what he says:
[show v10 now]
10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
You are COMPLETE in your union with Christ! Christ is SUFFICIENT… Christ is all you will need! You won’t need any ‘special knowledge’ because Christ is ALL you need… you are complete in Him!
Then in v11-12 we find Paul begins to tie Jesus to these believers… he wants them to understand that as unique as Jesus is… SO TO ARE THEY! Look what he tells us in v11-12:
[show v11-12 now]
11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
Paul wanted these believers to understand that Jesus was SUFFICIENT for salvation and when they accept Him that they are set aside by God for service to Him!
Paul uses the illustration that any Jew would have understood and that was that when they accept Christ they are ‘circumcised’ or ‘cut away’ from the world… that the world is NO LONGER a part of who they are but that now they are IN CHRIST!
Paul gives another illustration that stresses how these people who have accepted Christ are different… He speaks about baptism and the symbolism of the act of baptism! They have DIED to their old way of life and they have been buried to that old self… but they are now raised to a ‘new life’ in Christ Jesus!
Paul wanted these believers to first know that Christ was ALL SUFFICIENT in His ability to show mercy, forgive sin and save our soul… and that there is NO other thing to add, Christ is sufficient for all salvation
But Paul also wanted them to understand that when they accepted Christ that they were now part of something special… something unique…something God Himself had created… THE CHURCH! He did this so that these believers would not seek for more and more and more…
The Gnostic teachers were attempting to set themselves up as a unique and special group… and Paul wanted these believers to know that they were already part of something special… something God had established in Christ!
Paul continues in this line of teaching in v13-15 as he describes what Christ has done so that they had to do NOTHING for salvation… Let’s read those verses now!
[show v13-15 now]
13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Here Paul gives 3 examples of solid evidence that Christ was ENOUGH:
1 – [show v13 now] Jesus cut away our sin nature in salvation, where we were once dead in our sin and hopeless we are now ALIVE in Christ because of His forgiveness!
2- [show v14 now], Jesus took away the charges of our sin… in other words ALL CHARGES HAVE BEEN DROPPED! In Christ we NO longer are guilty before God but Christ nailed our guilt to the Cross! We are free in Him!
3 – [show v15 now]– so everything the enemy thinks he has on you, does NOT matter any longer. Christ has removed our shame and shame now is heaped upon the enemy who continues to attack us…
We have been delivered by Christ… Christ is ALL we need, so Paul wants these believers to know and understand that they don’t NEED a special knowledge, all they need is Jesus!
[show v16-17 now]
16So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
So because of Christ and HIS gift of salvation we are free and we cannot be condemned by this world any longer…so Paul is telling these believers to NOT worry about those who may point the finger of condemnation their way because of what they eat or when they worship…
It seems as if these teachers had made it clear that there were strict dietary laws that had to be followed and that there was only ONE time to worship… it was the time THEY deemed worthy! Paul writes here that in Christ we are NOT condemned by such elementary human boundaries… but we are free!
He says that these things are but a shadow of Christ and the things to come… but that Christ is the reality, not these traditions!
This condemnation was possibly what Paul addressed in other letters and it was coming from those WITHIN the church… specifying when and where to worship, and if you did not, you were in sin! Specifying what to eat and if you did not, you were in sin! Paul tells them in Rom 14 that this outlook is wrong.
Paul says that they are to accept one another in Christ and NOT to condemn those who do not agree with you on matters of no substance… things such as when to worship or what to eat! Such things were NOT that important and should NOT be made that important!
[show v18-19 now]
18Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
In v18-19 Paul speaks about the condemnation coming from those OUTSIDE the church… those who say we need to ADD to the church and to the plan of salvation.
Paul tells the Colossian believers that those who insist on pious self-denial are focused on the wrong things. Self-denial is a Christian foundation, but if it is done for the wrong reasons it too is sin! Paul calls these people to not focus on themselves here but to focus on worship of God!
He also speaks about the worship of angels… which this is one of the clues that this particular problem was why Paul was writing this letter. Paul knew how these charlatan Christians could make their message sound wonderful… but Paul was here to discount that message!
[show v20-23 now]
20You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
Here Paul reiterates his point on how believers IN CHRIST have been set free from the bondage that these people wanted to subject this church to…
Paul says that they talk a good game… that they may SEEM really spiritual because of this reason or that reason, but ACTUALLY what they advocate will NOT help you spiritually!
The application for this chapter for us today is simple… we are FREE in Christ and Christ is sufficient for ALL salvation, and even if someone sounds spiritual, if they try to get you to add things to Christ… you know that they are false teachers!
Nothing we do can take away our spiritual failings as a human… ONLY Christ can forgive and remove sin… Christ and Christ ALONE! Amen? Let’s pray!
