The Gospel Shaped Life! Series

Have you been deluded by a plausible argument that seemed to have truth in it?

We can find teaching in any topic you could name under the heading of “Christian” that is not according to Christ. There are false teachings presented by the prosperity gospel that say that Christians are to be healthy and wealthy by the fact of being Christians. There is the word of faith movement that teaches if you have enough faith you can do anything. There is the prophetic movement that emphasizes the teachings and authority of mere men more so than they do God and His Word. Christendom down through the ages has swung its pendulum from one extreme to the other. On the one hand, you have the doctrinally-correct, spiritually-dead Christianity. In this group, the focus is doctrinal purity but it is packaged, presented, and practiced in a boring fashion. On the other hand you have the experience-driven, feelings-based Christianity. In this group, the focus is on expressing joyful experiences but it has a tendency to lose its biblical grounding. Does it have to be one way or the other? No. Isn’t there a third option? Yes, do both, teach the truth and rejoice in the truth. All of these things have some truth in them and that makes them seem credible, but if they don’t point to the hope we have in Christ they are teachings that take us captive to false hopes. We are trying to teach that we are to be God-centered and not man-centered. We exist to glorify God. He doesn’t exit to gratify us. We want to be God-centered. We want to be motivated to glorify God.

And that leads to the second thing to learn from the Colossians’ situation, which is that it takes intentionality to avoid captivity to false teaching (2x).

Paul said see to it that no one takes you captive. We are to see to this, to do something about this concern, to resist captivity by taking some action that will prevent us from being sidetracked into many harmful and fruitless paths we could take in life. Captivity in false teaching comes to the unintentional, or to the unconcerned, to the believer who is confident that they are doing OK today and will continue to do OK tomorrow without any effort. But escape from captivity comes to those who are intentional, who see to it.

When Christians handle teachings thoughtlessly and uncritically they easily become prey to another gospel. At the very least we must employ critical discernment that is far removed from breathless naivety as we engage with the false teachings today.

And there is a way to see to it. There is a way to resist being taken captive to false teaching and false hopes. That is the substance of the command in verse 6.

So let’s turn from the concern to the command.

2. The Command

…as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him…

What exactly does it mean to walk in him?

Well, the words in him speak about our union with Christ, this unseen reality that believers are joined to Christ. We’re joined to him in such a way that his life becomes our life – all the blessings he earned by his life and death become ours.