And What you have Received
Colossians 2:6-23
Before we enter into the discussion of this week’s “therefore” and “see to it that…” we will remember that the original recipients of this letter caused Paul to rejoice. How so? As he discerned their “good discipline and the stability of [their] faith in Christ.” We must keep this in mind as we continue on in this ‘hinge’ passage. We turn from a correction of, and exalting of beautiful doctrine, to the section that will address practice and action. From the orthodoxy to the orthopraxy.
What has your discipline in the faith been like lately? Are you led by the Spirit or your various impulses? Are you practicing the things that you have learned belong to true believers (see Philippians 4:9, read in context of course)? Are you constantly nourished on the words of our faith, to bolster your stability of faith (see 1 Timothy 4, entire chapter)? Are you feasting on Christ, resting in Him, abiding in Him–in His word and His love?
Follow Christ, or the hinge verses
As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him… We have nothing that we have not received, and as Peter writes elsewhere, we have received a faith of the same kind. Jew or Gentile, we all received this faith, a gift of God through His Spirit Who has been shed abroad in our hearts, poured out lavishly, streams of living water. We are first and foremost to remember we have received our Lord, by His doing, and in this way we can continually reassure our hearts–it is not a ‘work’ that I must get right, that I must figure out and accomplish. This faith is real, whole, good, true.
It is He who calls me, draws me, brings me to life, holds me, keeps me, give me abundant life. Therefore…
We walk in Him. In Him we live and move and have our being, right!!! So we walk in Him, the source of all true life. We walk, having been firmly rooted. This mixing of metaphors is beautiful. As Paul later instructs Timothy, we can be strong in the grace that is in Jesus, and cling to all that has been handed down to us
We are both discipled and discipling, rooted and walking.
We are being built up in Him, and established in our faith. He shines His light into our dark, dead, cavernous hearts and gives us understanding! Why? That we may know Him, the One True God! And in knowing Him we find fulness of joy, peace that passes all understanding, love beyond comprehension, and hope that anchors our souls to what is really real, our inheritance which is not passing away, the home He has gone to prepare for us.
Elsewhere we hear that we are being renewed in our inner man, though our outer man is decaying. We are being built up by our Lord, receiving His care and shepherding and instruction, as we give Him our time, attention, devotion, and adoration. Consider how much of our mind was impacted in the fall–where Adam and Eve traded communion with God for a fragmented and dislodged knowledge of good and evil; they exchanged Truth for a lie, and for the chance to choose-their-own-adventure, and we have been following suit ever since.
World Vs. Christ
In this next section of our text, we realize once again that our battles are against ideas and words and ideologies or worldviews that distract and draw us away from Christ. We cannot have “Christ and __________.” These ideas are most alluring when presented by people we trust, or smooth talking rhetoricians, poets, songwriters, or sing-songy-speakers and podcasters. Paul begins his warning with a word against being taken captive. Truth sets free–all other ideas enslave.
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.
The traditions of men are hollow, empty, false. The tradition received from Jesus Christ and those He sent, namely the apostles, is fulness, fruitful, enlivening. We were already told that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which lead to stability and growth and renewal.
We sit at the feet of Jesus to learn, nowhere else, under no teacher that could take us captive, holding us back from Him who is the Truth. We do not reconcile false religions with ours, incorporating their practices or disciplines or meditations. We hold fast to the Word of Life (Philippians 2:16; 1 John 1:1-4) and to the doctrines according to godliness (1 Timothy 6:3, in context of the whole letter of course!)
Shadow Vs. Reality
The next several verses speak of our Union with Christ, consider that as you read. All the fullness of Deity–Jesus Christ is the Reality that trumps any shadow, any sign or symbol, and that certainly outshines any imposter.
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
In Him we are made complete, perfect, we are made full, filled. He is Head over all rull and authority–visible and invisible–and on our behalf, for us, He has fulfilled all righteousness. This is seen especially in John’s Baptism. John’s was the precursor, the paving-of-the-way baptism. Jesus undertook that baptism, a beginning of His earthly ministry, upon becoming the age for His priestly duties to begin. He was anointed not only with this water, but with the Spirit. He fulfilled all righteousness by submitting in everything to live a godly life as the God-Man. He was circumcised, and then baptized, symbolizing His true work.
His real baptism was yet to come at that time. His baptism would be death on the cross, being buried, and coming up from the dead as the firstfruits of the new creation in His resurrection. We likewise were buried with Him in that baptism. He died that death for us. Our circumcision is now the one not made with hands but in being buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith. Who does this work? God!
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
All the signs point to Christ’s work for us! Our great high priest (seen most beautifully in Hebrews and Revelation) presents us to His Father in His work; and we know it is accepted of God because God raised Him from the dead! See also Romans 4 for a discussion of this.
Both circumcision and baptism symbolize our death. Consider Ephesians 2:11, and the so-called-circumcision, cutting off the flesh. In the background of this is Isaiah 53, wherein the Messiah is prophesied to be ‘cut off’, a prophesy concerning the cross.
53:8 That He was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due
This circumcision of Christ, which He also called the baptism He would undergo, was when He put off His flesh at the cross, at His crucifixion. “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50)
This corresponds to the New Covenant prophesies of a circumcised heart in Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4, 31:31; Ezekiel 36:25. (Take some time to journal these, meditate on them)
Being raised up with Him through faith, this is the regeneration of the Spirit! We have faith in the working of God. By His doing we are in Christ, sharers in His Life. Only God has life in Himself, we have life in Him.
Victory at the Cross
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
When the Romans and Jews cheered at His crucifixion, the unseen realm was in upheaval, reeling from the knowledge that Jesus Christ triumphed over them. The devil could no longer hold any in his power, fear of death was no longer his tool. He who is The Truth and the Life went to battle, disarmed all His enemies and shattered their dominion. Christ despoiled them of their stolen booty.
Hold Fast the Head
We heard already in chapter 1 that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church. The head of fallen humanity is Adam, (see Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45) but the head of those who are in Christ is no longer Adam, but Christ. Our Head is not only the Source of all that we need, and the One who holds all things together–He is also the judge, the only true judge. And His judgement is righteous, and just. Therefore…
16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
Therefore, we live in the assurance of His pardon, His leading, His having performed all righteousness on our behalf. Christ our Head leads us into true obedience, rooted and grounded in His Love. “His commandments then become their happy choice” (hymn, Come Ye Souls by Sins Afflicted, by Joseph Swain, 1792). Others will judge based on appearance, and we fear not their judgement.
This is not license to act without thought or care, nor is it license to worship according to our own desires. Rather, it is a remembrance that those who do not know God will judge our worship by outward standards, the shadows of times past. We no longer worship according to ceremonial laws that have passed away (see Hebrews 8-10) but we worship in Spirit and in Truth. There will still be those who claim to have dreams and visions rather than holding fast to Christ. God’s judgment of them will be as harsh as the judgement described of false prophets and those who dream dreams in the book of Jeremiah. From the Lord we are supplied and held together, not from our own strength or actions. Our growth as a body comes from our Head. And He is not going to grow us apart from His body.
What is of Value?
This question will end our discussion–what is of value against fleshly indulgence? Paul is getting to the nitty-gritty of walking with Jesus. We are called to obey, to mortify the flesh, to put to death the deeds of the body, to set our minds on things of the Spirit, to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. But our flesh tempts us, our flesh puts before us seemingly sensible ways to help us in this. If you have died with Christ, then many of these measures are actually sinful.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
To find reassurance, or peace, or joy, or identity, or purpose, or measured outcomes in “decrees” then we are not walking with Jesus, we are walking in self-made ways, self-made religion. Religion is actually VERY GOOD when it is honoring and worshipping the One True God according to His revelation. But all our self chosen additives are putrid. This relates to what was already addressed, following the teachings of men rather than what is received through the Holy Spirit. This is false asceticism, and makes us feel like we are in control of our ‘sanctification.’
So what is of value against fleshly indulgence? Next time we look into Colossians 3, and see it is a matter of fixing our eyes on Jesus, setting our minds on things above where Christ is, knowing our life is hidden in Christ. Before then, keep praying for one another according to Colossians 1:9-12, and 4:12!
And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Acts 20:32
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