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Colossians 2:1-3 (ESV)
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s * mystery — Christ.1 3 All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.
1. What was Paul’s great concern for both Colosse as well
as Laodicea?
Laodicea was near to Colosse.
In Laodicea was one of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation; it
was the church that is described as being lukewarm. Paul saw that there was a grave danger in
Colosse and in Laodicea, and it caused great conflict in the heart of the
apostle. We find the Laodiceans’
lukewarm condition in the Book of Revelation: they had lost sight of the person
of Christ. Christ is the answer to man’s head; He is also the answer to man’s
heart.
“For as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” Colosse is
located about 100 miles inland from ancient Ephesus. When Paul came through
that area (which he did twice), he did not come down to Colosse and Laodicea.
Even when he attempted to go down into Asia on his second missionary journey,
the Spirit of God forbade him; so he turned and took the northern route. Then
when he came on his third missionary journey, walking over the land, he again
took the northern route, perhaps because he was already familiar with it. It is
clear that he had not been to these cities because he writes, “and for as many
as have not seen my face in the flesh.” This might be interpreted to mean that
many new believers had come into the church since he had been there and that
they had not seen his face. That meaning is highly unlikely; I think it means
that Paul had never been there. JVM
We ourselves worry
about the immature Christian being carried away by some false doctrine. During
the 1980’s, the average Baptist church had 280 members, and everyday 280
Baptist were converting to Mormonism. In effect, one church per day ways
falling into idolatry. As a result the Godmakers film was created.
2. Treasures of wisdom and knowledge?
God has revealed in Christ all that a
person needs to know to establish a relationship with God. Thinking that the
source of true spiritual wisdom is somewhere other than in Christ can produce
terrible disorder in the Christian life. “Knowledge” is genuine understanding and
“wisdom” genuine truth (cf. 1:9).
“Knowledge is the apprehension of truth; wisdom is its
application to life. Knowledge is prudent judgment and wisdom is prudent
action. Both are found in Christ. CN
Anticipating
what he will soon say about false sources of knowledge (vv. 4–23),
Paul emphasizes that Christ is the ultimate storehouse of divine wisdom and
spiritual knowledge. His language parallels what the OT says about wisdom (Prov. 2:3–6).
3 Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice
for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for
hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
4 I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with
persuasive arguments. 5 For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit,
rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in
Christ. 6 Therefore,
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, *
walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just
as you were taught, overflowing with gratitude.
3. Can Christians be deceived?
It happens all the time. The answer is in the next
couple of verse. Paul would not issue this warning if it were not true.
8 See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits1 of the world, and not
according to Christ. 9 For in him the
whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him,
who is the head of all rule and authority.
Scientific naturalism, scientology, existentialism,
secular humanism, materialism, socialism, Islam, Gnosticism (Jehovah
Witnesses), Biblical higher
criticism, all are attacking the fundamental truths of the Christian faith.
4. How can we guard against deception?
Paul calls the Colossians back to the
foundational teaching passed on to them by Epaphras
We must understand the fundamentals of our faith.
Doctrine and theology is very important, but is not stressed in the modern
church. We must know what we believe and why.
The average nice little JW lady who comes to your
door with her Watchtower, spend 5 hour per week studying how to deceive the
average Christian. Most of these apostles of deception are more than a match
for the average seminary trained Christian church pastor. You better understand concepts like the
trinity, who is Christ, the atonement, and what is your salvation based upon
and why do you believe this.
5. How can we walk the walk?
The first step is to be rooted and grounded in
Christ, unshakable in the essentials.
Your actions are dependent on what you believe.
6. What kinds of things might be
classified as “philosophy
and empty deceit based on human tradition?
If you were to follow the
history of philosophy beginning with Plato, and coming down to more recent
times to Kant, Locke, and the German and English Higher Critics you would find
that none of them have a high view of the inspiration of the Word of God. They
are looking for answers to the problems of life, but they will not be found in
philosophy.
A true
philosopher is a seeker after truth, but truth is not found in human wisdom.
Christ is the answer, the answer to philosophy. Paul wrote, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom …” 1
Cor. 1:30. But false philosophy is like a blind man looking in a dark room for
a black cat that isn’t there—there is no hope for its search for truth. Paul
warns the Colossians to beware of this.
JVM
The
Colossian heresy was a "philosophy" after the tradition (paradosis) of men and rudiments
of the cosmos (cf. 2:20).—WBC
7. What does Paul mean by saying that “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily
in Christ”?
In Him dwelleth all the plerÅma—this
is a clear-cut statement of the deity of Christ. It could not be stated any
stronger than it is here. In Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead—not just 99.44 percent but 100 percent.
JVM
Christ is the visible
expression of God. In his incarnation and now in his glorification, Jesus is
God in the flesh (cf.
1:15–20). ESV
“For” introduces another reason for abandoning the false
teaching. What his readers had in Christ was completely adequate. He is the
very essence of deity in whom this “fullness” permanently resides (cf. 1:19). The Greek word translated deity (theotetos)
refers to the unique essence of God (cf. John
1:1). Divinity (theiotes, Rom. 1:20; Acts
17:25), on the other hand, refers to the divine quality of
God, which other beings may share (cf. John
1:14).
“Paul here disposes of the Docetic theory
that Jesus had no human body as well as the Cerinthian separation between the
man Jesus and the aeon Christ. He asserts plainly the deity and the humanity of Jesus
Christ in corporeal form.”
This fullness was present in Christ’s bodily form during
His earthly ministry. He did not give up His deity when He became a man. It
continues in His resurrected bodily form. As those in Christ we, too, partake
of His fullness. We have no essential need that He does not supply.
“This statement crowns Paul’s argument. Because Christ is
fully God and really man, believers, in union with him, ‘are made full’ (ASV),
that is, share in his fullness.”
“In the mystery cults which flourished in the apostolic
age the great promise which was held out was salvation through enlightenment.”
CN
It’s
important to get this straight, because it affects our theology, our theology
affects our faith and our faith affect how we act. We must understand that
Jesus bled like us, ate like us, and got tired and angry like us, yet at the
same time he was the one who created the entire universe as well. When it comes
to godness,
the attributes of God, what it is that makes God, God, there is nothing in the
Father that is not also in the Son and also in equal amounts. The son is in no
way inferior to the Father.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus,1 6 who, though he was in the form of
God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made
himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,2 being born in
the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:5-8
Jesus voluntarily put aside some of his authority
to operate as a human and act in obedience to His Father. He always had the
ability to act as God, but he did not.
Do you think that I cannot appeal
to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? Matt. 26:53
(Matt 28:18 [ESV])
And Jesus
came and said to them, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
The word all means all.
G3956 ÏáŸ¶Ï pas (pas`)
(including all the forms of declension) adj.
1. all, every, the
whole
The
whole enchilada.
11 You were also
circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the
body of flesh, in the circumcision of the *
Messiah.4 12 Having been buried with Him in
baptism, you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who
raised Him from the dead.
8. What kind of circumcision is not done by hands?
Paul is telling them to
get rid of that which is outward. The real circumcision is the New Birth. He
explained this to the Galatians: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal. 6:15). You and I become new creatures when we come
to Christ and trust Him as our Savior. We rest in Him; we are identified with
Him. JVM
Here it identifies Christ's death and resurrection as the true
circumcision (for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God,
and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh: Phil 3:3) in which Christians, as
Christ's Body, participated. WBC
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our
trespasses. 14 He
erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and
opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. 15 He
disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed
over them by Him.5
9.
How much can a dead person accomplish?
10. Do all
trespasses mean really mean “all” trespasses?
This speaks to the concept of
justification. God can declare us not guilty because the righteous judge has
declared us righteous and perfect.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him as righteousness.” Romans
4:3 (ESV)
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds
are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed
is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Romans 4:7-8 (ESV)
11. What were certificates of debt?
This referred to the Roman practice of preparing a
certificate of debt which listed the crimes of a convicted felon and then
nailing them to the door of his jail cell. Once the malefactor served his
sentence and paid his debt to the Roman Empire then the certificate of debt was
erased. Jesus paid our sin debt which we accumulated as we continually violate
God’s Laws. That certificate of debt against us has been cancelled.
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to
food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.6 17 These
are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is7 the Messiah. 18 Let no one
disqualify you,8 insisting on ascetic practices and the worship
of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by
his unspiritual9 mind. 19 He doesn’t hold on to the head,
from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and
tendons, develops with growth from God.
12. Shouldn’t we have an obligation to act like
Christians?
The false teachers were
encouraging the Colossians to place their Christian freedom under their
control. They wanted to limit it by prohibiting certain perfectly legitimate
activities. The five items mentioned in verse 16 were all part of
Judaism. Therefore it is very probable that the legalistic false teachers were
to some extent Jewish (i.e., advocating obedience to the Law of Moses for justification and sanctification).
“The
believing Gentiles in Colossae never were under the Law of Moses since that Law
was given only to Israel (Rom.
9:4). It seems strange that, now that they were Christians,
they would want to submit themselves to Jewish legalism!” CN
13. What is this shadow thing Paul is taking about?
The dietary and festival observances were
like shadows of Christ. They were “. . . a dim outline, a sketch of an object
in contrast with the object itself. . . . The offerings were reflections of the
one genuine saving offering at the cross, the priesthood was a foreshadowing of
the priestly ministry of Christ, and the kings of Israel faintly suggested the
coming King of kings and Lord of lords. The new age, then, is not the extension
of Judaism; rather, Judaism was a mere shadow of the present age projected into
the past.”
When Christ came, He explained that the Mosaic Law was no
longer binding. This failure of the false teachers really amounted to a failure
to appreciate Christ. CN
20 If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces
of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do
you submit to regulations: 21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22 All these
regulations refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and
doctrines of men.
23 Although these have a reputation of wisdom by promoting ascetic
practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any
value in curbing self-indulgence.10
14. Why do we live as if we still belonged to the world and want
to create a system of man made rules and regulations to attempt make ourselves
appear holy?
This is very common
still today. The Mormons tell us not to drink coffee and we must be married in
the temple in Salt Lake City, The Pentecostals tell us women should not wear
make up or cut their hair, the JW’s tell us we can’t celebrate holidays or have
blood transfusions. Some denominations insist on women wearing head covering
and men wearing beards. The Amish don’t believe in modern technology. The list
goes on and on with man made regulations in attempts to restrict Christian
freedom.
Like
Dr. McGee used to say.” When I was in the Midwest, everybody would be smoking
outside on the church steps after the service, but nobody would even consider
for a woman to wear a bikini to go swimming. I move out to California and
smoking outside the church after the service was taboo, but ladies from Church
are at the beach running around almost naked.”
15. “A
reputation of wisdom.”?
In view of
the freedom that Christ has won for them, the Colossian believers must not
listen to those who try to force them to obey the rules and regulations of the
Israelite law. Practices taught in the law may be compared to shadows. They are not
solid or permanent, but their existence enables the viewer to know that there
is some real object that casts the shadows. That real object is Jesus Christ.
Now that he has come, the shadows are of no further interest. The ceremonies of
the law have no further use.
Neither
should Christians listen to those who want to show their ‘superior’ knowledge
by mixing their own philosophies with the gospel. Christian life and growth
come from God through a direct relationship between the believer and Christ. There
is no scale of angelic beings forming a ladder to link Christians with God.
Having been
set free from the bondage of sin through Christ’s death, Christians
BDB………….. Barclay's Daily Study Bible
(NT)
· ESV………….ESV Study Bible Notes
· MSN…….MacArthur NASB Study Notes
· NIVSN…..NIV Study Notes.
· JVM ….J Vernon McGee,
· ACC …. Adam Clarke’s Commentary
· BN …..Barnes Notes
· WBC…… Wycliffe Bible Commentary
· CN …… Constables Notes
· IC……….Ironside Commentary
· NET………Net Bible Study Notes.
· JFB…………..Jamieson Fausset
Brown Commentary
· VWS……………..Vincent Word Studies
· CMM………….Commentary on Matthew and Mark
· BBC……………..Brideway Bible Commentary
·
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