Center of My Belief Colossian 2: 8-23

8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily 3 in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

1. 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 rudimentsof the cosmos (cf. 2:20).—WBC

2. What does Paul mean by saying that “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ”?

In Him dwelleth all the plerōma—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 togodness, 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 πᾶςpas (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.

3. 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

4. How much can a dead person accomplish?

This refers to the theological concept of the total depravity of man, this being that like a dead man we have no power to choose God or do anything to make himself worthy of the Kingdom of God

5.  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)

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. Why do we live as if we still belonged to the world and want to create a system of manmade 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 manmade 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.”

10. “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 should not get into bondage again by becoming slaves of religious regulations that people want to impose upon them. To make laws to live by is the way of the worldly person, not the way of the Christian. No matter how clever and religious those laws may appear, they will not succeed in controlling the desires of the body.BBC

           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