Lessons From Colossians – Lesson 3
False teachers had been doing a number on the believers at Colossae. One of their preachers went all the way to Rome to talk to Paul. And Paul wrote scripture to them. And it has been full of encouragement. Over and over Jesus is presented high and lifted up. He is the Almighty. He is the creator. He is the savior.
Time and again Paul has given them reassurance that they are in Christ, they are saved. Having doubt or confusion does not erase your salvation.
There are groups today that teach you can lose your salvation. Saved yesterday, woops you messed up so lost today. To teach an error that huge, you have to ignore much of the Bible. And you have to totally not read the book of Colossians or totally not understand what is going on in Colossae or why Paul wrote the book.
You have to willfully close your eyes to the truth to teach that you are only saved if you can hold on to it by not messing up.
Without Jesus people can fall for all kinds of crazy things. Just this week we learned that the person in charge of the water in Maui would not release it to fight the fire. Why because in the past Hawaiians viewed water as a god and he wants people to get back to that traditional view. People can and do worship the creation more than the creator just like the Bible says.
One group will believe one thing and another group will believe something contrary to the other group. Someone else will teach something totally different than the other 2 groups. They will all say that they are right. If you don’t have a way to know what is correct, then it all gets confusing. Without a standard of truth you can get off track, make some serious mistakes that you will have to give an answer for at the judgment seat.
In Colossae you had one group teaching that you have to do the Jewish rituals and keep parts of the law, and another group teaching a Gnostic type of religion.
Paul has been laying a foundation that it really is about Jesus. He presents Jesus High and lifted up and then encourages them and then gives some more truth about Jesus and what He has done for them and then Paul shows he cares and that Paul is for them, and then some more great truth about Jesus.
If you see what Paul is doing, you learn an important truth. What is the best way to fight doubt or confusion? Get your eyes back upon Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, so actually it is not Paul teaching this, it is God’s Word on it. Jesus is the solution to the problem of doubt or confusion or false teaching. That is a general principal. It is being put in place in Colossians because of Works and Gnostic teaching, but it works for any type of doubt. Some Christians will start to doubt some things because of the false teaching of evolution. Some Christians will start to doubt some things because of the hardness of life living in a sin stained world. It can be a lot of different things.
If that happens to you, remember Colossians. It is a good book to go to in times like that. You read great thing after great thing about Jesus. Who He is and what He has done. And you get to read Paul giving them assurance of salvation over and over again. By the time we get to chapter 2, Paul is now stepping up his dealing with the false teaching.
Col 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
In Jesus is where all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.
That knowledge and wisdom is the standard of truth. All things will be judged by that truth. And this truth is only known in Jesus. This is why lost people can’t understand the Bible. It is a closed book to them. O’ they can read all the words, but they don’t really get it.
1Co_2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural man is the man without Jesus, still in his sin that he was born with. The man without the Holy Spirit indwelling him. He does not have any chance to really understand God’s Word. It says neither can he know them.
He can understand the fact that Ruth went with Nahomi, but the spiritual truths that are there are foolishness to him and he can’t know them.
Joh_14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,
Jesus said that the Holy Ghost is a teacher. The Colossians had started listening to teachers that were lost. They were starting to listen to people who did not have the Holy Ghost teaching them. So Paul reminds them where true teaching and wisdom and knowledge come from.
Col 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All the treasures. All. If you have God’s Word and you have the Holy Spirit to teach it, then you have all you need. All knowledge and wisdom are found in Jesus and not men. This is a simple biblical truth. But sadly it is lost on almost all preachers today. They put the commentary, or the lexicon first. They put those things over the Word of God and over the teaching of the Holy Spirit. It is sad.
Excerpt from chapter 18 of 51 Reasons Why the King James – A Path From Doubt to Faith – by David W. Daniels
“When I came to believe with all my heart that God had kept His promise to preserve His words, and that those words were perfectly preserved in the King James Bible, I cried off and on for 24 hours. Do you want to know why? I cried because I have a Bachelor of Arts in Bible and Linguistics. I have a Masters of Divinity in General Theology with all my emphasis in Linguistics. I have years of linguistics study and Bible translation study.
I cried because I could no longer wrestle with what Metzger or the committee said in the Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, or Reinecker’s Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, or Jesuit Zerwick and Grosvenor’s Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, nor could I wrestle with the UBS 3rd or 4th edition, or the Nestles 26th or 27th (now 28th) edition. But you want to have your commentaries. You want to have your books. You want to have your linguistic one-upmanship. You want to trust the men who stood on the shoulders of giants, who stood on the shoulders of other giants, who stood on the shoulders of pioneers. You want to have that. You want to feel smart. You want to believe you are getting the newest advances of the most advanced knowledge.
And then you find out that some guy who got raised up with the King James Bible was way ahead of you. Because he already knew what he believed.
And I had no idea what I believed. I had to start all over again, after 18 years. That’s why I cried over a 24-hour period. But I did start over, and with faith, not doubt. And I did grow in faith, instead of doubt. And that’s why I am able to hold my King James Bible up high and say, “I may not understand every word of my King James Bible, but I believe every word of my King James Bible.” You can’t buy that kind of faith.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
So, you’d better make sure that what you have is the word of God, and then put your faith in it! Even if you have to start all over again, from ground zero, you’ll never regret it.”
David Daniels is one of the few that learned the reality of Colossians.
Col 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Truth, wisdom, knowledge is found in Jesus and His Word as taught by the Holy Spirit. If Christians and pastors would not have left that truth, I really believe that our nation would not be in the terrible shape that it is in. After telling were true wisdom and knowledge is really found a warning is given to not be pulled away from it.
Col 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
And now Paul moves forward and teaches that because you are in Christ and because of who He is and because of what He has done for you then therefore…
Therefore. Those facts should absolutely make a difference on what you do, how you think and how you live. It really should. Jesus is worthy.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Jesus is the Lord. Lord means master. As ye have therefore received Christ. There it is again. Paul does not say if ye have. He says as ye have. Paul once again implies that they are saved. And because they have received Christ, then therefore walk ye in him. Walk that is continual motion. And walk in him. Let the Lord have His way with you every day. All the time!
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Be rooted and built up in Jesus. Be rooted. Like a giant oak tree. Its strong roots go deep and hold on strong. I remember going to see the oaks down by Fulton Texas. The hurricanes come thru and those great trees are still standing. They take the abuse that the world throws at them and survive.
They can do it because they are deeply rooted. Christians can also take the abuse of the world that is thrown at them if they are deeply rooted in Jesus. I have seen Christians who falter and wine and cry at the smallest things.
That is not the way Jesus would have it. We can be rooted and built up good and strong. It is a choice and yes it does take some work.
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
You have to take the time and effort to be taught, you have to be established in the faith. And the result. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. You will be thankful that you do not fall for things that the world tries to trick you with. You will be thankful that you are rooted and built up so that you can be strong.
And right after the truth of how you should want and put some effort into being rooted and built up and established in the faith comes a warning.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Beware of several things.
1) Beware of the source. Beware lest any man spoil you. Any man. Many fall for things because of who it is that teaches it. The nicest man in the world can teach false things. The most popular man can also do it. A man in any position can be a false teacher.
Many get fooled because a man has a positon and a lot of people following him. The Pope is a good example. Men at huge health and wealth churches are also an example. False teachers can come from anywhere.. So don’t let personality or position let down your guard. Beware.
2) Beware of the cost. Beware lest any man spoil you. That is spoil as in rot, stink, and corruption. No good, decaying. You cannot be used by God when you are that way.
3) Beware of the methods. They use philosophy. Fancy reasoning. They can and do make even somewhat logical argument to back up their teaching. The problem is the reasoning is not God’s reasoning. The source is wrong.
It comes from either the traditions of men. O that is a huge one. For many religious groups a huge amount of the things they do comes from traditions of men. They have nothing to do with the word of God. Some Catholics will crawl long distances on their knees, I mean until their knees bleed, just to worship Mary. Things like that are not in the Word of God at all.
The Jew’s also have a huge volume of traditions. A great deal of it comes from the Talmud which has about 2 million words. It is not scripture. A great deal of it is the traditions of men.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
The rudiments of the world can also spoil you. Rudiments is the elements, the base principals. It is a way of expressing the worldly system. This worlds system of doing and thinking is contrary to Christ. You either choose the world’s way or you choose Christ’s way. They do not walk together.
If all the lost world is believing something that then is something to beware of. We of course are not talking about 2 plus 2 = 4 types of things. We are talking about biblical truth. Spiritual matters, and the practical matters of how Jesus Christ our Lord would have us live.
The worlds base system of thinking and working will spoil you.
After this warning about negative things that can spoil you comes a positive.
Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
This goes completely against what the Gnostics were teaching. It hits hard against that. Jesus is God. God can be known. The fullness of the Godhead was in the body of Jesus. Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man at the same time. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father.
And because Jesus is God and because you are in Him, then you are complete in him.
Jesus is God, you cannot get more than that. If you have Jesus then you have it all. There is nothing higher to gain. Jesus is greater than all. Jesus is the head of all. Jesus has all power.
In Christ you have been given a new nature. Paul talks about this next.
Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Circumcision was the cutting away of the flesh. Circumcision made without hands is talking about the circumcision of the heart. It is something that God does. He cuts away some of that fleshly power and thinking from the heart.
Not all of it, just some of it. Christians can hold on to what is left and become carnal Christians.
Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
To quicken is to be made alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins and now you are forgiven, and your dead spiritual side has been made alive. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is an operation of God. He does this all.
Paul is encouraging them, Jesus has done so much for you. He has given you so much. In Him is strength and joy, and thankgiving.
The God of the universe has paid for your sin and has forgiven you all your trespasses. In Jesus is all wisdom and knowledge.
You are complete in Jesus, so why in the world would you go anywhere else. His teaching is true so why would you listen to or believe anything else.
When following Jesus you are following God for He is God. Why follow anyone else.
You are complete in Jesus so beware of anything contrary to Him.