Colossians
“A Worthy Walk”
Main Teaching: 1:15-4:6
2:1-3 Through the church…2:4-7 In Faith
2:4-23 Walking in the Word of Christ
2:1-5 “Hidden in plain sight”
Vs. 1-3 Never a dull moment
Vs. 4-5 Nothing real about imitation
Intro.
Webster’s dictionary defines boredom as: The state of being weary and restless through lack of interest. I don’t care what generation you are from; every parent has heard their child say at least once, “I’m bored,… there’s nothing to do!” As if their condition is someone else’s fault or responsibility. At the heart of boredom is that most folks look to outside stimulus to get and keep them excited about life. The truth of the matter is that boredom is really our own problem of not finding anything within our own resources to draw excitement and interest from!
The reason why this is relevant to our study is that these dear believers had started to listen and follow after false teachers because they had become apathetic and bored with Jesus! Paul’s antidote to “Christian boredom” is revealing afresh the person and work of Christ. Jesus is not just Someone you knew in the, He is an endless life of discovery, a joy filled quest where every turn and twist leaves you wanting more of Him. Saints, it’s time we get excited about Jesus again and anticipate the next great adventures into the mystery of His unending love.
He is the book that you can’t put down, the story that you never want to end! This is one of the reasons why Paul employs the word “riches” and “treasures” in his letters 16 times, three in Colossians. The use of these words speaks of the wealth of living available to the Christian which will enable them to escape the boredom of life.
Vs. 1-3 Never a dull moment
Vs. 1 The word “For” tells us that the thought of chapter one verses 28-29 are carried forward into chapter 2. Paul having said in verse 28 that he preached Jesus is such a way as to present every person mature in Christ. He goes on to say in verse 29 that this work was one in which he gave the balance of preparation, perspiration and inspiration. Paul wanted these believers to become excited about their pursuit of Jesus so that they would quit pursuing false teaching. I remind you that while Paul was dictating this letter he was chained between two Roman guards around the clock in Rome. Paul’s passion for Christ wasn’t circumstantial; it didn’t waiver when times got tough.
Vs. 2-3 We have all had the experience listening to someone who has had an experience with something or someone that as they speak of it we become excited and want to meet that person or experience what they have, just because of what our friend has told us. There are folks who have heard about Jesus for all if not most of their lives and He just doesn’t excite them. And the Bible, well they have one but they would rather watch paint dry than read it. Paul wants them to take another look at Jesus in order to “attain to all the riches” and “full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ.”
His heart is that they would be a church knit together in Love for Jesus and each other. A church that is not knit together in love is not a Church. Performance or activity can never be a substitute for a body that loves. A body that knits together in love stays together because of love! But such love isn’t in absence of the mind as Paul says that they were to be a church that was seeking three things for the intellect:
- Understanding: This is a word in the Greek that refers to critical knowledge or the ability to assess any situation and decide what practical course of action is necessary to take. The Christian and the church must possess the ability of practical discernment so that they will be able to take the right course of action.
- Knowledge: Is the Greek word that means intuitive or instinctive truth such as that which is gained through experience. It is the hands-on kind of learning that we gain only through living life.
- Wisdom: This word describes knowledge that is applied and commended and confirmed and acted upon before we experience its benefits. It is this wisdom that enables us to reason, trust and obey!
Sometimes our “boredom” is because we didn’t investigate the further advantages of our Christian life. Like a computer in the hands of an infant isn’t something that is going to excite them, they aren’t going to see any use for it and probably just end up playing with the box it came in. Could our problem be that we haven’t fully investigated the enumerable advantages that are ours in Christ?
Sometimes I get that feeling when I look at the Westernized Evangelical Church, with all our programs and entertainment that some think Jesus needs our help, a good public relations campaign, in order to excite the masses as people are bored of their faith. If anyone had the potential to be “bored” it would have been Paul who was at the very moment of writing this letter chained between two Roman guards under house arrest unable to leave. Yet, he is bursting at the seams with excitement over a man most in the world had never heard of and many who had heard of Him thought that He was a dead trouble maker. It’s time that we rediscover Jesus afresh anew because if we do we can never be bored again. Oh, Church with its feeble and unwanted attempts to entertain us may be boring but never JESUS!
Friends sometimes the treasures that we are looking for are already ours and we don’t realize it. The story is told of the NewsPaper tycoon William Randolph Hurst who was looking through a book of famous art work when one painting caught his eye, “I want this painting” he told his curators. But after an exhaustive search they couldn’t find its location and came back empty handed. Hurst was furious and threatened to fire them if they didn’t return with the painting. Three and a half months later they came to him and told him that they had finally found the painting. Hurst asked, “Where is it?” Their reply was, “Sir we found it in your own warehouse; you already own it!” Saints, the treasures we often seek are already ours in Christ. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So go back to your own warehouse of the Word of God and you will find what you’re looking for.
Vs. 4-7 Nothing real about imitation
Vs. 4-5 Because these precious saints had lost their view of Jesus they had become followers of fancy sounding words. The word deceived means to “reason beside something” to “produce a forgery” that looks almost identical with the real one but isn’t. The deception is that it passes itself-off as the original so that the casual observer will be persuaded to accept the phony as the original. These days many a manufactured thing is a counterfeit. Our cars have simulated “wood grain” panels which is nothing more than painted plastic. Our leather chairs are made of Naugahyde, a vinyl product also known as pleather (plastic-leather). You can buy fabric flowers that never fade but neither are they fragrant and alive! How about those veggie burgers? Not for me I want the original, not a cheap imitation. There are always going to be folks who are going to try to pass some new spiritual thing off as the original but the real problem is when you and I begin to regard it as equal to or better than Jesus.
- I don’t want the Michael the Archangel version of Jesus
- I’m not interested in the spirit brother of Lucifer version either
I only want to submit my life to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s who spoke and the world leaped into existence. Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He alone is Lord! To me this true living Jesus is never boring, always exciting, pure joy and peace. It is to this Jesus that Paul wants to present as the One to keep our eyes fixed upon and our lives obedient towards! The answer to boredom is to reject the cheap imitation so you can discover the exciting God whom we serve.
In verse 5 Paul says that there were two things that the Colossian believers possessed that encouraged him that they would reject the false and go after Jesus:
- Good order: These believers were living a disciplined ordered life. They made themselves do the right things even when they didn’t want to. A disciplined life is always harder to be deceived because it doesn’t fit into the path of least resistance. It doesn’t mind getting its hands dirty and sacrificing things to achieve the truth. There is a dichotomy in life that says: The greater the discipline and practice the greater the ease and freedom! Someone who has disciplined their life to play a musical instrument with ease is a person who has spent tremendous hours of practice to make it effortless! If you want ease and freedom then you will need discipline as shortcuts will never get you there.
- Steadfastness of your faith in Christ: These believers had the right order in their faith as it was Jesus who held them and not they who held Christ. They didn’t have faith in their faith, they had placed their trust in a person! It is always difficult to mislead and deceive a person who isn’t trusting in themselves to begin with.
Colossians
“A Worthy Walk”
Main Teaching: 1:15-4:6
2:4-23 Walking in the Word of Christ
2:4-7 In Faith 2:8-10 In Fullness
2:6-8 “True versus False”
Vs. 6-7 Antidote to a boring life
Vs. 8 Teaching your horse to spit
Intro.
We left off at Paul’s appeal to a boring life which is to represent Jesus Christ. Paul will conclude this then move on to the danger of being spiritually deceived. Pitch men are everywhere trying to convince us that the product of service they are pushing is the key to what ails us. Many people think that because they saw it on the web it must be true. But such deception isn’t new, back in the 1940’s in a farm magazine an ad appeared promising a solution to “slobbering horses” for only $20.00.
Hundreds sent off their hard earned dollars only to receive a thin envelope with five words on a single sheet of instructions that simply read “Teach your horse to spit”. There are a lot of false teachers giving similar spiritual instructions today and for only $19.95 you can get their book or video that will instruct you on how to teach your horse to spit but all you will end up getting is spitting mad! It is a tragic truth that there are those who peddle their false teaching to the spiritually bored believer, some go door to door, some do so on the T.V. and still others sell their lies right next to God’s Word at Christian Book Stores!
Vs. 6-7 Antidote to a boring life
I believe these two verses give the antidote for a boring Christian life:
Vs. 6 Faith: We need to answer the question that Paul indirectly proposes here in this verse: “How did you receive Christ Jesus?” The answer is that we simply trusted in Him alone. Boredom has come because we have supplanted simple trust with works and religion and when that happens excitement goes out the window. When have-too’s become the norm instead of get-too’s! The way to revitalize any relationship, especially one with Jesus is to get back to the simple trust we had at the beginning. That’s why Paul says to walk in the same way as you first received him. When our relationship is back to that moment by moment trust in Jesus life becomes a thrill ride of adventure and fun as we are just hanging on to Him at every turn!
Vs. 7 Next Paul gives us four ways to test if we are in a “faith walk” with Jesus:
- Rooted: Rooted is an agricultural word. The tense of the Greek word means “once and for all having been rooted.” Christians are not to be tumbleweeds that have no roots and are blown about by “every wind of doctrine” (Eph.). Nor are they to be “transplants” that are repeatedly moved from soil to soil. Once we are rooted by faith in Christ, there is no need to change the soil! Roots have two functions: Draw up the nourishment so that the tree can grow and give it strength and stability.
- Built up: Built up is an architectural term. It is in the present tense: “being built up.” Trusting Christ to save us puts us on the foundation where we can grow in grace. Paul uses the phrase “as you have been taught”. It is the Word of God that builds the Child of God.
- Established: Trust is what we put to work in every situation and circumstance. As such to make spiritual progress means to keep adding to the temple to the glory of God.
- Abounding in it with thanksgiving: The word abounding suggests the picture of a river overflowing its banks. The sad truth is that far too many have only stuck their big toe in the Water of the Word instead of being in over their head. A thankful life is a mark of Christian maturity, one that will not easily be led astray.
Vs. 8 Teaching your horse to spit
Vs. 8 Paul tells reveals two things about false teachers:
- Outcome: What will happen to us if we buy what these charlatans are peddling as he says “Beware lest anyone CHEAT you.” The word “cheat” is literally “kidnap” “taken hostage”; the word implies a loss of freedom. The outcome of spiritual deception and false teaching is to limit our glorious liberty in Christ. These bored believers had been kidnapped by false teachers and now they were bound by works; forced into trying to obtain the promises in Christ that were already theirs by faith! Today we see folks “trying to teach their spiritual horse to spit” by going door to door hoping to inherit the earth by getting folk to become just like them by not taking blood transfusions, celebrating birthdays or saluting the flag. Others tell you how much of your money you have to give to get a temple recommendation and that you have to serve a mission for two years to become a god one day and populate your own planet.
- Weapon: Most of these false teachers aren’t using weapons of violence as in Islam; instead they use something as seemingly benign as “philosophy” which is the Greek word that means “the love of wisdom”. Not all that passes itself-off as wisdom is truly wisdom that produces freedom! Paul goes on to tell his readers two ways you can determine if the “philosophy” is true or not:
- Empty: The word he uses here means “hollow” thus it lacked content or had no basis in reality. Most false teaching has no logic to it; instead it’s just an illusion, pure fantasy, made up by someone to seduce folks that will take it at face value. I’ve been very candid about my early spiritual journey, how I tried lots of “spiritual horse spitting” but every time I went further I was told I couldn’t look any further and that was always the time I was out of there. Only in Christ am I invited to continue to “taste and see that He is good” only in the Bible am I told to “study to show myself, approved.”
- Exploits: The 2nd thing Paul mentions about these false teachings is that they all exploit the follower. Deception and exploitation are always the bottom line with these false teachings. To determine if a philosophy is deceptive and exploitive would require a person to have to be in it and looking at it for some time which is in itself, dangerous to our freedom. So Paul offers three characteristics of false philosophies:
- Depends upon the traditions of men: Paul is addressing religious traditions that become popular and widespread, that get pushed onto succeeding generations. Paul would write elsewhere of endless genealogies, special holy days and practices. Recently I had a lady call me to ask a few questions about this fellowship. She wanted to know if we took communion every week and I told her it was offered every week and that we participated in the Lord’s Supper corporately once a month.
- She was fine with that then she asked if we recited the Lord’s Prayer. I tried to get her to explain what she meant by that, then told her that we pray often during our time together but would only recite the Lord’s Prayer when we were in that passage of scripture and she hung up on me. That’s the thing about “traditions of men” they tend to make a person “Feel Holy” but they do nothing to cause them to “Act Holy”! There are a lot of traditions that the church has placed in practice that have nothing to do with what Jesus said or did and are nothing more than man made.
- Depends upon the principles of the world: The word “principles” means “things in a row” and became associated with the ABC’s of things. But it was also a word that was used to speak of ranks in a military. This seems to speak of the enemy behind these principles. Satan is a liar for the beginning and because of this these “principles” arise out of the thinking of man and get a foothold into society. Such as Darwinism, the theory that evolved into a fact a lot quicker than primordial ooze grew a tail and legs. Soon everybody believed the “millions and millions of years” until a few years later it became “billions and billions of years”. Adaptation becomes evidence of evolution simply because rabbits in the snow with dark fur got eaten by foxes and wolves leaving only white coated rabbits. In evolution the only thing that is becoming extinct is truth while the lie of evolution continues to evolve. There are many principles of the world that end up being little more than urban legends and myths.
- Denies the person and work of Christ: The final characteristic of a false philosophy is that it always seeks to demote Jesus and our need for Him. Any teaching or doctrine that makes Jesus greater and me less is probably correct. But with false teaching that they want to strip Jesus of His deity, or make man equal to His deity. Sometimes they want to diminish His sacrifice or take it away all together by saying He died but didn’t rise to life. Or that He didn’t die on a cross He died on a stake.
Colossians
“A Worthy Walk”
Main Teaching: 1:15-4:6
2:4-23 Walking in the Word of Christ
2:8-10 In Fullness – 2:11-17 In Forgiveness
2:9-15 “All I ever wanted and needed”
Vs. 9-10 Jesus completes me
Vs. 11-15 We’ve changed
Intro.
Last week Paul warned the Colossian believers not to be cheated through false teaching and this week he speaks about why such a further pursuit is a waste of time as we read in verse 9 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Amazingly Paul doesn’t counter this false teaching by attacking the teaching, instead He chooses to speak yet again of the person and work of Christ. The word “fullness” means “sum total” and by it Paul is saying that in Jesus the sum total of all of God’s being and attributes exist.
The remarkable truth is that every believer shares that fullness as Paul declares in the Greek that we are permanently complete in Him. When we become born again we are born completely in Christ and our spiritual growth is not by addition but rather by nutrition as we grow from the inside out, nothing needs to be added. Paul will highlight five truths with regards to Jesus. The first 1 has to do with the character of Christ and the next four deal with the work of Christ on our behalf.
Vs. 9-10 Jesus completes me
Vs. 9-10 This statement of Paul is a full declaration of the complete and full Deity of Jesus and says that, “Since all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus, then He cannot be Michael the ArchAngel, …. the Spirit Brother of Lucifer etc.” If Jesus isn’t who he declared to be then we aren’t complete in Him. Our completeness in Christ isn’t something that we achieve, it is something that we enjoy!
- “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily..”: When they received Jesus they already got everything they needed. This phrase of Paul’s isn’t meant to express that Jesus is both the Father and the Son as Oneness Pentecostals suggest. What Paul is saying is that when you and I received Jesus by faith the whole of the godhead came into your life. Spiritual boredom had left these new believers susceptible to false teaching that was claiming that there was something more that they could add to Jesus, some secret teaching that would cause them to be super saints. So Paul tells them, “What more can you add to God?” All that remains for us is a continual quest, an unending discovery of who God is and how Who He is can be applied into every aspect of our lives.
Having made the statement, Paul now traces how this happened to them. In these next four statements he tells how believers share in the fullness of God in Christ.
- Vs. 11 First, he declares, they were circumcised with Christ: There are some in the Christian faith that want to equate circumcision with baptism but it is clear by the next verse which Paul speaks of baptism that he doesn’t view them as the same thing. Because most circumcision today is done for hygiene reasons its biblical meaning is often not considered. There are three things to consider about circumcision:
- Circumcision involves the male reproductive organ; that which God has ordained for “procreation”.
- It also is a “private” part of the male body, one that is for the most part covered, hidden from view of others.
- Throughout history this organ was directly related to a man’s ego, his machismo, his manhood or if you will his “pride”.
Those three realities (procreation, private and pride) go a long way in understanding why God chose circumcision as a symbol both to Abraham, the Israelites as well as Christians. Deut. 10:16 and 30:6 speak of this reality calling it a symbol of the “circumcision of the heart.” What God is saying symbolically is that if you want to be able to “reproduce”, to be successful in this life then you are going to have to expose that which is private and cut off the pride filled life. When we expose our pride to the knife of the Word of God we see what fallen humanity really is, just dead flesh and there is nothing to brag about with dead flesh! Now notice in verse 11 that Paul says that, “In Him (that is Jesus) you (those that by faith have received Jesus) were also circumcised.”
Then to make sure that these Colossian believers understood his symbolism, Paul goes on to explain it saying, “with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.” This is what Paul called the “circumcision of the heart”. Jesus took upon Himself our fallen flesh, our “pride” and sin nature and when we receive Him we are declaring that our pride and self-worth is worthless and does nothing to make us right with God. Oh to be sure an unrepentant man will still boast in and praise it but it will never gain us one inch before God. The Old man is dead and as Jesus said in John 15:5 “Without me, you can do nothing!” The truth is apart from Jesus mankind is impotent and cannot please God no matter how hard they may try. All their works are like filthy rags!
- Vs. 12-13 Next Paul speaks about baptism: And he declares two things about baptism in these two verses:
- “Buried with him in baptism….being dead in your trespasses”: The first symbol of baptism has to do with our identification with the death and burial of Christ. Jesus took on our trespasses, our sin and in baptism we are publicly declaring our death to our former life. So as we go under the water we are publically saying that our former way of self-centered living is dead to us and we are burying it under the water.
- “You were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God….He has made you alive together with Him”: Ah but that is only one part of the symbol of baptism as we don’t leave a person under the water buried, we raise them up. So in baptism we not only identify with the burial of Christ we identify with His resurrection and imparting new life and power to live the new life in Christ.
Trespass is a specific type of sin and means to “overstep a boundary” .So in baptism we are recognizing Christ’s work in overcoming our old nature by burying it and being raised and alive in Christ.
- Vs. 14 In this verse we see another work of Christ, forgiveness: What’s great about Jesus’ forgiveness is that it doesn’t stop at our sin and failures, past present and future. No it goes all the way to, “wiping out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.” Handwriting of requirements has in mind a list of moral debt before God. Jesus changed the law, as the basis of being our right standing with Him. It still stands as a standard of morality and consciousness, a compass to point us towards Jesus. But it will never again for us be the standard by which we will be declared right with God. Jesus nailed the old standard to the cross. Sin still affects our fellowship with God but can never affect our relationship with God as we are in Christ! Don’t misunderstand me, we will still need to deal with our sin by agreeing with God about it but forgiveness towards us is the heart of our Father in Christ. That means that every one of my sins, mistakes, failures, unloving words and actions are forgiven. And every day I can start each day with a clean slate as Jesus has nailed all of those things to the cross and now we are free to go and sin no more.
- Vs. 15 The final thing we see is that we are forever freed from the power of these evil influences: There are in this world “rulers of darkness” or as Paul calls them “principalities and powers”. These are evil influences that continue to insert their evil into the world through attitudes and philosophies that are counter to God’s Word and our renewed mind. And what Paul says is that they no longer can enforce their ways upon us. Oh they are still at work in the “sons of disobedience” and they can crop up in us when we yield our hearts and mind to them.
Paul declares that when Jesus died he seized these powers by the throat, chained them, and dragged them in triumph behind him, like a Roman general marching through the streets of Rome, his chained captives walking behind in total subjugation. That is why John can say “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” There is no need, therefore, to give way to evil teaching or evil temptations, for we have a Power and a Person within who is superior to anything Satan can throw against us—the world, the flesh or the devil!
Paul is encouraging the Colossians to see that there is absolutely no need to believe the doctrines, the teachings or the rituals that he will next enunciate to them. There are two things every believer must continually look into if they are to have a joy filled life:
- We need to understand who we are in Christ
- We need to continually discover what we already have in him
Paul describes what has happened for us because in Jesus all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. There is no need to be weak, faltering, or failing. We may rise up and be the men and women that God intended us to be.
Colossians
“ A Worthy Walk”
Main Teaching: 1:15-4:6
2:4-23 Walking in the Word of Christ
2:11-17 In Forgiveness – 2:18-23 In Freedom
2:16-23 “Jesus, our life jacket”
Vs. 16-17 Ritualism
Vs. 18-19 MysticismVs. 20-23 Legalism
Intro.
Most folks view warning signs in two different ways: a “life jacket” or a “straight jacket.” When a warning sign is seen as interrupting our fun it’s a straight jacket pinning us down. Ah but when it keeps us from harm’s way it becomes a life jacket. My granddaughter can’t swim yet but loves to go boating with us. Last year she didn’t want to put on her life jacket while on our boat as she saw it as uncomfortable. That’s because she has never needed it, had she needed it she would have insisted that we put it on her. Warnings often go unheeded because they are issued before trouble is spotted or needed.
The opening of this section with the word “SO” is very important as it links Paul’s words about the five truths about Jesus and why we need not explore false teaching in this section here. In these verses Paul speaks on three aspects of false teaching that seem to be alluring to people: Ritualism, Mysticism and Legalism. So Paul is issuing warnings about false teaching that we need to listen to, the question is will you view this as a life jacket or a straight jacket?
Vs. 16-17 Ritualism
Vs. 16-17 It is clear in the New Testament that New Covenant Christians aren’t to be into counting “calendars and calories” because those things were just shadows of the real deal in Jesus!
- Ritualism: Ritualism is the “Making lists and checking them twice to see the knotty from the nice.” The problem with lists is that they are mechanical and you can just go through the motions without the emotion and then judge everyone else by your actions. Paul goes on to list the two most popular “lists” in his day and remember that most of these were influenced by Judaism and Paul at one time held all of these as true:
- Food or drink: The first one deal’s with special diets. In the Old Testament God gave the Israelites a specific list of things they could eat “clean and unclean” animals. So should we practice those things today? The simple answer is found in verse 17 where Paul acknowledges that they had a purpose designated by God for the time that God instituted them as they were a “shadow of things to come” but now “the substance is of Christ”. In other words they were road signs saying to slow down or stop because there was a cliff and a great chasm but now the bridge has been built and you can cross safely. I’m not saying that you should eat and drink anything you want, I’m saying you can. As you read your Bibles the key in the New Testament is personal conviction, moderation and not causing others to stumble.
- Festival: These special ceremonies and rituals; centered on the calendar either yearly, monthly in the case of the new moon or weekly in the case of the Sabbath. There is nothing wrong with these parties and celebrations only the use of them to judge other who either participate or don’t participate in them
All foods are pure and everyday belongs to Jesus; this is the day the Lord has made so I will be glad and rejoice in it while eating bacon! All these things are like pictures that you would carry of your family; when you are away from the real thing they can remind you of your loved ones, the memories and lives you share but they are only photos. I think most folks would be upset with me if they showed me a photo of their loved one before I met them and when I had an opportunity to get to know their loved one chose to hang onto the photo instead of hanging out with the real person. It’s like parakeets when you put a mirror in front of them they become fooled into thinking they are tweeting to a real bird when all they really are doing is singing to themselves! Jesus is a real person, the center of life, the only lasting source of excitement and only place of refuge during the storms of life so don’t settle for a mirror of your-self, get to know the real Person of Jesus!
Vs. 18-19 Mysticism
The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is so “much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name..” Yet there still seems to be fascination with angels and getting info from them.
- Mysticism: Paul describes by including two characteristics of this “mysticism” as “false humility and the worship of angels”. At this time there was a popular teaching that was around that held that people could gain a special knowledge and enlightenment by placating angels and ascended masters and through continual obedience a person could attain a higher state of Oneness with God and even become God.
This type of mysticism has been repeated in Hinduism, Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation. Even Mormonism tells their followers, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man will be.” All of this is packaged in false humility as folks are sold that we are to stop seeing ourselves as self and instead start seeing ourselves as part of the universe. Paul goes on to say that there are two dangers with mysticism and both deal with losing:
- Vs.18 Lose reward: Paul tells us of the danger of going after this mysticism is that it will “cheat you of your reward.” It will keep you from experiencing “Christ in you the hope of glory”! It will rip you off of the true joy, excitement and peace that only come from a relationship with Jesus. We don’t need some person’s book or teaching on their encounter to tell us that God is real and that He loves us; we have His Word on it. We don’t need some person’s account of what happened to them to tell us that there is life after death. Jesus has already told us all we need to know about that. Paul tells us that such a pursuit in these things just “vainly puffs up our own fleshly mind”.
Vs. 19 Lose your head:
When a believer gets involved in mysticism they cut themselves off from their head, Jesus. When a person gets their head cut off all life ceases. Initially there will be frantic activity but soon life will cease and there will be no activity. Losing one’s heads also causes a person to lose contact with the other members of the body. They no longer are fed by what every part of the body is fed by and supported by.
Saints, listen to what Paul had to say about this in Galatians 1:8 where he wrote, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” So tell me again why I should believe what is written in the book called the Koran or the book of Mormon when both Mohamed and Joseph Smith claim a different gospel delivered to them by an angel? Cased closed!
Vs. 20-23 Legalism
Vs. 20-23 Paul gives us the perfect simple definition of legalism: Do not,…do not,…do not… Our faith is a moral faith with clear boundaries but its foundation is positive not negative. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.”
- Vs. 20-23 Legalism: Paul was no doubt countering a false belief system that insisted that the renunciation of worldly pleasures made it possible to achieve a higher spiritual and intellectual state. This type of false teaching is an over developed dedication and discipline that has led to extreme self-denial that the Bible doesn’t demand. When this happens people make a god out of their discipline and it has been seen in monasteries where they live a life devoid of any pleasure including communication with each other all because they believe that this is what God wants. There is three things wrong with this view:
- Wrong View: Everything is negative, don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t handle! Pleasing God is not in giving up things it is in giving yourself to God. Holiness is never achieved by self-effort, it is ours by dying to self all together! The legalist says, “Everything is wrong unless you can prove by the Bible that it is right.” But God’s word says, “Everything is right, unless the Bible specifically says it is wrong.”
- Temporary: Next Paul says in verse 22 that all this will parish with the using. In other words you start out motivated but 9 times out of 10 you go back to what you were denying because it was based upon self-effort and false teaching to start with. People may praise it and even try to emulate it but it is all temporary.
- No lasting change: Finally Paul says that this all just a façade, an appearance of wisdom but is just self-imposed religion, false humility and of no value against the indulgences of the flesh. If we try to regulate the externals instead of walking in the fullness and freshness of a life in Christ we will never be able to clean the dirt off our lives. The best way to clean a dirty vessel is to turn on the water and let it do all the work.
All three of these errors will only cause us to lose the only One that we truly need to achieve a higher spiritual plane, Jesus! Don’t make your life about a list of don’ts about the life of Christ!