Colossians 2:21-23 - Failure. Guaranteed...

"...[commands like,] 'You should not hold nor should you taste nor should you touch', which things are all unto corruption, according to the commandments and teachings of men, which is a word indeed having wisdom in self-made-religion and lowmindedness and unsparing of body, [but] not in any value toward satisfaction of the flesh."

-What we have here are some examples of man-made religion, man’s best attempts to be right in God’s eyes, and it is as old as the garden.  Recall that God told Adam to not EAT the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2.17).  But by the time Eve is attempting to clarify God’s command for the crafty serpent, it has been tweaked, to put it mildly.  Eve’s version includes an add-on prohibition - do not even touch the fruit (Genesis 3.3).  It is uncertain whether Adam added this at some point, or if perhaps Eve did it herself.  Most likely after being told not to eat the fruit Adam decided that it would be wise just to not even touch it.  Which sounds good in principle but the entire premise was then completely false.  Death would in fact NOT come by simply touching the fruit - certainly not physical death, and the serpent knew this.  Thus when Eve touched the fruit (Genesis 3.6) and did not die, her fatal conclusion that she could go on and eat the fruit with impunity proceeded straight out of that false premise.  And thus we came face-to-face with one of the fatal flaws of man-made religion - our best efforts to make ourselves right in God’s eyes are both misguided and doomed, destined to fail because the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall in the first place.

-Such was the journey of a devout young monk named Martin Luther, whose world was drowning in death and saddled with a corruption-riddled church.  He resorted to extreme measures of self-flagellation and fasting and floor-sleeping in a desperate-albeit-futile attempt to eradicate his sins and secure right-standing with God.  Eventually he discovered in Paul’s letter to the Romans the truth that justification and forgiveness of sins comes by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ - ‘the just will live by faith’ (Romans 1.17).  Man’s sincere attempts to attenuate and atone for his sins on his own are no doubt noble.  They appear to be wise for helping one to obey the commands of a holy God.  But the broader more salient point of those very commands is to show that we all fall short and are completely unable to save ourselves.  We all need a Savior Who will be our Perfect Substitute and Who will not only provide us with the forgiveness we so desperately need but will also give us the power every day to live a life that increasingly lives into what God wants and what truly pleases Him.  We are made right with God by grace through faith and we progress in righteousness by grace through faith.  We walk by faith.

-So then the question is, if these things, these ‘made-in-china-not-in-heaven’ commands are of no long-term value against indulging the flesh, what is?  Where do I find the path to victory?  How can I succeed in saying no to sin, in resisting temptation when it rears it’s ugly head?  Do-more-try-harder is a religious recipe for guaranteed failure.  The recipe for right living is not found in the cookbooks of man-made religion and self-help regimens.  As Paul will explain in the balance of this letter, success is found at the foot of the Cross, at the feet of Jesus, where the One Who successfully resisted every temptation the tempter could throw at Him boldly and finally declared, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ 

Colossians 2:20 - Beyond decomposition...

"If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why are you being decreed as living in [the] world?"  

-Humanity has some default wiring, some fallen elemental inclinations as it relates to matters of eternity and on how to progress towards whatever goal may be associated with that, a stupefying cocktail of conflicting attitudes and instincts, among them standard ingredients of self-preservation, self-determination, self-gratification, self-agrandizement, stirred together with splashes of placation towards whatever deity or deities I may perceive as having some impact on my fate.  But chief among them is self-effort, working my way towards whatever spiritual goal I am inclined to believe lies before me.  In the end it’s all about me and what I want and am able to do in order to further that which concerns me.  I am a self-aholic, it is my default position, and it is the default position of humanity.  I go there naturally from the womb as sparks fly upward, and when various sundry spiritual guides actually encourage me to go there, it is all too easy.

-But Paul objects.  He rhetorically asks, why are you living like this?  Why are you listening to and following these teachings?  Because in fact you are dead to this.  you died with Christ, and you are dead - to self, to the world of self, to the world itself and to the way it lives.  Paul just told us that we WERE dead in our sins and were made alive with Christ.  Now he says we died with Christ.  What he is doing is introducing yet another deep spiritual truth, as Paul will now mention being dead 3 times in the next 9 verses.  They say dead men tell no tales, but in truth dead people don’t do much of anything besides decompose.  They feel nothing, they hear nothing.  They are totally non-responsive.  The challenge becomes being dead when in fact you are still very much physically alive.  How does that actually work?  once again, we are talking not about a change in temporal reality but rather a new spiritual identity.  I have a new self which is no longer all about self.  I am no longer that same old person who defaulted to me-first at the drop of a hat, running home to mama in the guise of comfortable ol’ "I’m gonna do this all by myself".  It makes no sense whatsoever for a self-aholic to even take a sip of self-effort.  There is one way up, and it is not on the wings of self...

Colossians 2:19 - Hold on!

"...and not grasping the head, out of whom all the body through the joints and ligaments supplying and bringing together is increasing the increase of God."

-It’s not ultimately about what I eat or don’t eat, what I drink or don’t drink, or what kind of special rituals holidays or disciplines I may or may not observe.  What ultimately matters most in life, what really counts in matters of eternity is, how am I connecting with Jesus Christ.  Real spiritual progress and growth which is truly of God comes only as one holds fast to Christ, Who is the Head of the body of God’s people.  Just as the growth of a regular body all depends on the head, so as it relates to things pertaining to God, it all depends on Christ.  So again, do not pay attention or defer to anyone who is not ultimately pointing you to Jesus, helping you to follow and depend on Him.  The pastor in your pulpit, the spiritual guides in your life, the people who belong to your church - if these are not spurring you on towards Christ, you owe it to yourself to consider whether you may need to find a different place to belong and serve.  Leaving a church family ought to be the option of last resort, as injurious as that is to an already-way-too-factured church, but a so-called church or other spiritual ministry which is not pointing people towards Jesus is really not a place where the Gospel can do a whole lot of advancing, either in the lives of those who belong or in the lives of those they may or may not be seeking to reach.

-but to that point, the church is like a body.  Paul merely alludes to it here without going into much detail, but he regularly uses this metaphor of a body to describe the dynamic that plays out among the people of God.  There is the head - Jesus, and there is growth, which comes form God Himself, and then there is a Holy Spirit-forged connectedness which is analogous to the joints and ligaments of the human body (don’t miss the Trinity sighting here!).  Ligaments are what keep the bones and joints of the human body from being pulled apart by the forces exerted on them by the muscles as well as outside forces (unless of course and until they may be torn apart by some injurious impact).  Elsewhere Paul attributes the similar tight connectedness of those who follow Christ to the ongoing unifying work of the Holy Spirit, and he exhorts God’s people to do their level best to guard this oneness (Ephesians 4.1-3).  God Himself will bring the increase - all we need to do is come together in love and hold on...!

Colossians 2:18 - Beware of creature-focus...

"Let no one be cheating you, wanting in low-mindedness and worship of angels, stepping in [things] which he has seen, without cause being conceited by the mind of his flesh..." 

-Have you ever been cheated?  Someone took something from you, or kept you from winning something?  Someone gained a personal advantage at your expense?  If they cheated at some meaningless game, then perhaps you are upset for a brief moment.  But in more serious matters, in the game of life, in matters of eternity, there is far more at stake.  Cheaters/false teachers can both mislead someone away from trusting in Christ for salvation, and they can also mislead someone away from experiencing the full blessings of following Christ on a daily basis.

-Here the false teachers in Colossae were emphasizing things like the worship of angels - clearly misguided altho no doubt tempting were you to actually come face-to-face with one.  But think about it, why waste any time worshipping the messenger?  Who is greater, the messenger, or the One Who sent him?  And are not angels actually sent out to serve people (Hebrews 1.14)?  Why would someone of sound mind want to devote and prostrate himself to any creature in place of the Creator (cf Revelation 22.9)?  Angels themselves bow before His throne - there is no more blessed place or posture for us than right there beside them.  Only in HIS presence is found fulness of joy, only in HIS right hand are there pleasures forever.

-Those false teachers were also advocating what Paul refers to as low-mindedness, which can actually be a good thing as long as it is not the ultimate thing (cf James 4.10, 1Peter 5.6).  There is nothing wrong with engaging in things like fasting and other disciplines of self-denial - these things can be very effective in helping me focus on Christ, but in doing so my ultimate aim must still be to do just that, to focus more closely on Christ.  Low-mindedness is not the goal - Christ is.  When I stop short at low-mindedness, in the end I make it about me.  Because as it turns out, the more low-minded I make 'me', the more high-minded I become, about me.  I get way too full of me-myself-and-I, delighted and inflated about how good I am at self-denial, puffed up about how much God must surely be high on me because of how low I am.  Silly human.

Colossians 2:16-17 - Totally free. Well, almost...

"Therefore, do not be letting anyone be judging you in food and in drink or in respect of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath, which are [is] a shadow of the [ones] about to be, but the body [is] of Christ."

-Because of all these things Paul just mentioned which are true of Christ and of those who are in Christ:

    -He is fully God

    -We are totally complete and fulfilled in Him

    -He is the head of all authority

    -We were circumcised and made alive in Him

    -We were entirely forgiven in Him

    -He has triumphed over all authority and spiritual powers

...in light of these truths we are to not let anyone be acting as our judge or to condemn us for anything we may or may not be doing.  Not for what we are eating or drinking or for whether or not we celebrate a particular holiday or how/when we observe the sabbath.  We report to Christ and in Him we are free indeed from the dictates of man-made ritual and the like which have the appearance of good religion but which in reality accomplish very little in the way of real spiritual transformation.

-These things are a shadow.  They are not the body which causes the shadow.  They give you some idea of what the substance may look like, but they are not the real thing.  Sabbaths and festivals and food or abstaining from it - works as prescribed in the mosaic law and espoused by judaizers as well as other teachers and would-be spiritual guides - these at their best should serve to point us to Christ.  And if they do not, they are at best a waste of time.  

-Now, having said all that - while we are free from the binding constraints of man-made religion, and do not need to worry about someone else trying to judge us or condemn us for something we did or did not do or for some way we may be exercising our freedom in Christ, we are not free to engage in anything that might tear down a fellow believer, that cause our brother to stumble (Romans 14.13-21), and neither are we totally free to just indulge our flesh absent that which will show of the breathtaking goodness of God (1Corinthians 10.31).  But what we are free to do is to relax and enjoy being a child of God who will never be condemned or separated from His love for anything we do or say or think or otherwise fail to do.  And we are free to pursue and enjoy and celebrate God’s blazing breathtaking multicolored goodness in all its diverse magnificence each and every day.  Not to worry about what others think or say - focus on Christ, on loving Him and on what He wants.

Colossians 2:15 - Only One...

"...having disarmed the rulers and the authorities He made a show in public, having triumphed over them in Him." 

-This is the third mention of angels in this letter.  Some in Colossae had been persuaded (or were trying to persuade others) to worship angels.  Which by all accounts would be tempting based on how they are described whenever they appear in Scripture (over and over those who come face to face with them need to be told to not be afraid, so they must be amazing and terrifying to behold).  But as Paul has already reminded us, angels rank on par with us as created beings (Colossians 1.16), and Christ is head over them (Colossians 2.10).  

-Some suggest that Paul here is saying that whatever power and role that angels had as mediators between God and man has essentially been abrogated through Christ, that this is a relegation of the good angels who are now part of the parade of triumph with the rest of the servants of God which includes us and which is led by Christ Himself.

-Others insist that Paul is refering to the fallen evil spirits (as well as anyone else) who stood in opposition to God and His people and His purposes, that they have been defeated through Christ and no longer have any power or authority over those who are in Christ.

-Either way, we are left with only One to Whom we should listen and pay attention and give our obedience and worship, only One Who has the ultimate power and authority in the universe...

Colossians 2:14 - Real Gone

"...having wiped away the against-us handwriting to the dogmas which were against us, and it He has taken up out of the way having nailed it to the cross."

-What was actually nailed to the cross was a list of the crimes of which Jesus was accused and for which obstensibly He was executed.  And it was customary for such a list to be posted on behalf of the accused.  But Paul is saying that in this case, our own list of transgressions was nailed to the cross of Christ.  He paid the penalty for the crimes of which WE are guilty and for which we should fairly be held accountable.  The penalty for those things is death - we could have been on that cross.  And in a spiritual sense we were, such that now our list has actually been wiped away, completely erased and removed.  Expunged - there is no longer any record of it!  Our crimes, our transgressions, the sins which caused us to fall short of the glory of God and which separated us from Him have been paid for, expiated, and taken out of the way as far as the east is from the west.  This is THE Good News.  Our crimes, our guilt and the shame of it all - gone.  Real gone.  That thing you did yesterday?  Gone.  Those 'youthful indiscretions'?  Gone.  That season of waywardness?  Gone.  That dark secret which lurks in your past, haunting you, try as you might to suppress and forget it?  Gone.  It's gone too, never ever to resurface or come back on you in any way.  That thing you don't even know you're gonna do next week or next year?  It's gone too.  They're all gone, wiped out by a sacred tsunami, the pure precious blood of Christ, poured out over your sins and mine.  Do you believe this?  It IS hard to believe, but believe it we must.  There is no longer any record of our sins - in God's eyes we have done everything right!  We have been forever saved, and Jesus is our Savior!  There is no one else Who could have paid our death penalty - only this One in Whom was no sin or guilt whatsoever.

-But without taking anything away from this spiritual truth, let’s be completely clear about what was nailed to the cross.  Jesus was nailed to the cross.  His hands and feet were impaled with metal spikes, no escape, and He hung on that cross, for hours, suffocating, agonizing, bloodied and humiliated, tortured until He died.  It was Jesus.  He did that for you.  And He did that for me.  How can it be...

Colossians 2:13 - Fish out of water?

"...and you being dead by the transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive you together with Him, having graciously favored us all the transgressions."

-It’s very simple, yet so sublime: you were dead.  He made you alive. 

-On the surface tho, this statement doesn’t make sense because if you are reading it you are obviously alive and generally speaking dead people don’t come back to life.  Of course this death which paul describes is primarily a spiritual state, as he is clearly writing to living, breathing human beings.  Physical death typically comes long after one is born and is a long-standing symptom of spiritual death, which as much as anything is a separation.  That greater part of us which was designed to relate to our Creator is dead, shut off to Him, and we are born in that condition.  But on that point, not only is it problematic to try and explain to dead people that they are dead, but it is especially so when we are talking about something spiritual (i.e. generally unobservable), and when someone has been born into this state it is then all they understand.  A slave who was born a slave has no understanding of what it might be like to not be a slave.  And we are talking about human beings who have been slaves to sin and death their entire lives.  We are all born into that condition.  To take it one step further, death-to-life is not a natural process, particularly not in our broken/fallen universe, nor is it even humanly possible.  There is no natural source of knowledge or power for re-animation, spiritual or physical (or any real life animation for that matter - life out of nothing).  We’re not talking about resuscitation from apparent death, nor are we talking about the accumulation of amino acids in some primordeal soup.  Only God has the ability to do such a thing, to bring forth life where there is none, or to bring it back once it has left.  Life is a miracle, physical life being a gift which we take so for granted, spiritual life an even greater gift which we can barely comprehend and which in order to resurrect cost God His one and only Son.

-How did He accomplish this?  In this case by removing the instrument of your death.  You were dead because of the transgressions - you had broken God’s law in many and sundry ways.  And He graciously forgave every. Single. One.  In Christ.

-Now of course as infants we are technically incapable of transgression, not-yet-able to make choices, to say nothing of being capable of making moral choices to disobey our Creator.  Even so we are born separated from God in spirit, inheriting this spiritual death from our parents and their parents before them all the way back to the first parents, who first chose to transgress the one thing God had asked them not to do.  And then as we grow older, transgression manifests itself naturally as surely as fish are born to swim.  You do not need to teach a child to disobey, to lie and deceive and cheat and steal, to be impatient and unkind and angry and selfish.  We all come by this quite naturally.  And yet, this is not how man was designed originally.  The mould is defective and broken.  No, we were designed for something divine, for eternity, for paradise.  For undistracted, unhindered, free and open communion with our Creator, almighty God, the thrice-holy God of wonders, the One in Whose presence are pleasures forever.  Joy unspeakable.  Breathtaking goodness.  And now He has made this all attainable in Christ.

Colossians 2:12 - Sky's the limit!

"...having been buried with [Him} in the baptism, in Whom also you [all] were raised together with through the faith of the working of God, the [One] having raised Him out of [the] dead." 

-Paul now develops this metaphor of our body of flesh being circumcised, cut away and removed in Christ.  He says coincident with this spiritual circumcision we were buried with Christ and raised up together with Him.  Which obviously did not happen to any of us in real time in any physical sense.  But Paul connects it to baptism, which of course is a physical rite, a symbol of burying the old fleshy man and my old life (which was dead to God to begin with) in the water and then coming up out of the water being raised up to a totally new life.  And the question might be, is Paul talking about physical baptism subsequent to conversion or is he talking about a spiritual baptism which happens simultaneously at the time of conversion (1Corinthians 12.13)?  The spiritual baptism is largely devoid of the symbolism, and yet if he is refering to physical baptism, what of those believers who have not yet been baptised?  Has their body of flesh not yet been buried?  

-It is possible that Paul is making the assumption that every believer in Christ has been water baptized (cf Acts 2.41, 8.13, 8.36, 9.18, 10.44-48).  However in the end we do not tie any of the monumental spiritual changes which take place in the life of those who trust in Christ to any physical ritual.  Whatever work God does in the heart and life of a believer, includng this removal of the old and making all things new (2Corinthians 5.17), is as a result of that person putting their faith and trust in Christ, in the work God did in raising Christ up out of the dead.  That is the true miracle, the wonderful impossible which raises the ceiling as high as it needs to go - there is nothing now that needs to happen in my life that the God Who raised Jesus out of the dead cannot do.  Sky's the limit.  Cutting away my fleshy old nature, burying that in Christ, raising me up together with Him in newness of life with a new heart - this is not too difficult for Him. 

Colossians 2:11 - Filthy foreskinned pagans no more!

"...in Whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the putting away of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ..." 

-No need for priest or temple or religious ceremony here.  Again, everything we need in order to be accepted by God was accomplished in Christ, and is/was credited to us when we put our trust in Him.

-In this case, Paul mentions circumcision.  In order to be truly [accepted as] one of God’s people, Judaism taught that, among other things, one needed to be circumcised, a physical cutting away of the foreskin, a religious ritual performed by human hands (cf Genesis 17.10-14).  It was in fact a core component of the covenant God made with abraham and the nation which would issue forth from him.  Not only did it delineate the people who had been 'chosen by God', but over the years it developed into a source of religious pride for the Jews, conditioned as they were to equate circumcision with being clean in God's eyes.  All the other nations who were 'uncircumcised' came to be viewed as unclean, filthy foreskinned pagans who were to be avoided in any way possible (cf Acts 10.28, John 4.9).  However, circumcision could only be performed on males, and ultimately it did nothing to effect true spiritual change.  We find early on even among God's people that what is really needed is circumcision of the heart, a cutting away of the 'foreskin' of the heart which is otherwise diabolically devoted to self and sin (Deuteronomy 30.6).  Now, in Christ, and by His Spirit (no hands!) God essentially cuts away a person's entire body of sin (the word means to wholly take it away) - man, woman, child, Jew and Gentile and pagan alike.  In doing so God continues marking out who His people are, albeit not something which could be observed in strictly physical terms.  But all this now happens in and centers on Christ.

Colossians 2:10 - The Ultimate...

"...and you are in Him having been fulfilled, Who is the Head of all rule and authority." 

-See, what we are as Christians, as God’s people, is based and depends entirely on Christ.  In Him we are having been completely filled up.  Everything that we need in order to be accepted by God and to enjoy eternity with Him is found in Christ.  There is nothing and no one we need in life apart from Him, no other hidden knowledge, nothing I need to do or obtain.  There is nothing else which will satisfy or come close to filling the infinite abyss in my heart except for Him.  There is nothing we can do apart from Him.  But in Him, I can do all things, and I have more than enough, both now and forever.  He truly is all we need.

-But Paul adds here that Christ is the Head.  He is over all other sources of power, all other rulers, all those who would purport to lead and instruct and guide.  Whatever power or authority I might think I have or that others might have over me comes from Him.  He is ultimate.  It all comes from Him, and it all goes back to Him.  And if it does not, then something ain’t right, because it should.  Even if it does not, someday it will, it'll all be put right eventually.  But Christ is Head even where He is not acknowledged as such - there is no power given on earth or in heaven which He does not have, which does not ultimately come from Him.  Better by far to point to Him now, to bend my neck and bow my knee freely in this life than to be forced to do so when I stand before Him in eternity.  But those teachers of hidden knowledge in Colossae were not to be listened to if they did not point to Christ.  There is no one else we should ever ultimately look to outside of Christ.

Colossians 2:9 - Poached egg nonsense?

"...since in Him is dwelling all the fullness of deity bodily..."

-Standing in stark contrast to the empty traditions of men, vain philosophies which deceive and ultimately lead people away from a true knowledge of the Creator,  Christ is fully and really God, and thus He is the ultimate reality.  You can trust Him, you can commit your life to Him, you can base your life entirely upon Him.  He is the filter through which we can and should evaluate our lives - our choices, our relationships, our use of time, our values and priorities.  We owe our very existence to Him, and as we will see, we owe our entire salvation to Him.  

-The incarnation is one of those antinomies, those wonderful impossibles, a situation where two things must be true but which for all intensive purposes cannot simultaneously both be true.  There are others, core tenets of the Christian faith.  The trinity is one - God is both three and one.  Another is the wondrous intertwining truths of God’s sovereignty and the free will of man, a both-and.  And this - that the infinite fullness of almighty eternal God would somehow be confined to a finite human body which died.  That is precisely what Paul says here - in the person of Jesus Christ, all the fullness of deity (which is eternal and infinite and spirit, i.e. non-material) inhabits a finite physical body.  He is both fully God and fully man.  Infinite and finite.  Limitless, and yet He is confined.  Eternal and yet He did die.  Utter nonsense, this - incomprehensible and impossible to explain, it becomes foolishness in the fallen mind of man in all his supposed learning and acquired wisdom.  It is a sublime and impenetrable mystery, to be sure, and yet attempts to satisfactorily explain away the seeming contradiction have tended to result in heresy.  The arian focuses on a verse like John 14.28 and suggests that Christ was created, resulting in either a lesser god (essentially polytheism) or simply a man (called modalism or unitarianism - precisely where Jehovah's Witnesses land).  The docetic counters that Christ was purely God and that His body was a separate entity or perhaps only a kind of phantasm.  Yet Scripture again and again clearly presents both, and if the Word of God is true, then both must also be true.  Indeed, rather let God be found true though every man be found a liar.  CS Lewis perhaps puts it best:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Colossians 2:8 - Watch out!

"Be seeing someone is not the [one] leading you away as booty through the philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ."

-There are a lot of things about which the world and people will try to convince you.  There are a lot of values, priorities, opinions and beliefs which people hold that sound good and even make sense, but they leave no room for the eternal and worse, they leave out Christ.  Anything that puts man first and exalts the things of this world over Christ is likely a waste of time, chasing after the wind. 

-Remember there are three that oppose: the world, the flesh, and the devil.  All three stand in stubborn opposition to the truth and desires of God, and you will often find them doing their level best to lead God’s people astray.  The world, the people of the world, most of them have not yet bent the knee to the God Who made them, all too ready to embrace ideas and traditions which do not necessitate any kind of surrender of the will.  They are rebels still, desperate to get others to join with them in a futile attempt to assuage their guilty conscience.  They love wisdom, particularly when it comes wrapped in pretty, "tolerant" packaging.  Some are directly engaged in the spread of false teaching, twisting Scripture - anything that can somehow get others to join with them and make them feel better about themselves.  Others are merely devoted to causes which will perish, which have no ultimate bearing on eternity, but they try to get others to join in because they have convinced themselves that their cause is of utmost importance.  Some of these causes are legitimately important, to be sure, but none of them are ultimate apart from Christ.  Paul warns his readers to be vigilant, constantly on the lookout against anyone who might be emphasizing anything which would detract from the supremacy of Christ and from full-on white-hot devotion to Him.

-My own flesh is similarly predisposed to resist what God wants and is more than ready to be led down some primrose path, towards something the world values, towards something I’d rather do than what God wants me to do, something temporal and ultimately empty and which literally does next-to-nothing to populate heaven with ardent Christ-worshippers.  I carry that kernel of rebellion in my own body for as long as I live, until that day in heaven when I get a new glorified body.  Many times heaven itself seems only like some distant foggy concept, whereas the here-and-now world is so real, so tangible, so insistent, so much more tantalizing, more compelling.  Here, right now, do this.  Want this.  Care about this.  Devote yourself to this.  This is important - everybody is doing it.  This is true - everybody believes it.  Or seemingly so.  And I thus find myself caring about and believing things which have little or nothing to do with Christ and becoming more like Him.  I must be constantly vigilant to take every thought captive to the obedience and devotion of Christ (2Corinthians 10.5).

-And when it comes to matters of deceit, of captive minds and imprisoned souls, of lofty ideas rasied against the knowledge of God and of outright rebellion against Him, the devil is peerless, without equal.  A liar from the beginning, the original rebel, challenging the supremacy of God and trying desperately to take His place, he was cast down from heaven to rule the world (albeit temporarily) and is now literally hell-bent on holding prisoner as many people as possible, complicit in his rebellion against the primacy and purposes and plans of God (2Timothy 2.26).  Whether in the form of outright opposition against what God wants, against the things of God and His people, or in the guise of things which are morally neutral but which have the appearance of something good and important, the devil and his host of fallen angels are relentless in their scheming to lead people astray from pure and simple devotion to Christ (cf Luke 4.13, Ephesians 6.11, 1Peter 5.8, 2Corinthians 11.3).  We neglect (or deny) his efforts and very existence to the detriment of our souls and to that of the Church itself.  Watch out!  Christ first, Christ better, better than anything or anyone, first in my heart - led no one or no thing lead you astray from that!

Colossians 2:7 - The Amazonian River of Gratitude

"...having been rooted and being built up in Him and being confirmed to the faith just as you were taught, overflowing in thanksgiving." 

-'Being confirmed’ here is to cause something to be known as certain.  In this case, we are talking about the verification of these Colossians faith, that they have truly trusted in and are following Jesus.  The most direct sign of this will be overflowing thanksgiving.  Yes, the surest sign that a person is following Christ is a heart of gratitude.  When things are good, most assuredly, but also and particularly when things go wrong.  When things don’t happen the way I wanted.  Even when I don’t get my preference.  In persecution and hardship and illness and poverty - there is irrepressible joy and hope and peace which eclipse the human experience and defy any earthly explanation.  Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail are perfect illustrations of this (Act 16.22-25).  They had been publicly humiliated, severely beaten and unjustly imprisoned - and yet deep into the night, they were singing.  And no dirge, this - their hearts were full of praise to God.  Theirs was a contagion that spread thru the prison to the other prisoners, to the jailer and his entire family, throughout the city and the region and beyond, infectious gratitude flowing out of true faith.  Yes, thanksgiving overflowed out of their hearts, it was unnatural, unearthly, and it was uncontainable.   The heart of the redeemed is an amazonian river of gratitude, flowing wide and strong and washing over its banks with regularity.  Or should be...

Colossians 2:6 - 100% Faith, 100% Grace

"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, in Him be walking..." 

-The simple point here is that Paul wants these folks who have put their faith in Christ for their salvation to continue to do so for their sanctification.  Man cannot achieve salvation and forgiveness of sins on his own, it is something which is impossible apart from the grace and work of God.  He is similarly unable to effect any subsequent development of godliness or Christ-likeness on his own.  Every inch of spiritual progress towards heaven must gained by faith - trusting in Christ Jesus the Lord to do the heavy lifting.  It's all by faith, 100%.

-Now, at a deeper level it is possible to peel away and peer into some layers of what is involved in receiving Christ that also applies to continually walking with Him.  Yes, there is faith (Colossians 1.4).  And there is the Word of truth (Colossians 1.5) - saving faith comes through hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10.17), but there can be no good progress in walking after Christ without continued hearing of and trusting in God’s Word (we’ll see this addressed further in Colossians 2.20-23 and 3.16).  There is hope in heaven (Colossians 1.5) - a transfer and shifting of desires and expectations from the things of earth, the temporary goals and passing pleasures of this life, and setting them on the things of heaven, on the pleasures and goals of those things which will outstrip and outlast our brief sojourn on a broken planet.  There is also the understanding of grace (Colossians 1.6) - again, this realization that there is nothing I can do to earn favor with God or make progress towards any spiritual goal, neither as it relates to securing a place in eternity nor as it relates to experiencing and manifesting more of the eternal in this life.  Anything that comes to me of a divine spiritual nature is a undeserved gift from God.  All of it, 100%.  We are saved by grace through faith, and we continue in that same vein.  We walk with Christ each day, moment by moment, by grace through faith.  And as much as anything else there is also Lordship involved in both receiving and walking with Christ, a surrendering to Jesus as King and Lord and Master.  Ours is no mere easy-believism which takes hold of an offer of salvation without a transfer of life-ownership, without a shifting of goals and desires and focus, without a surrender of my wants and desires to those of my new Owner.  To have faith in Christ is to be owned by Him.  I have been set free, yes, but I have been bought with a price, with His precious blood, and I am no longer master of my domain.  I belong to Him, and I live for Him, this One Who died for me and rose again for me, each and every day, more and more as I walk by faith, get to know Him and increasingly hope in heaven.  I am free indeed, free to be a slave of Jesus Christ every day, and increasingly I live to do what He wants.

Colossians 2:5 - A heavenly phalanx

"For if even to the flesh i am absent, but rather to the spirit with you i am, rejoicing and seeing of you the order and the firmness of the faith unto Christ of you [all]." 

-Separation and distance are never ultimate deal breakers when it comes to blessing and encouraging others to know and follow Jesus, to help them keep going.  Words ascend to heaven in an instant, and on earth retain their potency even over great distances, especially with the advances in technology and the advent of social media in our wireless digital age.  What’s more, Christ-followers journey in the realm of the Spirit.  Space is transcend able.  Paul says he actually sees how these believers are doing, even though he has never been to Colossae.  In his spirit he is with them.  Thus we see that the words of the believer are loaded with potential even when one is not physically present.

-The words Paul uses here to describe their faith in Christ are used in military contexts.  Most likely the image he’s picturing is a phalanx, a military unit that is marching together, line upon line, precise, orderly, shields up and overlapping, a solid, impenetrable, indomitable force.  Our English translation here can conjure up notions of conservatively trying to maintain the status quo, of being on the defensive and not losing ground.  But the actual imagery is that of believers being on the offensive, of conquering the forces of darkness and taking spiritual ground in their lives and in those of neighbors and nations.  These believers faith and growth in Christ were inseparably linked to their connectedness and healthy functioning within an assembly of other Christ-followers.  It is important to note that the effectiveness of a phalanx is dependent on each and every member of the group.  God's people need one another, and need every member to pull their own weight, to carry out their God-given calling and ministry (cf Ephesans 4.16).  Even just a single gap in the line could adversely affect the effectiveness of the formation.  But apparently the believers in Colossae were doing well in this regard and for Paul this was a cause for rejoicing, even in the midst of his suffering.

Colossians 2:4 - Word up...

'This I am saying, in order that no one may be deceiving you in persuasive word."

-One typically does not wake up one day and suddenly embrace a lie or follow some pied piper down the primrose path.  Deceit tends to happen more slowly, gradually.  persuasion generally takes time.  But the lie as well as the argument are borne on the wings of words.  The Greek word logos appears three times in various forms in this verse.  It is the words to which we expose ourselves, the ones we hear, read, and begin to repeat that profoundly influence what we will one day believe (and then begin to do), and thus who we become.  Paul knew that our hearts and minds need a steady diet of truth, the truth about Jesus.  And so in this letter he is intent on giving his readers a massive dose.

-Let there be light.  I love you.  I hate you.  I forgive you.  You are special.  You are worthless.  I want you.  Chicken.  What, are you afraid?  You look fat.  You are ugly.  You are beautiful.  I’m sorry.  I do.  I am with you always.  I am for you.  Did God really say...?  Kill the infidels.  Love your enemies.  Love one another.  Please.  Thank you.  Yes, words are powerful things.  They can guide, heal, wound, deceive, build up, spur on,entice, cast doubt.  The gift of speech was given to man alone (apart from the angels) as the pinnacle of God’s creation, made in the image of this One Who USED WORDS to make the universe.  The words we say and to which we listen and pay attention profoundly influence how we feel and what we do and who we are and what we become.  As well as what we believe.

-Words.  Indeed, they are powerful.  Spoken words, written words.  For example, words of blessing from a dad can make a young man, and yet how many men have never heard their dad say ‘I love you’ or ‘I am proud of you’?  How many men today are walking wounded, carrying around daddy wounds that they received from wounded dads, shut down, silent and/or abusive, distant, disengaged, angry, hurting and hurting others.  The silence of Adam did more than allow Eve to eat the forbidden fruit - his sons continue the legacy and daily deprive those around them of words of life.  It does take more than words of course to make a difference, to wound someone, to encourage, to impart healing and forgiveness, but words are key.

-Paul knew this.  He knew the power of the logos.  And so even tho he was confined to using the written word, he knew the importance of the words he employed on behalf of these believers.  Words were being used to try and persuade these believers to believe something different about Jesus and about how to follow Him.  He understood that eternal consequences (Colossians 3.24-25) and the glory of God (Colossians 3.17) were at stake!  And he knew that words were the way to win the day - words of intercession spoken to God in prayer and words of truth and exhortation communicated in this letter.  In fact this is exactly what he will relate in the last two imperatives of this letter.  He will tell his readers to make the most of their words, to devote themselves to prayer (Colossians 4.2-4) and to make the most of their God-given oppportunities to influence others.  With their words (Colossians 4.5-6). 

Colossians 2:3 - THE Treasure above all treasures

"...in Whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 

-To be sure, all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus.  There is no hidden knowledge to be found outside of Him.  Those gnostics were wasting their time.  We can and should and must make it our goal to simply get to know Him, to follow Him, to pursue Him, to learn all we can about Him.  Because He IS the Treasure.  He is THE Treasure above all treasures.  He is God incarnate, fully God and yet fully man.  He died, and yet He lives forever at God’s right hand.  He was tempted like us, experienced brokenness and hardship like us, yet He never gave in and He never gave up.  During His time on earth He lived perfectly into what God wanted, and now while He is seated in heaven He also lives inside each one of those whose heart is fully His, recreating and manifesting His life - His love, His goodness, His holiness - in and through His people.  He changed history, and He changes hearts, redeeming our pasts, our presents, and our futures in order to show off His breathtaking goodness.  He made the universe, and He made each and every person, unique, special, marvelous and wonderful, beautiful and beloved.  To know Him, to come to trust and fear and love Him is the beginning of knowledge, the fountainhead of true wisdom.  He is Jesus, the Christ, God’s Messiah, and there is no better Name, no one else...

Colossians 2:2 - All we need is love. And Jesus.

"...in order that their hearts should be encouraged, having been brought together in love and unto all wealth of the full assurance of understanding, unto a full knowledge of the mystery of God, of Christ..." 

-So the goal, the desired outcome of Paul’s agonizing and praying is for believers to be encouraged.  The word is parakaleo, to comfort, console, encourage, urge on, implore, exhort.  The gist is that people are helped to follow through or keep going as a result of someone bringing this parakaleo to bear in their lives.  Paul wants to help these believers to keep going, for them to continue in the faith and to be following hard after Jesus wherever He leads for the rest of their lives (Acts 14.22, 16.40, 20.1-2, 1Thessalonians 2.11).  In fact, this is what Paul does - the consummate encourager (and of course he had a great teacher, cf Acts 4.36, 9.27).  Parakaleo appears over and over throughout his letters - he is constantly exhorting and encouraging people to keep going, doing whatever he can towards that end, laboring in prayer leading by example, and then he urges others to be doing the same (Ephesians 6.22, 1Thessalonians 3.2, 5.11). 

-Now, do you know what is fundamentally needed in order for people to keep going?  Love.  That’s what Paul says here.  And it is not Paul’s love for them, but rather the experience of God’s love in community - the amazing everlasting love of God that is found within and through the fellowship of God’s people.  God - no doubt by His Spirit - joins the hearts of His people together with the love that He has for them and gives them that same love for one another.  It’s the experience of this sacrificial giving love that helps them keep going no matter what form of opposition or hardship they might be enduring.

-The other thing that helps them keep going is growing in their understanding of Jesus.  These believers were actually being confronted with some of the teachings of gnosticism, a movement which claimed to pursue and to have found hidden knowledge about the mysterious things of God.  Paul’s letter is an attempt in part to counter this claim of hidden knowledge, and to affirm that the beginning and the end of the Christian life (and everything in between) is Jesus.  To be sure, God is a mystery to some, but He has shown Himself to the world through Jesus Christ, and reveals everything we need to know about Him through the Word of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, Who lives inside every true believer.  No hidden knowledge here, but buried treasure awaits, an inexhaustible supply of life-changing world-changing truth ready to be gleaned by those who make it their goal to know and understand Jesus.

"...to live is Christ... More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings..." -Paul in Philippians 1.21, 3.8-10

Colossians 2:1 - Blessed agony

"For I want you [all] to have known how great an agony I am having on behalf of you [all] and the [ones] in Laodicea and as many as have not seen my face in flesh..."

-Paul has never even met these believers.  Yet he is agonizing over them.  Every man complete in Christ - that is his stated purpose, the goal to which he is giving his all.  To that end he is fully aware that he can even make an eternal difference in the lives of those he doesn’t know through the multiplied impact of his disciples and especially through prayer (cf Colossians 4.12, Luke 22.44).  Yes, in person he was preaching and proclaiming in order to build people up towards perfection.  And of course Paul was gifted and called to do this.  But preaching has its limitations.  Paul was not physically in Colossae - he had never even been there.  But prayer knows no such limits - it has no boundaries.  Everyone can make a difference in the lives of others through prayer.  Remember that Paul says he has not ceased to be praying for these who he has never even met (Colossians 1.3, 1.9-11).  In studying this letter, it is not possible to overstate the primary place prayer has in Paul’s life and ministry (Colossians 4.2-3, 4.12).  HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU THINK PAUL SPENT IN PRAYER EACH DAY?  He who would serve Christ who has not learned to pray - to agonize in prayer - still has much to learn...

-’When you pray... Keep watching and praying... While He was praying (heaven was opened, He was transformed), they were continually devoting themselves to prayer, after they prayed the house was shaken, we will devote ourselves to prayer, pray at all times, in everything by prayer, praying always for you, we have not ceased to pray for you, devote yourselves to prayer, we night and day keep praying most earnestly, pray without ceasing, pray for us, we pray for you always, I urge that entreaties prayers petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, entreaties and prayers night and day, I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers, the energized prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer...’  HOW WOULD YOU SUMMARIZE THIS COLLECTION OF NEW TESTAMENT PHRASES?  WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT PRAYER FROM THEM?

-Prayer is a struggle, yes, but beyond prayer, the Gospel life itself is a kind of agony, a blessed agony, this (a bit like a marathon).  It is a struggle unending against self, against the forces of darkness, against a world bent on not bending its collective knees to its Maker.  It is a fight to be fought well, like the apostle Paul before us (1Timothy 6.12, 2Timothy 4.7).  It is a cause worthy of our every last breath, our last ounce of strength and then some.  Yet in spending ourselves in it’s cause, for Jesus’ sake, we actually find ourselves.  There is renewal, hope, incomprehensible peace and unspeakable joy...

Colossians 1:29 - Sustainable (and clean!) energy - for real!

"...unto which also I am toiling, striving according to His energy [which is] energizing in me in power."  

-And so we have a nice little biopic of Paul here, where he has mentioned himself fully 9 times in just 6 verses.  He says he is a servant.  Think, ‘waiter’ - he is pretty much focused on taking care of the needs of others, and it can be a tiresome, thankless task.  He is also suffering.  These go hand in hand, because he is suffering for the sake of Christ and His ‘body’ - these others who follow (or will follow) Him.  There is no hint of self-seeking here, no mention of what he is going to get out of it.  He is a steward, literally a house-manager whose chief role is to work to benefit the occupants of said house, in this case the ones who are following Christ, God’s chosen-people, those He has called out and separated unto Himself, those in whom dwells the living, hope-giving Christ of glory.  Paul is also a preacher/teacher/admonisher, a man with a mysterious marvelous message and a clear vision, a stated goal of presenting Christ to every man so that he can present every man to Christ.  And he is hard-working, which is actually an understatement, as he is working - literally agonizing - to (and past) the point of exhaustion in order to help people know and fully follow Christ. 

-A brief note about power.  The sad commentary on the modern western church with all our education and technology and strategies is that too often there is much knowledge and pomp but little power.  Not enough power apparently to save our marriages and be patient with our kids and say no to temptation and to move mountains and to be God’s martyrs to the ends of the earth.  God’s kingdom comes not in words but rather in power (1Corinthians 4.20)!  Jesus said we would receive power (Acts 1.8).  Paul prayed for us to know and experience this power (Ephesians 1.19, 3.16).  The unbelieving world doesn’t need to see me living a life almost identical to theirs save for the words I don’t say and what I do on Sunday mornings (or most of them at least).  Paul tells us that his ability to live into all that God has for him comes not from inside but from above, a limitless source of supernatural energy which energizes him with the very power of Almighty God, the same power that created and sustains a biliion trillion suns and which raised God’s Son from the dead.  This same power is now fully available to each and every person who trusts in Christ (Ephesians 3.20).  One must ask, what then is too difficult or impossible for those who believe?  The way I read it, the answer is... nothing.  All things are possible... (Mark 9.23, Matthew 17.40).  Nothing is too difficult for God.  You will never ever in a billion lifetimes find yourself in a situation where you will be able to affirm that, this is too difficult for God.  No.  This is not ever too difficult for God (Genesis 18.14, Jeremiah 32.17, 32.27).

-One could safely say Paul is fully committed to this work, to this cause, to these people and to all people, to his Savior, his Lord, his God.  But then even that would be a gross understatement, wouldn't it?  His attitude - inexpressible, irrepressible joy.  His perspective - doing it (suffering) all for Christ.  His mindset - the preeminent servant.  His sense of responsibility - sobered and focused.  The scope of his commitment - boundless.  It encompasses the entire world, every soul in it, and every ounce of divine power he can tap into.  He is all in for Christ Who has entrusted him with a glorious treasure, and he will give every last drop of blood and energy and every last breath to extend this treasure to the entire world.

Colossians 1:28 - Don't stop short

"...Who we ourselves are proclaiming, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we should present every man complete in Christ."  

-We proclaim Christ.  That’s it.  When all is said and done, He is our message, Paul says.  There are many good things to talk about.  Many good things to discuss with our friends or to address from the pulpit, but at the end of the day, there is only one crucial core component of our message - it is He.  In the words of Count Zinzendorf, “I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”  If we give the nations water and food and roofs over their heads and medicine and education and technology and jobs and justice and freedom from slavery and trafficking and yet fail to give them Jesus, we have sold them short and have stopped short on our mission.  We must give them Living Water, the Bread of Life, Messiah.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world - Christ alone is the Way and the Truth and the Life - no one comes to the Father except thru Him.

-To this end Paul is proclaiming and admonishing and teaching.  The first word means to declare, announce, make known publicly.  And it is tempting to avoid doing that with the name of Jesus, because talking about Him runs the risk of putting you in the crosshairs of disagreement and rejection.  The second means to put in mind, to exhort, to warn.  It is something you do for children (1Corinthians 4.14) and for those who are ‘unruly’ (1Thessalonians 5.14).  It is exerting influence upon the mind of another, implying that there is resistance.  It is redirecting a person from their wrong ways of thinking and doing, but the target of your words is their will and feelings.  They may know the truth, the right thing to do, the right way to go, but for some reason are unwilling or somehow unable to follow it.  The third word is teaching, which is directed at the intellect, developing and guiding and helping someone learn truth about Jesus.  This is what we (should) do - help people learn about Jesus such that we help them identify and overcome whatever barriers are keeping them from trusting in and following Him.

-And this Paul is doing with all wisdom.  Wisdom is skill with knowledge and the ability to apply it.  Paul not only knows truth about Jesus but is able to apply it in whatever context he may find himself, to the hearts and minds of his hearers.  It may sound arrogant to talk about having ‘all wisdom’ the way he does, but Scripture is clear that God does not hesitate to give wisdom generously to those who ask (James 1.5).  Look what He did for Solomon (1Kings 3.9-12, 4.29-30, 10.23).  How will He not also give us the very wisdom and discernment we need to be able to help others come to believe in His Son?  

-Complete in Christ - something which has reached its desired destination and having been completed successfully is by extension perfect.  This is the end game.  This is the goal.  Our job is not done until they are fully (and perfectly) following Christ with faith that does not fizzle before the finish (cf James 1.4, Hebrews 6.1, Philippians 3.12).  Look further down and you will see what Paul has in mind - his job is never finished this side of heaven, as long as there is some possibility of someone coming up short of the grace of God.  His goal is to see people not only professing Christ as well as baptized, but also loving one another and living a life characterized by discipline, stable faith, walking and growing in their knowledge in Him, overflowing with gratitude, not deceived by false teaching in any way.  There are actually two kinds of complete - Paul says later that all believers are already having been made complete in Christ (Colossians 2.10, cf Hebrews 10.14, Philippians 3.15) - this second different kind of complete speaks to a positional perfection which accompanies salvation and which while true will nonetheless never be fully realized this side of heaven.  And in this sense, the scope and vision driving Paul forward is both - to see each and every person not only profess saving faith in Christ which will render them complete and perfect in eternity but also to see them growing in their faith in this life, in their knowledge of Christ and love for Him and in the consistency and completeness and maturity of their faith.

-And finally, every man.  Every man.  Every man.  He says it three times - this was indeed the broad scope of Paul’s vision and calling.  And while the word anthropos is usually rendered as ‘man’, it of course encompasses each and every person on planet earth.  Each and every man, woman and child into whom God has breathed the breath of life is someone for whom Christ died and who needs to know Him, who desperately needs to hear this message which Paul was proclaiming.  we all need Jesus, He is our only hope of glory.

Colossians 1:26-27 - The glorious mystery...

’...the mystery having been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now it was manifested to His holy ones...to whom God wanted to make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery in the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ 

-Something new and wonderful, something glorious has now been revealed for all to see, a marvelous mystery that was hidden for ages.  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Who?  Two who’s (and a what) actually.  We’re talking about Jesus Christ.  Messiah.  Savior.  Lord.  Almighty God, Creator and sovereign King of the universe.  And you.  You and I, any and all who trust in and follow Him in every nation, not just the Jewish nation.  We’re talking about this Christ actually IN you, living inside you, in the hearts and lives of people from every nation and people on planet earth.  The mystery was twofold actually, first that God Himself planned to make Himself permanently at home in the hearts of finite (and fallen) human beings, and second that He would do so among every nation, that He would gather and assemble to and for Himself (for His Son) a new assembly, a throng of worshippers from every tribe and tongue.  This was the new covenant, the new arrangement, not simply with the nation of Israel, but now among all nations, the ultimate blessing issuing forth from the seed of Abraham.  And for those thus indwelt, there is a new and living hope, one made sure and steadfast by the death and resurrection of Christ and by the constant indwelling presence of His Spirit.  Day in and day out, each moment of every day, the Spirit of Christ assures and reassures the hearts of His people that they are forgiven and fully right in God’s eyes (not thru their own efforts to obtain or maintain it but rather thru the finished work of Christ), definitely destined for glory, a confident expectation that this journey on which they have embarked, with all its peaks and valleys, is the guaranteed path to paradise, and one day soon they will be in glory, forever in the presence of Breathtaking Goodness.  It is a bonafide living hope, neither false nor dead.  Life is no longer ever hopeless for those who are in Christ.

-This was indeed a mystery, a new revelation to God's first chosen people, not to mention the rest of the world, because prior to Pentecost God's home was either in heaven, somewhere away up there out of sight and definitely nowhere close to people, or else within the holy of holies, the inner sanctum of the sacred temple/tabernacle, off limits to all but a few, accessible at first only by Moses and then once a year by the one person who had been specifically set apart as high priest and specially prepared to enter within the veil.  This idea that the infinite and infinitely holy almighty God would now actually deign to make His home in a heart of flesh, to squeeze Himself into my finite fallen mess would be way out of left field for anyone who had even the slightest notion of Who is the great I AM, completely unexpected.  And truly glorious.

Colossians 1:25 - Meet Paul, the waiter...

’...of which I myself came to be a servant according to the stewardship of God having been given to me unto you [all] to fill up the Word of God...”  

-Paul is a servant.  Think ‘waiter’ - his was to take care of the needs of others, many of whom would take him for granted, all too ready to criticize (that's how fallen selfish people roll with servants).  It was in many ways humbling, dirty, thankless work, low pay and long hours, work to which very few would aspire and which few others would even consider.  Yes, God had (hard) work for Paul to do, He trusted Paul with it, calling him to labor on behalf of others, to do what needed to be done in order to help others truly follow Jesus.  This is the same calling that Jesus had, Who came not to be served but to serve (Luke 22.27, Matthew 20.28), and it is the exact same calling He gives to each of His people (Luke 22.26, Galatians 5.13, 1Peter 4.10).  He has work that He wants to entrust to each one of those who follow Christ.  There is every likelihood that this work will be thankless and dirty, and will be something that a lot of other people don’t want to do.  It will probably be quite tiring and may seem 'beneath you'.  And there will be critics, folks who are hard to please.  But in embracing this service, this stewardship, each of us, we find wings.  Not some humdrum day job, some mundane monotony, this.  No, you and I, like Paul and countless other heroes of faith who have finished the race before us, we were made for this. 

-For his part, Paul was specifically made for ‘filling up the Word of God’.  His was to verbally teach and preach and otherwise get the Word of God into the lives of others.  Get it out there and let it do what it do, this Word which always succeeds in accomplishing what God wants (Isaiah 55.11), which is living and active and more powerful than any weapon known to man (Hebrews 4.12), able to break through the hardest of hearts and heal the most broken of lives (1Thessalonians 2.13).

Colossians 1:24 - Joy AND suffering? Yes!

"Now I am rejoicing in the sufferings on behalf of you [all] and I am filling up the lackings of afflictions of Christ in my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the assembly..."  

-Paul is suffering, yet he is rejoicing.  Really, who does that?  Well, as it turns out, Jesus says WE should do that.  Those who follow Christ can and should be rejoicing in suffering, because the hatred and suffering and persecution He promises for those who follow Him (Matthew 10.22, John 15.18-20) are signs that one is truly saved, assurances of future glory (cf Matthew 5.10-11, Romans 8.17-18).  The early church actually considered it an honor when they were persecuted for following Jesus (Acts 5.41, Philippians 1.29).  The same should be true for the modern day church.

-And how can it be that the afflictions of Christ are somehow lacking?  With regard to what Jesus needed to suffer in order to accomplish our salvation, He clearly did say, ‘It is finished’, and yet Paul is talking about what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.  Truth be told, the Body of Christ grows best and strongest through times of suffering.  It is carried on the backs of martyrs.  Jesus Himself said it, ‘You will be My martyrs to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1.8).  The Good News is carried and the Church is built by those who daily die to self and pick up their cross, who are willing to do whatever Jesus asks them to do and whatever it takes for the sake of the Kingdom.  Following Christ, and more importantly helping others to follow Him, is rarely easy or convenient.  It almost always means going out of my way, out of my comfort zone, almost always inconvenient, unnatural, counter-culture, swimming against the current and at times into overt opposition.  It involves suffering - yes, inconvenience and possibly worse, even dying, most assuredly dying to self every day - for Jesus.  And to the extent that this suffering is what is necessary in order for the Body of Christ to grow and for the Gospel to advance among my neighbors and the nations, then it is fair to say that by extension Christ thru His Body is still suffering. Paul for his part did have a particular calling which specifically included suffering for the sake of Christ (Acts 9.16).  He is not only suffering for Christ, he is suffering for Christ’s people.  As it turns out, he is glad to experience affliction for the sake of the assembly of God’s people, as he explains in the following verses...

Colossians 1:23 - The IF clause

"...IF indeed you are remaining upon the faith having been settled and not being moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, the [one] having been proclaimed in all creation the [one] under the heaven, of which I, Paul, came to be a servant." 

-So it turns out that everybody does not make it into heaven.  No universalism in play here.  There is in fact an ‘if’ clause, a condition on which the prospect of standing before God does hinge.  One must show evidence of true faith in the Good News of Jesus which does not fizzle before the finish.  To not do so would in fact show that said faith was faulty from the first (cf Hebrews 3.6, 6.11). 

-True faith and repentance is something which endures, persevering through persecution and hardship because it is a completely transforming soul rebirth worked into a person’s heart by God Himself.  He is the One Who begins the good work of salvation and Who carries it through to completion (Philippians 1.6).  It is not merely a state of mind that is subject to prevailing opinion or whimsy and which can be abandoned at some misopportune moment.  What you will observe in the life of one who is truly destined to one day stand faultless before their Maker is hope, steadfast hope in Jesus (Romans 15.12, 2Corinthians 1.10, Colossians 1.27, 1Thessalonians 1.3, 1Timothy 1.1, 1John 3.3) which endures and which is an anchor to the soul.  You will not see despair rise up and take hold in spite of life’s hardships (cf Psalm 42.5), nor will you see Jesus replaced as the source of hope (Galatians 5.5).  Ours is good hope (2Thessalonians 2.16), living hope (1Peter 1.3), abiding hope (1Corinthians 13.13), abounding hope (Romans 15.13).

-Hope is desiring something good to happen, expecting and believing that something good is going to happen.   The something good in this case is eternal life and the prospect of being right with our Maker and being able to stand in His presence without fault or shame or guilt, having done everything right (knowing that nothing short of perfection will suffice).  And there is indeed no hope of this apart from Christ, because nobody has any hope of expunging the morass of moral and spiritual imperfections which pervade their life, to say nothing of trying to atone for the accumulated mountain of guilt for transgressions already committed.  nobody has any hope of removing or of somehow reversing the curse which has been placed on the sons and daughters of Adam.  No amount of good works or religious rituals will ever be able to make me right with God.  But to the one who has hope in the Good News, who is continuing steadfast in the expectation that their sins have been completely covered, washed white and forgotten forever through the blood of Jesus - theirs is indeed a living and abiding hope complete with a seal of assurance from God Himself!

Colossians 1:22 - The way we ARE.

"...but now He reconciled [you] in the body of His flesh through the death to present you holy and spotless and blameless before Him." 

-The way we ARE.  Whether Paul is thinking strictly of a present condition or a future time when we stand face-to-face before the King of the universe, we are now and forever finally in good standing with our Maker.  Only those things which in fact are holy without spot or blemish are able to stand in His presence.

-That which made this possible, this complete change of spiritual condition and status, was the physical death of Jesus, our Savior.  A perfect, spotless, unblemished sacrificial passover Lamb (Exodus 12.5, 1Peter 1.19).  His death, the precious blood He shed on the cross, saved us and rescued us from the place of being on hostile terms with God.  There is a catch, however...

Colossians 1:21 - The Way. We. Were.

"...and you once being having been alienated and hostile in mind in evil works...’

-Oh, what a wretched state, this.  The way.  We.  Were.  Enemies of God.  Separated from Him in just about every way, but most importantly in our mind and in our deeds.  Our deeds were evil - they were dangerous, destructive, and the exact opposite of what God wanted us to do.  And we were born that way, completely unable to save ourselves or rectify the situation, unable to not do evil, unable to secure peace with God in any way, and doomed to pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the Lord.  

-This is the life lived apart from God.  He is out of mind completely, or He is rebelled against directly, or at best we try to mollify Him with filthy rags.  Man's instinct is to do his best on his own to make his way through life apart from God and achieve whatever peace he might feel is needed with his Maker on his own terms in his own strength.  At his best in this fallen state he tries to pursue altruism and kindness as virtues.  At his worst he is capable of the utmost selfishness and horrific cruelty.  But even at his best he is separated from God, his best efforts being inconsistent and falling terribly short of the perfection of God.  This state continues for every person until such a time as we come to the end of ourselves, the end of our rebellion and our efforts to live apart from God.  For these Colossian believers, this is who they once were.  But God...

Colossians 1:20 - Lasting peace at last

"...and through Him to reconcile the all things unto Him, having made peace through the blood of His cross, [through Him] whether the [things] upon the earth or the [things] in the heavens." 

-The Father was well-pleased to accomplish another thing through Jesus: make peace.  Reconciliation, to exchange back, a strengthened form of changing the relation of hostile parties into a relation of peace.  The hostility could be mutual or just one-sided.  Paul says that all things in heaven and earth are included in this, which could mean that all things must have needed to be reconciled, or perhaps peace was made only for all the things that needed to be reconciled.  But it makes the most sense to connect the ‘all things’ being reconciled to the ‘all things’ of the preceeding verses, all the things which were made and which are held together by Jesus.  Which means that at some level, to some degree God has worked (and is still working) out some kind of universal reconciliation between all He has made and Himself, and not just for the church (cf Acts 3.21).  This implies a universal hostility or separation (mentioned in Romans 8.21).  Restoration would, however, seem to contradict verses like Isaiah 65.17 and 2Peter 3.13 and Revelation 21.1-5 where it looks like the current (old) heavens/earth are going to be replaced rather than redeemed, but perhaps we are talking about a kind of restoration where the old things are replaced with new things of exactly the same type but instead these are no longer corrupted?  That would be consistent with what we are already told about those who believe in Christ (Romans 6.4, Galatians 6.15, 2Corinthians 5.17).  To be sure, a universal reconciliation should not be construed to mean a universal salvation, nor a kind of already-completed restoration, inasmuch as Scripture clearly does not teach universalism, and we can clearly see that even the redeemed in Christ are not yet fully free from the effects of the fall.  But peace - real, lasting, soul-satisfying peace - at last is on its way, and in fact is already making its appearance in the lives of those who do follow Christ.

-Specifically, it is the blood of the cross, that which Jesus shed, which secured peace with God.  Indeed, there is no other way to find peace with God.  Note that this actually was the essence of Jesus’ prayer in the garden on the night He was betrayed, repeatedly entreating His Father that if there was any other way to make peace that He might be spared the passion, that ordeal which loomed before Him.  But there was and is no other way to true peace - nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Colossians 1:19 - Only God

"...since in Him He was well-pleased all the fullness to dwell..."

-Paul has been talking about two divine supernatural acts: the making of all things, and the redeeming of all things, and the Son accomplished both.  He is the Architect of Creation and the Architect of salvation.  So now Paul restates the truth that inasmuch as He was fully responsible for both, Jesus Christ is fully God.  He is first and is before and over all things because He both made and sustains all things, which is the sole prerogative of Deity.  Only God has the requisite power and creative intellect to make the universe.  Only God can create something out of nothing, or in this case everything out of nothing.  Only God is able to hold everything together.  Only God is the true Strong Force, and God the Father was indeed well pleased to share all this power and authority and wisdom with His only begotten Son, and that from all eternity - yes, even in the Incarnation (wonder of wonders) - as there has never been nor will there ever be a time when Jesus is less than fully God.  And let us be perfectly clear about this - Jesus Himself said the very same thing about Himself.  He made it perfectly clear to His Jewish audience that He understood Himself to be God (John 8.56-59, 10.30-33).  I love this quote from C.S. Lewis:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

-In the end, ours is not to try and completely understand or explain it.  Ours is to accept it, embrace it, and fall on our knees in worship.  Praise the Father, and praise the Son...

Colossians 1:18 - Jesus. First.

"...and He Himself is the Head of the body, the assembly, Who is beginning, firstborn out of the dead, in order that He should come to be in all things Himself having first place..."  

-In no uncertain terms, Christ is first in every way as it relates to both God's creation and His people. He should and will have first place in all things and in every heart.  He specifically is the beginning, the author of the Church, this new or ultimate version of the people of God Who He is gathering to Himself out of every nation and tribe on planet earth.  Jesus is the First of many brothers and sisters, those who are part of God’s forever family through faith in Christ, those who in fact have put Him first in their hearts.

-All of history, particularly since the resurrection, has been the unfolding of this process of Christ coming to have first place in all hearts and in all things.  Yes, in these final days we see increasing desperation on the part of the ones who persist in their rebellion against the One Who created them. but make no mistake, He will be first.  The reason this has not yet been fully consummated is the mercy and grace of God, Who does not want any to perish and is giving all everywhere last chances to freely bow their knee to Jesus in receiving forgiveness and eternal life before they are otherwise forced to do so in judgment.

-So the question is, how can I get in step with what God is doing and be a part of this process? What are some ways that I can put Jesus first today? In what areas of my life have I NOT been putting Him first, where do I NEED to put Him first? And how can I help others learn to put Jesus first in their hearts and lives?

Colossians 1:17 - The "Strong Force"

"...and He Himself is before all things, and the all things in Him has been put together..." 

-Some suggest that ‘before’ refers to time, but that could more properly be phrased as ‘He WAS before all things,’ imperfect (or aorist) tense, as in He was existing before anything else.  Jesus actually did employ the present tense in referring to His pre-existence in John 8.58.  ‘Before’ can also refer to His rank, that He is first in all respects.  This is the place He should have in our hearts and lives - He should come before anything or anyone.  To be sure, one day every knee will bow before Him and every tongue will confess before Him that He is in fact God Almighty, that He does come before them (cf Philippians 2.9, 3.21).  To say then that ‘He is before all things’ can fairly capture the idea that He always was, always is, and always will be first, both in the ever-present now that exists outside of our finite time, as well as in the created order of things.  He stands outside and above and comes before all things, even if temporarily we do not yet see that to fully be the case (cf Hebrews 2.8, 1Corinthians 15.25-28, 1Peter 3.22).

-’All things’ (plural) ‘has been put together’ (singular) - perfect tense, meaning a completed action in the past with continuing results in the present.  All things in the universe, everything that there is, was put together in the beginning when Christ created all things, and they were put together in a way that continues to this day.  From the simplest particles and molecules to the most amazing creatures and cosmic wonders, all matter was created out of nothing and assembled such that it is still being held together as we speak.  Science tells us that the electric forces inside of protons are more than strong enough to cause every atomic nucleus in the universe to fly apart.  But it turns out that there is another stronger force that holds these nuclei together.  Brilliant minds have named it the ‘strong force’, and it is described as the strongest force in the universe.  The strong force is hypothesized in terms of unseen particles called quarks and gluons, but whatever mechanism is used, Paul states it quite clearly here, reminding us that in fact this strongest force in the universe originates in God Himself.  In Him all of this stuff that might otherwise fly apart has been put together and continues to be held together to this day.  Hebrews 1.3 says something quite similar - He upholds all things by the Word of His power.  This is Jesus, by the way.  He is Almighty Creator God, co-equal with God the Father.  We do indeed owe both our origin and our ongoing existence to Him, and He is deserving of nothing less than our highest devotion.

Colossians 1:16 - The Prime Direct-or

"...since in Him were created the all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - the all things through Him and unto Him have been created."  

-All things, even the highest things, the most powerful beings we might ever encounter, they were all created by Christ - through Him and for Him (John 1.3).  This of course is something that would only be said of God Almighty Himself (1Chronicles 29.14, Ecclesiastes 11.5, Isaiah 44.24, Ephesians 3.9, Revelation 4.11) - a clear statement of deity of Christ, this.  All things exist, have come into existence for Him, to increase the knowledge and celebration of His glory, His breathtaking goodness (cf Romans 11.36-37, Psalm 8.6, 1Corinthians 8.6).  Thus to the extent that any thing is not serving this ultimate purpose of showing off the goodness of this One Who made them, they are in violation of their purpose, this great prime directive.  He is the great Prime Director.

-This created-status and accompanying purpose extend to the greatest, most powerful people and beings in all the universe.  Kings and rulers, angels and demons, nations and empires - both those which are seen as well as those which are not - the mightiest ones anywhere throughout heaven and earth have been created by Christ Himself.  They exist for Him and get their power and authority from Him (cf John 19.11, Romans 13.1, Daniel 2.36).  How great the tragedy then when those who have been given much fail to revere or serve or honor or even acknowledge Him (cf Luke 12.48).  Peter puts it right - honor and submit to the king, but fear God, and that includes the king (1Peter 2.17).  This was the lesson which King Nebuchadnezzar needed to learn (Daniel 3.28-29) and relearn (Daniel 4.28-32).  And this is the One Who is the image of the invisible God, in Whom we have forgiveness of sins and in Whom everything and everyone was made - He ranks first.  May He be blessed forever.