old testamentColossians 2:8-19. So far in this letter Paul has greeted the church, the believers in Jesus, in Colosse with encouraging words about their good reputation; their strong trust in Jesus and their love for other believers. It also seems like has has been trying to assure them about the good foundation they have in Jesus. Using words that he doesn’t generally use he has been informing them about who Jesus is (100% God in a human form) and what Jesus has done for them (died in their place to make things right with God). The words he has been using seem to be the words that certain opponents have been using in Colosse to try and get the Colossians to substitute something else for their faith in Jesus, or at least add to it. We have seen a lot of talk about knowledge, and mysteries, light, darkness, other powers or authorities (than God’s), and wisdom. Certainly Paul has used all or some of theses words in other places but there is a real concentration in this letter that points us to the problem he was dealing with. Paul also spent some time establishing his “credential”. He had never personally met most of the believers in Colosse but he was very connected to them, he cared a great deal about them. He also had been a good servant of Jesus in general and had suffered a great deal for it.

In today’s reading Paul starts to get more specific about the problem and the solution. Paul usually would give a little “theology” lesson in his letters before he would talk about how he hoped his readers would change their action. He does the same thing here. Remember he had complimented the Colossians about their live for others and their trust in Jesus. In verse 8 he says, Be careful. Specifically they need to be careful about philosophy (the word means the “love of wisdom”) and empty tricks or lies. This philosophy and these empty lies are based on human traditions that come from the elementary principles of the world. World here is referring to the ideas and systems of mankind, we see this by the contrast with the “ideas of Christ” at the end of the verse.

The words “elementary principles” translate one word in the Greek language. The word means the first of a series of things that are all lined up and follow the first thing. It comes from a word that talks about soldiers lining up in a row and marching. You might think of the way human logic tends to work. We start with an idea and them march through a series of reasons that lead to a conclusion. The problem with human reason is that it is imperfect and doesn’t have all the facts. But we love to think we are so smart and in control. Human traditions are often the same types of conclusions that other have come to before us. According to Paul this sort of system had lead them to a completely empty way to live for God, it was a lie that some were trying to get the Colossian believers to follow. According to Paul the place to start, the place to look for real wisdom, is Jesus.

In verses 9-15 Paul brings up some specific things about Jesus that relate specifically to the false teaching that the Colossians were facing. Although Paul has mentioned this before he starts out by reminding the Colossians that Jesus is 100% God in a human form in verse 9.

In verse 10 the Colossians are then told that in Jesus they are complete. Jesus has supplied them with all they need and made them all they need to be. This doesn’t mean that they were perfect in their actions, if they were Paul wouldn’t need to be talking to them. What he wanted them to know is that as far as being a part of God’s forever family it was a done deal for them. He also reminds them that Jesus is the “top dog” in the universe. The mention of rule and authority reminds us of Ephesians 6:12 where the same two words are used to describe evil spirit beings, demons. It could also refer to regular angles too since all angles, good and bad, seem to have some sort of power and authority. Later in today’s we will see that angels have a part in the problem.

In verses 11-14 Paul shows us that the false teachers were coming from a Jewish point of view. Circumcision was a physical act used to identify Jewish men as part of the Jewish community, it was a mark of identification. Paul uses the idea of circumcision to describe how the Colossian believers now were a part of a new community, Jesus’ community, the family of God. This mark of identification wasn’t a physical mark (like a tattoo) it was a spiritual mark mad without hands. The mark that believes have is that we have had the “body of flesh removed”. Wow what does that mean? Although flesh cam mean a physical body in the New Testament it often refers to attitudes and actions that come from our human nature and reason; or even the human nature itself. In time and space it shows up in the “philosophy and empty lies” mentioned above. It is our old way of living, on our own without God.

In verse 12 we see that we have been “buried with Jesus in baptism.” The word baptize means “to dip”. The word was used in the Greek world for the action of dying fabric by immersing it in dye. In the ancient world people would sometimes identify with a certain group by being baptized by a leader of the group and proclaiming their allegiance to the group. You can see that in the beginning of the book of John where John the Baptizer was baptizing people at a river. So the point of baptism is like the point of circumcision it identifies you with something. Jesus told his followers to go into the whole world and make followers for him. The process was to baptize them (and remember it involved their decision to be a part of the movement or group) and teach them to follow all that Jesus had taught.

Remember that the way to be a part of God’s forever family is to accept that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins (disobedience and rebellion toward God). His death was our ticket to eternity with God. Just as Jesus body was buried (a sure symbol of his death) our old way of living is “buried” too when we identify with Jesus by being baptized. But wait there’s more!   We don’t leave a baptized person underwater forever they get to come out of the water. Jesus in the same way came out of the grave physically alive (but in many ways different). His resurrection (the Greek word means “to stand among” like “stand among us alive again”) proves that he is who he says he is (God) by showing his power over physical death. Because he is God, has all the power, and is trustworthy we can be sure we will not only eventually be resurrected too, physically, but that we also have new life, a new relationship with God.   We also see our part in all of this is verse 12, we need to accept the truth of what Jesus has done and apply it to our personal lives.

Verse 13 keeps explaining all of this, if there is any misunderstanding, we were dead in our “transgressions” (the word means to “fall aside”, maybe like falling off of a cliff, or “trespass”. It’s a good picture of disobeying God). The idea of death in the Bible is the idea of separation. Physical death is separation of our soul or spirit from our body. Clearly the people Paul was writing to were not physically dead (thought we are all headed that way). He is talking about spiritual death here, our separation from God. Paul also links our separation from God with our “flesh”. Remember that the “flesh” was talking about our rebellious nature. He calls it “uncircumcised” meaning it hasn’t been given to Jesus. So before any of us had even thought about God he though about us and Jesus allowed himself to be sacrificed on a Roman cross so we had the possibility to be made alive together with him. He made it possible for our disobedient and rebellious actions (sins) to be forgiven. It may seem a kind of round about way to say all of this but remember the Colossians were being tempted to have a “deeper” relationship with God by following Old Testament rituals and more. So Paul is making sure he brings those ideas up and shows that they are unnecessary and inferior because of Jesus. For the false teachers who wanted the Colossians to identify with the Jewish system and actually be “circumcised” he said no need Jesus has circumcised you in the most important way in your inner being and you are a part of God’s family; you are saved.

In verse 15 Paul brings up another thing that was a big deal to the Jews, the Law. We are talking about the Law that God gave to Moses for the Israelites or Jews to live by. He doesn’t use the word “Law” in the verse because the “Law “ has two sides to it. The Law helps us understand God, it shows us what sorts of things he approves of and what sorts of things he disapproves of, what he likes and dislikes; it is a “revelation” of God, it reveals him to us (Romans 3:20; 7:7). The down side of the law though is that it shows us that we have failed and deserve to be punished (Romans 3:30 with Romans 6:23; see also Galatians 3:10).

In verse 15 Paul is focusing on this second part of the Law. The words Paul uses are kind of interesting. Different translations use different word but in Greek there are two words the first is “handwritten” and the second is “ordinances” or “codes”. The first word was used to describe a document written personally that promised to pay a debt, we call that an IOU. The second word deals with a system of rules, like the Old Testament Law. What Paul wants us to see here is that we are in debt because of the Law. Romans 6:23 tells us that the “wages of sin is death”; what we owe is to be separated from God forever. Jesus canceled the debt by paying it for us. In Jeus time when the Roman government would execute a person the charges against them were nailed onto the cross above their head, the paper described the “debt” they were paying by dying on that cross. In this picture the debt was ours and Jesus paid it.

In verse 15 Paul uses the terms “rulers and authorities” again. Although we might think he is talking about the Roman government he is talking about angles again. It is important to remember that “sin” all started when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God in the Garden of Eden. Satan is the leader of the evil angles (demons). According to James demons are aware of what is going on with God at least partially (James 2:19). When Jesus died on the cross it would not be hard to imagine that the Satan thought he had won. When a person was crucified they were usually stripped naked as a way of disgracing them. According to the verse Jesus “disgraced” the demons as he hung there on the cross. The reason is it was just what he needed to do to set us all free. I guess the demons should have read all the IOU’s nailed to that cross (of course they weren’t really nailed there Paul was using an idea).

So Paul shows that Jesus is superior to the two big parts of the Jewish system. We can become a part of God’s forever family without circumcision, we are identified with God’s family by accepting the death of Jesus on our behalf. One very public way to do this is through baptism. But baptism also identifies us with the new life available to us through Jesus. We don’t have to follow the Law to try to get into Heaven, that only leaves us guilty, in debt and on the outside. Now we are free from our old nature and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, able to learn from the Law how to please God.

Verses 16-17 use these truths about Jesus to help the Colossians overcome the specific temptations from the false teachers. In verse 16 we see that they are being told what they can eat or drink (the Old Testament had a lot of rules about food and the Jewish leaders over time added a lot more). Also the Law had many special days on which the Jewish people were to remember certain things about God. Over time the Jewish people came to see these as ways to reach God rather than ways to remember him. In verse 16 the Colossians were told not to let anyone “judge them” in relationship” to these rules. Who Jesus is and what he has done release us from the rules that the false teachers were trying to enforce. In verse 17 Paul tells us that those Old Testament things were just shadows, they gave the world an idea of what was coming but Jesus was the real deal.

In verses 18 we are told that they were being told to treat themselves harshly. Many religions use things like fasting and other actions that punish our bodies as ways to get closer to God. The mention of angles here might be that they were being tempted to treat angles like lesser gods and honor them. In the Bible we see that some angles (the ones who didn’t follow Satan) actually spend time honoring God.   There is some evidence that the Essene group of Jewish people actually thought that angels were better at worshipping and honoring God than humans are and wanted to be more like those angles. They would do things like fasting to connect with angles and their way of honoring God. Verse 18 tells us that if we follow that sort of teaching that we are cheating ourselves out of the real prize of the new relationship with God that Jesus has given us.

In the end of verse 18 Paul returns to the idea of “flesh” (remember that that represents our disobedient human nature). These ideas about beating ourselves up for God and trying to be more like angles comes from our minds not God’s reality. In order to stay in touch with what is real we need to stay connected to the head (Jesus is the head, Colossians 1:18; 2:20). If we do that we will have a healthy spiritual life from God.

The Jewish system was a temporary system to show the world the situation between us and God (see “The Old Testament Connection”). It was never intended to solve the “sin” problem. Only god could do that by becoming one of us and taking our place. Jesus was that God-man and he did just that. We are not supposed to let ourselves be sucked into that or any other religion no mater where it comes from. Jesus is our savior and he also is our help. When we identify with him and what he has done for us we become a part of God’s forever family and Jesus helps us learn how to honor God each day from now till eternity. Don’t be fooled by counterfeits, even good ones. Stay get and stay connected to Jesus.

Jesus thank you for dying for me. Thank you for being my “head” and taking control of my life. Let me live for you each day as you direct and not let other tell me what you want. Of course help me always listen to you through your word. And let me never mislead others.

Colossians 2:1-7 In yesterday’s reading Paul gave his credentials to the believers at Colosse; he showed them the proof that they should listen to him. His proof consisted of the cost of his message and the content of it. He was telling them about Jesus and it cost him a lot to do it, he was constantly struggling.

In today’s reading Paul continues to talk about struggling but it is a different kind of struggle. As we saw in 2 Corinthians yesterday Paul suffered all kinds of trials as he traveled around the Mediterranean world telling people about Jesus; shipwrecks, beating, living on the road. The struggle here is more practical or emotional. In verse 1 he tells them it is hard because they have not personally seen his face. He also brings in a sister church from their valley, the one in Laodicea. If I wanted to care for someone I hadn’t met I would want to know about them; I might say the relationship was hard because I had never seen their face but here Paul reverses it. It was hard for him because they didn’t know him personally. It was a struggle for him to come into their lives in such a strong way when they had no real relationship. “Who was he anyway?” So Paul was being carful to share his heart with them and to show them that he had authority from Jesus and to keep the message about Jesus. In verse 2 he shows that the struggle is about the relationship he had, or didn’t have, with them when he says he wants their hearts to be encouraged. In verse 2 he recognizes that the believers in the valley have started to connect emotionally (hearts knit together in love) and he doesn’t want to destroy that, in fact he wants their connection to grow. The end of verse 2 tells us what it is that has brought these people together and how they can become even more of a group. It has to do with Jesus. Paul wants them to have all the riches that come from knowing and fully understanding what had been a mystery, the story (or history) of Jesus.

Paul probably uses the word “mystery” in verse 2 because the people in the area that were trying to make the Colossians believe other ideas about God and Heaven and eternity were using ideas about hidden or mysterious truth that they said the Colossians needed to know. Paul is saying, “Yep there was a mystery but now there isn’t, it was all about Jesus.” That is also why he keeps talking about having a “complete knowledge”; more of their scare tactics. In verse 3 Paul uses more of the opponents’ ideas when he talks about wisdom and knowledge. The opponents must have seen wisdom and knowledge as real treasure and Paul informs the Colossians that they are but only the wisdom and knowledge that are part of Jesus’ story. Real riches are found in who Jesus is and what he has done for us. The real wisdom and treasure is when we accept Jesus as our savior and have our relationship with God renewed.

In verse 4 we see that Paul is dealing with the false teaching and temptations of the opponents when he tells his readers that he is writing this stuff so that they will not be mislead. He doesn’t want them to be tricked by these smooth talking false teachers.

In verse 5 Paul stops to commend the Colossians (and Laodiceans?) for their “good discipline and stable faith”. The first idea is one of order. The Greek word is “taxis” (no not the car you pay to take you somewhere). We have an English word “taxonomy” that comes from it. Taxonomy is the system scientist use to group living things together; the Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order-Family-Genus-Species thing. Evidently the Colossians were pretty careful when it came to checking out what they believed.

The second idea was that they had fortified their faith. Probably because they were careful to check out what they believed their trust in it had become stronger. Some people see faith as a weak belief in things that have no support; they talk about “blind faith”. Christains’ faith is in Jesus and what he has done and will do. Jesus is an historic figure and his words and actions are part of history. The can be checked out historically and in fact Paul was on trial before King Agrippa, a Roman official. As Paul described the event that led up to his life he worked his way back to the death and resurrection of Jesus. At that point another Roman official present, Porcius Festus, told Paul he was crazy, at which point Paul said to Festus, “I’m not out of my mind I am speaking the truth. The King (Agrippa) knows all about this, It didn’t happen in a corner.” (Acts 26:24-25)

Paul tells them in verse 6 to keep up the good work, the have a strong foundation and need to keep growing.   He links the growth with instruction, learning, and the facts that they have learned have been about Jesus. They need to keep learning the facts about Jesus and stay away from speculation (more on this tomorrow). At the beginning of verse 5 he told them that he was with them, not in body but in spirit, and was glad about their strong faith. At the end of verse 7 he tells them to keep being “thankful”. In Colossians 1:4-5 Paul linked their faith with the “hope” they had in Jesus; hope in an eternal future with God. The thankfulness they had was probably for the hope they had of a future with God. Paul wanted them to keep believing in that and to stay thankful.

It’s interesting that today’s reading starts with Paul struggling and ends with him telling the Colossians to “overflow with gratitude”. We need to keep in mind what it is we should be thankful for: The mystery that was hidden for ages was that God would become a man and deal with the penalty of our sins. That would unlock the door to Heaven and provide a way for each of us to have a new relationship with God (see Colossians 1:26, 28). We need to be thankful for the “salvation” we have in Jesus. We will struggle in this life, especially if we want to life lives that make God happy, but we can be thankful that one day the struggle will end and we will enjoy rest with God for eternity (see Matthew 11:28, 25:21-30). It seems that part of the key to this is trust or faith. Remember our faith is not blind but is based on facts in time and space. Paul told the Colossians to “walk” in Jesus in the same way they “received” him, that was in faith. We need to take the facts about God and Jesus and apply them to our lives every day and then in faith and trust act on what we have figured out. And we need to be careful about he way we figure it all out, not willie nillie but in an orderly way (remember the “taxis”). Keeping Jesus in focus and being careful to use the word of God (the Bible, Colossians 1:25) will help us stay on the right track until the day we reach Heaven.

God help me be careful with your word. Let me not be led astray by the smooth words of the people around me. Let me stay thankful for what you have done for me even when life is full of trouble. Let me be willing to live for you and honor you even if it brings trouble into my life. Help me be faithful in teaching others about you. Let those people be careful to check out my teaching to make sure I haven’t become one of the false teachers. Let theses posts be helpful to others in having an orderly secure faith in who Jesus is and what he has done.