Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

• Colossians 2:1-23

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Colossians 2:1 ‘great conflict’: “The word means ‘striving’ and comes from the same root as in 1:29. Both the Colossians and Laodiceans were among those for whom Paul struggled so hard in order to bring them to maturity. Laodicea. The chief city of Phrygia in the Roman province of Asia, located just S of Hierapolis in the Lycus River valley (… see note on Rev. 3:14; cf. 4:13).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 2:2-3 ‘continued mysteries of Christ’: ”There are even more depths to the mystery of Christ.  Not only is He the source of energy, He is also the source of understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. In chapter 2, Paul continues his exploration into the mysteries of Christ.“

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 2:4 ‘lest anyone should deceive you’: “Paul did not want the Colossians to be deceived by the persuasive rhetoric of the false teachers which assaulted the person of Christ. That is why throughout chaps. 1, 2 he stressed Christ’s deity, and His sufficiency both to save believers and bring them to spiritual maturity.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 2:6-7 ‘we have what is needed’: ”If Jesus lives in us, then we already have what it takes to live in this life. We don’t need any more power than we already possess. We don’t need more of Jesus; He just needs more of us. Now that we have the power, our job is to live by that power on a daily basis.“

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 2:6 ‘You have received Christ.’: “Whatever else you have done or have not done, you have received Christ. The act of faith was the putting out of your empty hands to receive all the fullness of the Godhead in receiving Christ. There are some precious experiences to which you have not yet attained, some lofty heights to which you have not yet climbed, but you ‘have received Christ Jesus as Lord.’ That is the distinguishing mark of all true Christians. Though you may not all belong to the same denomination, yet without a single exception this is true concerning you. Whether you are old or young, whether you are well instructed or ill taught, whether you are full of faith or are troubled with many doubts and fears, you ‘have received Christ Jesus as Lord.’”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Colossians 2:7 ‘Challenge’: “With a happy disregard for consistency of metaphor the apostle Paul exhorts us to look to our sources. ‘Rooted and grounded in love’ (Ephesians 3:17), he says in what is obviously a confusion of figure; and again he urges his readers to be ‘rooted and built up in him’ (Colossians 2:7), which envisages the Christian both as a tree to be well rooted and as a temple to rise on a solid foundation.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous

Colossians 2:8 ‘The source of power is God’: “What robs us of a spirit of thankfulness? Primarily, it’s the idea that power comes from human knowledge.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 2:9 ‘Jesus, Creator, Author of Life, comes as a child’: “Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man. Midwifed by a carpenter.  Bathed by a peasant girl.  The maker of the world with a bellybutton.  The author of the Torah being taught the Torah.
“Heaven’s human. And because he was, we are left with scratch-your-head, double-blink, what’s-wrong-with-this-picture? moments like these:
“A cripple sponsoring the town dance. A sack lunch satisfying five thousand tummies. What do we do with such moments? What do we do with such a person? We applaud men for doing good things, We enshrine God for doing great things. But when a man does God things? One thing is tertain, we can’t ignore him. “

• Max Lucado, Next Door Savior

Colossians 2:10 ‘complete in him’: “… cf. John 1:16; Eph. 1:3. Believers are complete in Christ, both positionally by the imputed perfect righteousness of Christ (see … 1:22), and the complete sufficiency of all heavenly resources for spiritual maturity (see … 2 Pet. 1:3, 4). the head of all principality and power. Jesus Christ is the creator and ruler of the universe and all its spiritual beings (see … 1:16), not a lesser being emanating from God as the Colossian errorists maintained…”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 2:13-14 ‘What is finished?’: “Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for us. Sinful human beings are simply unable to stand blameless before a holy and just God-our own merits fall short all the time-and so God sent His Son to stand in for us. And in that one act of love we were assured of our salvation-our eternal place in the presence of God. It was finished on the cross that day for you and for me-through Jesus Christ, the same man who walked the countryside for three years sharing, touching, eating with sinners, healing the sick, and calling disciples and others to the side of God.
“He hung on the cross for you and for me. No more sacrifices are needed-His death on the cross was all that it took.
“It is finished.  And a new life is just beginning.”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 15 April)

Colossians 2:15 ‘no shame in the cross’: “To the eyes of reason, the cross is the center of sorrow and the lowest depth of shame as Jesus dies an evildoer’s death. How different, however, is the view that presents itself to the eyes of faith. Faith knows no shame in the cross. It sees no ground for scorn; but it hurls indignant scorn at sin, the enemy that pierced the Lord. Faith regards the cross not as the emblem of shame but as the token of glory It tells us that the cross was Jesus Christ’s field of triumph. There he fought and there he conquered, too.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Colossians 2:16-17 ‘The Blessing of Things to Come’: “ The church at Colossae was familiar with the Jewish festivals and feasts and the foods proscribed for such occasions. The Pharisees also had legalistic restrictions on food and on ceremonies that forced people to bathe a certain way and to ceremonially wash their hands before eating (Mark 7:1-23). However, under the law, there were dietary regulations that the Jews had to abide by (Leviticus 11; Acts 10:14). As well, many Jews also kept the feasts of the new moon (Numbers 10:10) and the Sabbath, which was part of the old Mosaic law covenant (Exodus 20:8-11; 31:12-18). Christians, however, should remember the work of spiritual creation by gathering in the local church on Sunday, the day on which Christ rose from the dead (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2)’ (Gromacki, Stand Perfect in Wisdom, p. 186).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Colossians 2:18 ‘the greatest source of false power – our own pride’: ”You see, you can wear an outfit made of burlap and be filled with lust. You can beat your body black and blue and still be guilty of lascivious thinking. These outwardly legalistic and ascetic trappings provide no check to the indulgence of the flesh. Therefore, they do not generate any power to lead the kind of life to which we have been called to live.
“Finally, Paul mentions a third source of false power-one of the most deceptive sources of all.“

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Colossians 2:20 ‘died with Christ’: “Refers to the believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection (see … Rom. 6:1–11) by which he has been transformed to new life from all worldly folly. basic principles. See note on v.8. These are the same as ‘the commandments and doctrines of men’ (v. 22).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Colossians 2:23 ‘false source of power’: ”What is this false source of power? It is known by many names: unrestrained zeal, legalism, religious extremism, judgmentalism, and pharisaism. This false source of power manifests itself in the keeping of days, special feasts, as well as regulations and ascetic practices-flogging the body, wearing special garments, or laboring long hours out of zeal for a cause. Such practices may look like sources of spiritual power, but, says the apostle, they are not.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

My Thoughts

Paul continues his discussion of his labor for the church that was started at the end of Colossians 1.  He mentions that this letter is also to be presented to the church at Laodicea.  He urges them to remain disciplined in a firm faith in Christ.  They are to continue to live their lives in Christ.  The focus in these charges is to do everything “in Christ.”  For without Him, we can do nothing.

We must be rooted in Him.  Once rooted, we can be built up in Him.  With all the scholarly quotes about power and strength, what Paul says about strength here is in thankfulness.  We should acknowledge where our strength comes from.  It comes from God.  Without it, we have no strength.  I have heard countless people talk about how they are grateful to God because they are a person of great strength.  But then, they rely on their own strength.

I think that may be where Paul is going with the next paragraph.  We should not be made captive by deceptive philosophy.  Anything that takes away from Christ and the cross at the center is deceptive.  This could be said about gaining strength and then pressing on with our strength.

We are circumcised in Christ (whether physically or not), baptized in Christ, and our sins are nailed to the cross.  Along with those sins are legal indebtedness and guilt.

We have indeed been set free.  The religious rules of the age are a mere shadow of what is to come.

Then he speaks of people who worship angels.  An angel of the Lord, noted by many accounts in the Old Testament, would not allow the people to worship them.  The permission to worship, to many theologians, is a sign of a Christophany.  The angel is just a messenger, and an angel would not take the focus away from Jesus Christ.  But a third of the angels fell with Satan.  They would want nothing better than to take the focus away from God.

And Paul ends this chapter with the rules of the present age to not eat, drink, or touch this or that.  Those are laws made by man, and we are set free by God.  We should remain free and focus our worship and energy on Jesus Christ.  Through Him we get our strength and not from any other source.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Colossians 1:1-14 Thanksgiving and Prayer 1. How does your intercessory prayer compare with Paul’s: (a) In intensity? (b) In thankfulness? (c) In clarity? (d) In faithfulness?
“2. How is the fruit of faith, love, and hope growing in your life: Developing well? Suffering from drought? Destroyed by the last storm? Budding? How will you help this ‘crop’ develop?
Colossians 1:16-2:5 Paul’s Labor for the church 1. Is Paul’s stated purpose (1:28; 2:2) a reality in your life? Or are you still some­ where along the way? How far along the way are you?
“2. What ‘fine sounding arguments’ hinder you in following Jesus? How does Paul’s argument speak to your concerns?
“3. How has finding Christ been like uncovering buried treasure for you?”
Colossians 2:6-23 Spiritual Fullness in Christ and Freedom from Rules 1. When have you felt like the ‘roots’ of your faith in Christ were barely below the surface? What helps you to sink those roots deeper?
“2. What additions to the faith have you encountered from people who try to encourage you to be ‘more spiritual’?
“3. What convinced you that trying to live up to religious rules couldn’t change you on the in­ side? In what area do you want to apply Paul’s solution this week?

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Colossians 1 is divided into two sets of questions as shown, and with one set of questions covering the last verses of Colossians 1 and the first five verses of Colossians 2.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.