Colossians, It’s All About Christ#2: Christ, My Treasure
Walk With Him – Colossians 2:4-8
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Safety in the Savior
Paul’s warning and admonition to the church, some were trying to beguile them with enticing words. He tells them to remember, that he is with them in spirit, joying in their order and steadfastness. He tells them that their protection against the false teachers was this, “As you have received Christ so walk in him. Rooted and built up in him.” They had been established in their faith in Christ and in that faith, they were taught, now remain faithful and abound with thanksgiving.
The words Paul uses are reminiscent of military campaign. The members of the church must be on guard for anyone trying to take them captive, like spoils or booty after a city falls and is looted. He is telling them to be on guard for these who are like an invading army trying to take them captive, to make them marks of conquest in the war of deceit that is raging against them.
Paul’s admonition to the Colossians was not to be smarter than the deceivers, or more cunning. His instructions had nothing to say about intellectual power or some hidden wisdom. No, Paul said to repel these raiders, to hold the walls of the church against these invaders do this, “Walk in Christ.”
Walk in Him, conduct your life in the power and companionship of Jesus Christ. And Paul goes on and says this is what you must understand, Walk in him as you have received him. They were saved by receiving Jesus Christ, the person, not a philosophy. This is what the must remember. Let me rephrase that, This is Who they must remember.
They are to be rooted in Him, they are to be built up in Him. The Gnostic were using the promise of some esoteric knowledge to capture the minds of believers but Paul is saying that kind of knowledge is just a vain deceit, it is Christ you must know.
Stay Close to Christ
Paul’s warning to the Colossians is even more real today. Gnosticism is alive and well in our world, under a hundred different labels. Believers are being taking like the spoils of war, in churches everywhere. Good people are being robbed of a closer relationship with Christ by preachers, charlatan, egoists and others even more deceived than themselves. They use enticing, beautiful words, empty deceit and false philosophies to make people believe there is something more than just knowing Christ. Something more than just walking in Him. If they would just listen these people will give them the hidden knowledge they lack.
Paul lists these weapons that would be used to take captives from the love of Christ; philosophy, vain deceit, the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world all these he points out are not about Christ.
Philosophy and vain deceit: This what the Gnostics were offering, philosophy, it literally means a love of wisdom, but it is empty and deceitful because it is loving a false wisdom instead of loving the true Christ.
We are surrounded by such attacks today. We have humanism, evolution, Christian cults, hedonism, the occult, at many others all of which try to take us captive by telling us they know a better way.
Here is what they all have in common, they are all is centered on man or one man’s philosophy and not on Christ.
Guard against the tradition of men, Paul warns.
These are things like legalism, works for salvation. These are the teachers who replace a close, walking, talking relationship with Jesus and instead replace him with rites and rituals, statutes and statues and repetitive prayers and repeated practices.
We can even see this in our own church if we are vigilant and on guard. If we are not careful, we can become so comfortable with our own traditions, rites and practices that they replace our walk with the Lord. I have to constantly ask myself, “Am I more in love with the things of God than with God Himself?”
The rudiments of the World: Here is the greatest danger, it is the world itself.
The things which draw me most effectively away from Christ are the rudiments of the world around me. The world tells me I need things, so I skip church and make work a priority. The world tells me what music is best, how to look my best, how to talk and think the best. Under the influence of the world, I don’t plan for what I desire to do serving Christ and preparing for the next world but what can I do to serve my needs and to make things better for myself in this world. Oh sure, Christ can come along for the ride, but I am firmly in the driver’s seat.
The attacks of the enemy against our relationship with Christ are effective because they don’t sound like attacks, they sound like invitations from a friend.
To forsake Christ for the world is to leave a treasure for a trifle ... eternity for a moment, reality for a shadow. - William Jenkyn
James the brother of Jesus is more direct. He says in James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
This world and all its philosophies and pursuits are nothing compared to trusting, knowing and walking with Jesus.
