Paul’s warning, “Beware lest any man spoil you (carry you off as a captive, as spoil). How will they spoil you? Though worldly philosophy and vain deceit.

In Paul’s time all thoughts and theories about God, the cosmos, the meaning of life was philosophy. He warns them against man’s theories instead of God’s truth.

He also warns them against vain deceit - the empty lies of this world..

All the world’s philosophies and lies go back to the lies told to Adam and Eve in Paradise. Lies planted like deadly weeds by Satan, the god of this world.

In John 8, Jesus in talking to the Pharisees who were slandering him as a liar said this in John 8:40 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

Here are the lies that are the foundation for all the lies and false wisdom of all the ages. All the lies Satan uses to deceive are based on these first lies in …

Genesis 3:5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Lie 1. You will not die. Don’t think about dying. This lie is deceiving by telling us not to be concerned about death and dying. Deny death, and you deny judgment, heaven, hell and eternity that come after death.

Lie 2. Satan said, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened,” Satan was intimating that God hadn’t Adam and Eve everything.  If you disobey God in this one small thing, it would be worth it to gain that knowledge, feel that experience that God was denying them.

Lie 3. “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil." Satan is saying, "Ddon’t settle for living in God’s paradise, be your own god and make your own paradise." Decide for yourself what is good and what is evil.

 These are the lies, the false philosophies of the world, that deceive by telling you they will bring fulfillment, joy, and wonderful experiences but the truth is they are as deadly to us as the fruit Eve plucked from the tree.  

Be Safe In Christ

Paul says the safe shelter to the world’s bombardment of lies is in Jesus. Colossians 2:9-12 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

Let’s list what Paul says about Jesus and our completeness in Him

First: In Him is Completeness “in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  In Jesus was all of God. For he was God in the flesh, very God of Very God.  

Second: In Him, We are complete. Satan lied to Eve and said, there is more than what God is telling you. Gnosticism was lying to the Colossians saying there is something else, something better. The world is lying to us and saying we are missing something if we listen to His truth. But God’s Word says “We are complete, lacking, needing nor desiring nothing else but Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Third, In Him, We are Circumcised (marked as belonging to God) Old Testament circumcision changed a portion of the body, but New Testament circumcision changes every part of us. Jewish circumcision marked the body identifying the people of God,  but New Covenant circumcision, marks our soul identifying as belonging to God. Physical circumcision was no help in living defeating sin, but spiritual circumcision gives us victory over sin. We need nothing else.

Fourth, In Him, We are Alive. Our salvation means that we are also spiritually placed in Christ. His death, burial and resurrection is our death, burial and resurrection. Paul said, in Romans 6:3-4 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Can the world offer us anything better than Christ? Can it offer us anything comparable to being a child of God? Can it give us a better hope than the hope of eternity? Can it give us greater power than the power over sin, death and hell?