Colossians 2:1-7
What would you do if you saw another person under attack by an aggressor that could potentially harm the individual? Obviously, one of the first things you might do is call for help and then you would probably get involved yourself in aiding in the rescue of the person in danger.
On a spiritual level, that is exactly what the Colossian letter is about as their pastor (Epaphras), the one that also planted the church in the city, goes to visit the Apostle Paul. He is seeking help from the Apostle, his mentor in turning back the spiritual attack that is being waged against the people he leads. False teachers were trying to create theological controversy and confusion by undermining the very foundations of their faith in order to convert them to their own heretical beliefs. They proposed that they alone had “special,” “hidden” insight that could only be attained through them. In the process they diminished the person of Christ and His redemptive work. Thankfully, Epaphras recognized what was happening and acted quickly to confront the errorists, part of which involved enlisting the respected Apostle’s response in defense of the faith.
After opening the book with strong affirmations about the person of Christ, His power, and His work as mankind’s Redeemer, Paul digresses from his polemic against the errorists’ doctrine to give some personal instructions about how to fortify yourselves against attacks on your faith. (You could actually continue Paul’s theological argument that momentarily pauses at 1:23 and pick it up again at 2:6.) In Paul’s typical fashion, he multiplies words in order to drive home his point…”riches,” “full assurance,” “understanding,” “knowledge,” “wisdom,” etc.
From these words and others that he uses in this text, we learn four key necessities for standing strong when you are under any kind of spiritual attack.
First, we need...
1. Spiritual encouragement (discussed in the first message)
Then we must be connected to a...
2. Loving Community (also discussed in the first message)
He adds to these that there must also be what we’ll call...
3. Informed Conviction
In these loving communities where spiritual encouragement is found a person can reach his/her deepest understanding of the person of Christ and His truth. It’s in this environment that an informed conviction about “the faith” arises and becomes a stabilizing force/foundation in a world that is constantly shifting and rife with spiritual warfare.
Scholar F.F. Bruce is right when he says, “Paul emphasizes that the revelation of God cannot be properly known apart from the cultivation of brotherly love within the Christian community.” (Simpson, E. K., & Bruce, F. F. (1957). The Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians (p. 223). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
Paraphrasing Paul’s thought...when spiritual encouragement is provided in the loving context of the Christian community, “full assurance” (informed conviction) is able to develop in our lives.
The Greek word (πληροφορέομαι; πληροφορία, ας) translated “full assurance” literally means, “to be completely certain of the truth of something—‘to be absolutely sure, to be certain, complete certainty.’” (Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains. New York: United Bible Societies.)
“Full assurance,” or “conviction” (πληροφορία), is a word belonging to St. Luke and St. Paul (with the Epistle to the Hebrews) in the New Testament (not found in classical Greek), and denotes radically ‘a bringing to full measure or maturity.’ Combined with ‘understanding,’ it denotes the ripe, intelligent persuasion of one who enters into the whole wealth of the ‘truth as it is in Jesus’ (comp. ch. 4:12, R.V.; also Rom. 4:21 and 14:5, for corresponding verb). In this inward ‘assurance,’ as in a fortress, the Colossians were to entrench themselves against the attacks of error (ch. 1:9; 3:15, and notes: ch. 1:9; 3:15). (Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Colossians (p. 83). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.)
The way that you withstand the forces that are arrayed against you (no matter their origin) and the shifting values of the world around you is by having complete certainty of (by affixing our minds to them) the eternal truths of God...His promises, His precepts, His principles, etc. It’s when our minds come unmoored from these eternal verities and/or remain in ignorance of them that we are easy prey for the enemy.
People have to know what they believe and why they believe it! It is simply not good enough to say, “This is what my church teaches” or “My pastor says…” God wants each of us to personally have a firm conviction that is thoroughly informed by the truth of scripture. Christianity is not a blind faith searching for an unknown foundation on which to stand. And, people that have this inner conviction that is founded on the revealed Word of God discover that it makes them wealthy (“all riches”) in the most important ways.
We live it what is commonly called “the information age” and most of us feel as if we are on information overload. “The information age” is technically defined as, “The period beginning around 1970 and noted for the abundant publication, consumption, and manipulation of information, especially by computers and computer networks.”
There was an international survey of white collar workers that revealed “that information overload is a remarkably widespread and growing problem among professionals around the world, and one that exacts a heavy toll in terms of productivity and employee morale.
“The survey of 1,700 white collar workers in five countries – the United States, China, South Africa, United Kingdom and Australia – found professionals in every market struggling to cope...On average, fifty-nine percent of professionals across the five markets surveyed say that the amount of information they have to process at work has significantly increased since the economic downturn. Given the rising tide of information, it is not surprising that a majority of workers in every market (62%, on average) admit that the quality of their work suffers at times because they can’t sort through the information they need fast enough.”
(www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/09/25/is-information-overload-killing-your-productivity/)
Laurie Gerber, a contributor to the Today show writes, ...You live in the information age, which means that you could spend the next month just reading blogs about, let's say, knitting, and still not get through them all. So, you technically CANNOT do everything. But don't despair. It turns out that a satisfying life comes from quality, not quantity.” (http://www.today.com/klgandhoda/let-go-having-it-all-learn-how-say-no-8C11418980)
That last statement is an astute comment from a secular perspective that should be carefully considered by every Christian. Notice that she says, “It turns out that a satisfying life comes from quality, not quantity”...of information. And, there is no information of higher “quality” or of greater value than that which centers around the person of Jesus Christ and His Word.
Paul further clarifies that he wants the Colossians to have an informed conviction that flows from “understanding.” This is a compound Greek word whose etymological origin indicates the coming together of streams of thought. As streams of truth flow to us we are strengthened with inner conviction making us truly wealthy in what matters most. In essence, what he is talking about is being able to discern truth from error.
It’s interesting to note that one of the reasons false teachers at Colosse had strayed from the truth was that they were attempting to make Christianity relevant and applicable to Greek sensibilities. However, in the process they actually diminished the truth by changing or altering central tenants of the Christian faith. This same motivation is employed by modern heretics who seek to make the Bible more palatable to modern society and in the process alter core tenets of Christian belief.
As unfortunate as it is, Paul is clear that not everybody will look at the truth of God in positive ways.
21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ( 1 Corinthians 1:21-25)
Another way of saying what Paul asserts as being necessary for stability against spiritual attacks and cultural instability is that each believer must take ownership of “the faith” for themselves. This requires each believer knowing why/what he/she believes and seeing to it that it is firmly grounded in scripture, which produces this informed conviction!
Illustration about taking ownership: From the Introduction to my daughter’s new book, 2nd Best Christian, pgs. 2-3
Finally, they must have a...
4. Passionate Love
In Paul’s observations about withstanding spiritual attacks, he indicates that the central necessity to remaining stable in an unstable world is a growing passion for Jesus Himself!
The errorists in Paul’s day claimed that in their writings and teachings were “hidden” treasures that only they could reveal to the ones that followed them. They even had secret rituals through which an initiate to their beliefs would pass. According to Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., “In them [their rituals] the initiate, after a long period of training and instruction, was allowed to be present at a performance similar to a passion play. By means of the performance the initiate was to have an experience of identification with his god. The instruction given previously enabled the initiate to understand the play. To outsiders the ritual would have been a mystery.” (S. Lewis Johnson, Bibliotheca Sacra, Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians: The Minister of the Mystery, (July, 1962): p. 236)
Paul’s response to this is that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are to be found in Christ ALONE. He even uses the same Greek word the heretics used in speaking of their supposed “hidden” treasures in order to correct them. Paul wanted these believers to know that they didn’t need any esoteric insight from propagators of theological heresy. They only need to look to Jesus, for in Him was all they needed for “life and godliness.”
So many people think today that Christ is good, but He’s not enough. The truth is that He is the totality of all you need (cf. 2 Peter 1:3).
Dr. John MacArthur writes, “Because Christ is sufficient, there is no need for the writings of any cult, philosophy, or psychology to supplement the Bible. He is the source of all true spiritual knowledge.” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Colossians & Philemon, p. 91)
Paul places a distinct emphasis in this letter on wisdom (1:9, 28; 2:3, 23; 3:16; 4:5), knowledge (1:9–10, 27; 2:2–3; 3:10; 4:7–9) and knowing (1:6; 2:1; 3:24; 4:1, 6, 8), but He never tells the people to look anywhere else other than to Jesus, Who is revealed in the scripture.
It is important to note that when Paul uses the word “hidden,” he doesn't use it to imply that “wisdom and knowledge” are somehow concealed and unknowable. His idea is that they exist as a deposit, “stored up” in Christ and accessible to all believers. He is encouraging them to look to Christ where insight, understanding, wisdom, and knowledge are all found and readily available.
Asking why you need a growing knowledge of Christ and His Word to live the Christian life is like asking why you need to know reading, writing and arithmatic in order to get a good job. Fundamental to every Christian life is a sound theology about Jesus! Surface answers and simplistic formulas promising quick success are an insufficient foundation for sustaining the Christian life when the storms of adversity are blowing.
Isn’t it interesting that true “wisdom/knowledge” is “hidden” where many people see folly and weakness...in the Person of Christ?
All maturing Christians know that, “What you think of Christ, your conception of him, is everything. If you believe in Jesus Christ, that he is eternal, without beginning and without end, that he always was continuing; if you believe that he is creator of everything, every cosmic speck across trillions of light-years of trackless space, the creator of the textures and shapes and colors which daily dazzle your eyes; if you believe that he is the sustainer of all creation, the force which is presently holding the atoms of your body, your town, this universe together, and that without him all would dissolve; if you believe that he is the mystery, the incarnate reconciler who will one day reconcile the universe and redeem humanity to himself; if you believe that he is the lover of your soul, who loves you with a love bounded only by his infinitude; then, despite the fact that life will be full of trouble, nothing much will go wrong. Your vision of Christ will quicken and shape your life. What you believe about Christ makes all the difference in the world now and in eternity.” (Hughes, R. K. (1989). Colossians and Philemon: the supremacy of Christ (p. 54). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.)
Conclusion:
Let me tie all these thoughts together by asking you a convicting question. If you work really hard and have only one day a week off, which is Sunday...how will you spend that day? Your answer to that question speaks volumes about what (Who) you really believe is important in life and your children/grandchildren are watching the choices you make.
Here’s the point...when we love Jesus, His Word, His church and gather together in loving communion to encourage one another, God unfolds to us all the “hidden...treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that are wrapped up in Christ and revealed in His Word.
The well-known hymn, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was authored by Helen Lemmel (1863-1961) in 1922. She was a gifted concert soloist, a music teacher at the Moody Bible Institute, and music critic for the Seattle Post.
She was inspired to write the song after reading a Christian pamphlet by Lilias Trotter (1853-1928). Mrs. Trotter was a brilliant artist whose talent provided her opportunities to enjoy wealth and influence. However, she was also deeply burdened for the cause of missions. For two years she struggled with God in prayer about these two different pursuits in life, but finally came to the conclusion that she had to lay down her love of art to fix her eyes on Jesus and follow His calling to the mission field. For the next 38 years she served faithfully as a missionary to the Muslims in Algeria.
In her pamphlet that inspired the hymn, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” were these words:
"Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen harmless worlds at once -- art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the good hiding the best. It is easy to find out whether our lives are focused, and if so, where the focus lies. Where do our thoughts settle when consciousness comes back in the morning? Where do they swing back when the pressure is off during the day? Dare to have it out with God, and ask Him to show you whether or not all is focused on Christ and His Glory. Turn your soul's vision to Jesus, and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him."
