Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Colossians 2:6-10 | Date: February 14, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Who is the head of all rule and authority. Okay, thank you. We’ll focus this morning on verses 6 to 10. You’ll remember last time that we saw in those opening verses, actually in the last part of chapter 1 as well, Paul speaking about his ministry that focuses on the revelation of this mystery, which is Christ, and the fullness of the treasures that we have in him, that was promised by the prophets, now has been revealed in Christ, and it’s the Apostle’s responsibility to make that known to the Church. And he gives something of a theme statement in verse 3, that in him, that is in Christ, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything you need is him. That’s something of the theme of the letter of Colossians: the sufficiency of Christ, the all-sufficiency of Christ. Christ is all I need. However you say it, that’s his theme here.

And then verse 4, he tells us, “I am saying this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.” Now he’s coming to address the false teaching that’s going on in Colossae. So here we go with that. And we come to verse 6; he comes to deal with it more head-on, particularly when we get to verse 8. Notice in verse 6, he starts with “therefore,” so he’s referring back to all of that. He’s on the ground of the mystery that’s been fulfilled in Christ, that’s been now revealed, which is the sufficiency of Christ, in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Okay, because of all of that, he says, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.”

Again, this is kind of a theme statement, both for this section of the letter and for the entire letter: the all-sufficiency of Christ. Here it’s stated in these terms, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” All right, let’s analyze this a little bit more closely.

Christ Jesus The Lord

First of all, the expression, “Christ Jesus the Lord.” I think that’s the only time in the New Testament that we have that exact expression. But he refers to Christ as the Lord frequently. But here he says, “You’ve received Christ Jesus the Lord.” I think if you have the NIV, it’s translated, “You have received Christ Jesus as Lord.” However you translate it, the idea is there, the emphasis on the lordship of Christ—lordship in every sense, in terms of his deity, lordship in the sense of master, owner, ruler, lordship in every sense.

And I think it’s interesting to see how they, in the New Testament church, referred to him in contrast to the way we tend to refer to receiving Christ. We tend to say something like, “We let Jesus in our heart.” And Paul says, “You’ve received Christ Jesus as Lord.” Now, there is a difference, isn’t there? In the Christian world, we know our lingo, and we kind of get the connotations—”let Jesus in our heart,” whatever. But the emphasis here is very different. You have received Christ Jesus as Lord. The thinking goes much deeper.

And he says, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” And this is, again, Paul’s trademark: be what you are. Whatever you are in Christ, make sure you behave and live accordingly. That’s a trademark for Paul. He does that all the time. He tells us what we are in Christ, and then the exhortation corresponds that we should behave accordingly in a way that’s in keeping with that. This is that here as well. As you have received Christ as Lord, Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him in the same way. So let your faith and your behavior remain consistent with what you are in Christ. You began at the outset acknowledging the lordship of Christ, the fullness of his deity, the greatness of his person, the all-sufficiency of his work, his status as Lord over you; as you have received Christ that way, so continue to walk in him.

Four Descriptions Of The Walk

And then he gives us, in verse 7, four descriptions. Actually, these are participles that he gives to describe what this walk looks like, how we should walk in a way that acknowledges the lordship of Christ. “Therefore, as you’ve received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” So: rooted, built up, established, and abounding in thanksgiving.

Let’s take each one quickly. Rooted and built up in Christ. We’ll take those two together. They seem to be grouped at the beginning. These are two different metaphors, but similar in a way. One is more of a horticultural metaphor: rooted. The other is more of a construction metaphor: built up. In him, he mixes the metaphors, but they are related—the idea of a foundation and a building. Both of them are passive; it speaks of God at work in us. And each of these first two have a different tense. The first one is a perfect tense, “rooted,” which has the idea of a standing—our standing in Christ. A past work that has completed actions, that we have been rooted and continue to be and are rooted in Christ. That’s what we are. This idea of the horticultural metaphor, it rings some bells. You see some of that in Jeremiah, and I guess most famously in Psalm 1: the tree planted by the rivers of waters brings forth its fruit in its season. That’s kind of the atmosphere here as well. So deeply rooted, secure against the elements, grounded in Christ.

And then we have a present tense: “being built up in him.” Maybe the idea of rooted suggests the idea of construction and a foundation, so he takes it in that direction here. This is the idea of ongoing being built up in Christ. So we’re rooted in Christ, grounded in him, but now it’s still under construction. We’re still in the process of being built up in him. And then that expression, “in him.” That’s what we see all the time in Paul, speaking of our union with Christ. Joined to Christ, we have what we need. All of the saving work was accomplished by Christ; it does nothing for us unless we are joined to him, the Savior. And so this “in him,” “in Christ,” “in Jesus Christ,” “in Christ Jesus” idea just pervades Paul’s writings, and we have it in other places as well. But in all of that then, the idea is still the sufficiency of Christ. We’re grounded in Christ, we’re being built up in Christ, and in Christ we have what we need. We should act then and think accordingly.

And that’s what he says next: “established in the faith, just as you were taught.” There’s something there of the continuation of the same idea—firmly grounded in Christ—but here it’s the idea of being established in the faith, a growing understanding, a deepening understanding and appreciation of Christ and what we have in Him. “The faith”—established in the faith—when you see that expression with the article, “the faith,” it often has the idea of that body of truth that has been revealed in Christ and through the apostles. It’s been handed down to the church, and it is our joy and our responsibility to learn that, to be established in it. And so he says being established in the faith, a growing learning, understanding of the faith and a growing appreciation of Christ so as not to be taken in by some lesser ideas that he’s going to be dealing with here as we go along.

And then the last one in verse 7: “abounding in thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is an important notion in Paul. It’s important in this letter. I think I noted it earlier in chapter 1, verse 3, and in verse 12. Again, we’ll see it here in chapter 2, verse 7, and in chapter 3, verses 15, 16, 17. Then again, chapter 4. Thanksgiving is a big deal to Paul. And in fact, he says “overflowing with thanksgiving.” He wants us to be thankful. He wants us to be really thankful. And that’s important for Paul, and I think I mentioned this before when we saw it in his prayer in chapter one. Thanksgiving is important because it’s both a reminder of grace—the more you’re thankful, the more you take time to give thanks, the more you’re being reminded of grace—and then with that, it is also a preserving measure against false teaching. If I am genuinely thankful and overflowing with it, that serves as a preservative against false teaching that comes along that may dupe me into some other lesser kinds of notions. So this ought to mark the prayer life and the attitude of every believer: overflowing with thanksgiving.

One commentator—let me read a statement from him, I thought it was perceptive. He said, “Those who bubble over with gratitude for what God has already done are not easy prey to anxiety and doubt, and they have no need or desire to look for fulfillment elsewhere, and cannot be taken in by false promises or shaken by bigoted distractors or detractors.” All right, so again, you can see the idea is Paul keeps pressing the sufficiency of Christ: rooted and grounded in him, established in the faith, coming to know it, coming to appreciate it more, and then with the effect that it gives us this abounding in gratitude for what he has done.

Philosophy And Empty Deceit

So verse 8 then: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Well, now when we come to verse 8, he’s coming to deal more directly now with the false teaching in Colossae. Remember way back in our opening lesson, we tried to look at the idea of the Colossian heresy, trying to define what that was. And I kind of decided that it’s probably just a lot of different things. They were messed up with a lot of different ideas that had come in because they had not been thoroughly grounded yet. Many ideas had come in that were inconsistent with the gospel. It’s not a given, necessarily a given heresy, but a massive teaching that had come in. And Paul comes now to deal with that.

And you notice how he characterizes the false teaching. Verse 8 again: “Philosophy and empty deceit. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.” Now that is not, we should point it out, it’s not a blanket condemnation of philosophy. Some have said, and it’s right, everyone’s a philosopher. It’s just a question of whether or not you’re a good one or a bad one, or an informed one or a not informed one. We all deal with philosophical questions: what we know, how we know it, the ground of our knowing (whether you think of it in those terms or not), ultimate reality, value judgments—all of these are philosophical categories. Paul’s not condemning philosophy as such. But what he’s dealing with here, I think, is this particular philosophy. In fact, the definite article is there: “by the philosophy.” Probably a word that was used by the false teachers; not sure of that. Remember we talked about mirror reading? We see here what’s going on over there. It might be a word that they were using, so Paul is picking it up.

And then he calls it “empty deceit.” Empty deceit or worthless reasoning. He’s calling this false teaching then a hollow sham. Empty deceit. They’re offering something, but it really is nothing. Empty deceit. It’s only misleading. By contrast, by the way, in chapter 1 and verse 5, he speaks of the gospel, which is the word of truth. In verse 27, he speaks of the glorious riches. Chapter 2, verse 3, he speaks of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So we have that; we have the truth. We have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And what they are giving is empty deceit. So it begins by characterizing this false teaching as worthless, empty deceit. It’s not worthy of your attention.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible in this regard, and I think I’ll take time to have someone look it up, is Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 13. Someone look up Jeremiah 2 verse 13 and read that for us. Isn’t that a graphic way of putting the rebellion against God, turning from the gospel, turning from God? You’ve done two things. They’re both interrelated, but one is, he says, “You’ve forsaken me, the fountain of living water.” There’s your source, and you’ve turned from it. And instead, you’ve tried to invent another source, and you’ve dug yourself cisterns that are broken and can’t hold water. Now, doesn’t that sound stupid? And yet every turning away from God is just that. And that’s how Paul is characterizing this philosophy that has come into the Colossian church. It’s worthless. And in doing it, you’re only hurting yourself. You’re turning from what is helpful and right to something that is worthless and can’t help you.

So verse 8, again: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.” It’s an interesting expression, the slavery metaphor. Someone has taken you captive with this. Contrast that with chapter 1, where Paul says that we have been delivered out of the kingdom of Satan and brought into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. So all of this together then, he’s emphasizing: beware, be on guard of all of this that’s coming against you. You’re being duped. It’s no good for you. It’s worthless. And in turning to it, you’re turning from the gospel, which gives us all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Three Specific Problems

Now, that’s sort of the setup. When we get to the next expression in verse 8, we get the real point. There are three specific problems with this philosophy and this empty deceit.

Number one, verse 8: it’s according to human tradition. So look at the verse again: “See to it that no one take you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition.” Now the word “tradition,” it’s an important notion in the Bible. It’s an important notion in Judaism. It’s an important notion actually to the Greeks as well. The term itself has to do with a body of teaching that’s been handed down, passing along a tradition. In the New Testament, that’s important because the revelation has come to us from God the Father through God the Son in its fullness. And then from God the Son by means of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, that tradition has been handed to the church. And so Paul can say in 2 Thessalonians 2, “Hold fast to the tradition that you have received from us.” So there’s this body of truth that’s been handed down and we’re to keep it. That’s an important term.

The problem here in verse 8 is all of this new teaching is human tradition. That’s what’s important here. Its source is merely human. Someone made it up. Or a bunch of people made it up. But whoever made it up, it wasn’t God; it wasn’t revealed. It’s not revealed religion. It’s something we came up with. We’re reasoning our way up to God. Someone has figured this out, but it’s not grounded in what God has revealed. And that is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other religion. Our claim is we have heard from God. We have a message that God has revealed in his Son and has been given to us through his apostles. And all the rest of them are wrong because it’s just someone’s efforts of working their way up to God. And what we claim we have is God coming to us and speaking truth. And Paul says that’s the difference here.

Now think about it. Human tradition, human—put it this way—human religion. A religion that originated in someone’s mind, some human mind, came up with this idea. “I think that…” and there they go. You always know you’re in for a good conversation when someone starts, “Well, my idea of God is…” And yet, I hope you can see this is really very relevant. Twice this past week—one in particular, a young lady who grew up in a solid Christian church, heard the gospel preached, she’s turned on it, and now she’s saying, “I’m going to worship God my way.” Okay, you’ve come up with how you should worship God. The first thing that ought to strike you when someone says that is, “Who’s God? You or him?” And if it’s you determining how you worship God, why do you need God in the first place?

And yet, this pervades our thinking today. “Well, I think that…” “Well, I think that I wouldn’t want a God who…” You hear this kind of language all the time. And that’s what Paul’s dealing with here fundamentally. You have someone who’s come up with some system of thought and introduced it as Christians, and yet its originating source is not divine revelation. It’s human tradition. And Paul says that’s worthless, just worthless. The idea—the very idea of human religion, a religion that we have come up with—it’s just ridiculous. Just on the face of it, it’s absurd. It’s the problem with mysticism. “Contemplate the deity. And I’m going to, by meditation, learn what God is like and how to worship him.” And the inevitable problem with that is you end up confusing yourself with God. Your ideas become your standard. Human tradition. That is the problem with all false religion. The ancient mystery religions, the animistic religions, legalism, Islamic religions, the cults—all of them reduce to this. It’s someone’s idea that they came up with. It’s not grounded in divine revelation.

This was the problem in the last century, the late 1800s and all through the 1900s, with the problem of modernism and liberalism, theological liberalism. Rationalism was the name of the day. It was the flowering of the Enlightenment. Rationalism is the name of the game. We have arrived and we can determine truth by the exercise of the human mind. And when something comes to us claiming to be from the outside, external revelation, that doesn’t make sense to us—well, we can reject that because we know. Rationalism. The human mind is the determiner of truth. And so this idea of God inspiring an infallible book, this idea of a virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus—that doesn’t sit well with the modern mind and we can reject that. And all of it is grounded in this idea that we have some kind of independence, that we don’t have an external authority and that we can approach God on our terms—still claim that there’s a God, but take his place ourselves. Well, that’s the idea here at the Colossian heresy. I think you can see how relevant that continues to be. And Paul is saying here, in effect, who would be content with a mere human religion? Why bother? Why bother with religion if its source is human?

By the way, I should back up here. You might remember a couple of years ago, we went through a long study here in Sunday School examining contemporary culture. And we took some time looking at Romans chapter 1. God has revealed himself and everybody knows it. Everybody recognizes that there is a God. Everybody recognizes you’re obliged to God. The problem is because of who we are, it’s suppressed. We rebel against that revelation in ourselves. So there’s an intuitive recognition of God, but we suppress it. Remember we saw that that is what accounts for all false religion. There’s a recognition that there’s a God, and I’ve got to worship him, and I’m accountable to him, but I’m going to do it in a way that’s manageable and comfortable. Suppressing it and acknowledging it all at the same time. And here we have something of an expression of that here that has come into Colossae. And Paul wants to press that. And I think it’s just a very important expression here that we should recognize. It’s just human tradition. Its source is human. What good is that? His point then, of course, is that what Christ has to offer is divine revelation. He has come to us. He has spoken. He has made God known. We’ll see more of that when we get to verse 9.

All right, another expression in verse 8. It’s not only according to human tradition, it’s according to the elemental spirits of the world. The elemental spirits of the world. Oh, there’s just been books written about this. The short version, I think, is there might be a couple of references here. One, the idea is the elemental spirits of the universe—the idea of the principalities and powers, the demonic forces, these spirit beings that are in control of the planets and the planets have to be aligned and all of that and it determines all of history and it determines our individual lives, and so we have to placate those spirits and worship them and to placate them. The New Testament has other references to that kind of belief. It’s called “elemental” because it’s tied to the elements: the earth, the air, the fire, water, the stars, and so on. And they’re all associated with these personal spirit beings that are believed to control human destiny. And you have to reverence them, you have to submit to them. Some of that, somehow, must have filtered into the Colossian church. Don’t know the details.

Judaism had another, maybe a version of this. Judaism recognized that there’s one God alone, of course, but there was, in the intertestamental period in particular, an increasing prominence given to angels. Worshiping angels? Paul says that in verse 18. Is he referring to the Jews there? Praying to angels? There’s this increasing prominence given to them in that regard. Something of that nature then is the background to somehow this has mixed in with Christian teaching in the Colossian church. And Paul’s problem with it is all of that just renders Christ redundant. Why do we need all that if we have Christ? If all of that is what we have to be careful of—watching those spirit beings and submitting to them and all of that—then Jesus is just another mediary of some kind.

And that’s what he means in verse 8 at the end, then the last expression: it’s not according to Christ. Or your NIV: “it doesn’t depend on Christ.” And again, that’s Paul’s whole point in writing this letter: in adding whatever requirements, in adding whatever objects of worship, they failed to see the exclusive all-sufficiency of Christ. Christ is all you need, and he keeps pressing that. And any teaching that fails on that score fails altogether. Now it’s doubtful—I’ve mentioned before the contrast between Colossians and Galatians. Paul is rather patient with the Colossians. It’s doubtful that anyone in Colossae was actually denying Christ. It’s just that some teaching had come in that was inconsistent with that. They’re adding requirements, adding obligations. Paul talks later of the asceticism and the kind of a legalistic idea: “touch not, taste not, handle not.” You had all these extra things coming in. And what Paul wants to point out is that any addition to Christ and the revelation that we have in him is worthless, and it renders Christ redundant.

Two Propositions About Christ

All right then, verse 9. Why, then, is Christ so essential? How do we explain his sufficiency? I’ve been saying it all along, but here Paul gets to it himself. And he explains with two propositions.

Verse 9: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Now we have here a twofold affirmation about Christ. Number one, his deity. In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is an unqualified assertion of the deity of Christ. For the life of me, I don’t know how a Jehovah’s Witness or any Arian-type heresy can claim to give reverence to this book and get around this verse. In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The divine nature in its fullness dwells in Jesus. All the fullness. Not just the fullness, but all the fullness. He’s kind of redundant about it, isn’t he? Repetitive. He’s piling up the terminology to make sure you see it. He could not have been more clear.

Now we have seen in our study in the creeds the deity of Christ. We don’t need to rehash all that here. Let me give you just a couple of reminders along these lines of the New Testament on the deity of Christ. The New Testament speaks of his heavenly pre-existence. He came from the Father. His birth in Bethlehem did not mark the beginning of his existence, but only the beginning of his human existence. So the New Testament speaks of his heavenly pre-existence. In the Gospel of John, we have that long series of the “I Am” statements, where Jesus is identified with Yahweh, who is the I Am. In fact, in the epistles in particular, we have a fascinating number of passages—it’s a fascinating study on its own; sometime we can do it—where the biblical writer will take some Old Testament passage about God, Yahweh, and refer it to Jesus, the Lord. That’s one way the New Testament writers emphasize the deity of Christ. Again, in the New Testament, there is a strong emphasis on the praise and worship of Jesus, both during his earthly life and after. And it is not something Jesus rejected; it is something he encouraged. And in fact, in the Old Testament, there are a number of passages where the Messiah who is expected to come was, in fact, a divine Messiah. Another fascinating study on its own.

So Paul’s first assertion here, first affirmation, is the unqualified deity of Jesus. The second is the two natures of Christ. In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily—in bodily form. Well, this is what we have in John 1. The Word who was with God from all eternity and was God and who created everything that is, that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. He is God. He is God in human form—the two natures of Christ, a gospel necessity. He came not just as the Son of God, but as the Son of God in human form, so as to stand in our place as our representative and substitute. Now it’s worth pointing out again, and we did this during the creeds, but it’s worth pointing out again that for Paul, everything—everything—hangs on a high Christology. If Jesus isn’t the Son of God from heaven, then we have nothing. But if he is the Son of God from heaven, we don’t need anything else. Everything hangs on a high Christology. And this is the reason that this human philosophy is worthless. Because of who Jesus is, we don’t need anything else. If he is who he says he is, then all of this added stuff coming in is needless.

And then, even sharper to the point, verse 10: “And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.” So in him all fullness dwells, and you have been filled in him. The NIV, I think, renders this here: “In Christ you have been brought to fullness.” The New American Standard is: “In him you have been made complete.” I think that gets to the idea very well. Clearly, there’s a pun involved, a play on words. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are filled with him. The obvious point is that in our union with Christ, we have all the fullness possible. We’re complete in him. So maybe some of the false teachers had come in saying something like, “Yes, you have salvation in Jesus, but then you also need this, or you need to do that, or you need to worship according to the other,” or something like that. And Paul reminds us, as he said in chapter 1, verse 27: Christ in us. Christ in us, we have all we need. We are filled; we have all we need in him.

In fact, it goes further, verse 10: as the exalted Lord, he is the head of all rule and authority. The head of all rule and authority. And we began in this passage talking about those spirit beings that control everything and we owe them our submission and all of that. Notice what Paul has done with that. Those rulers and authority—they’re subjected to Jesus. We have Jesus. Christ is in us. Why would we need any reverence to those, whatever they are? They are subjected to him. As the exalted Lord, he is above even them.

So how could anyone possibly think that you need more than Jesus? In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (verse 9). Verse 10: you have him and he rules all of those principalities and powers. Conclusion: what else could you possibly want? Why would you stoop to worshiping angels, submitting to some human system of regulations or whatever? Christ is all we need. We can see how that’s the overriding consideration through the passage and it’ll be through the book as well. Christ is all I need.

In fact, that is a chorus, the name of a chorus that I learned when I was a kid in church. Any of you know that little chorus, “Christ Is All I Need”? Maybe some of you older ones? Almost nobody. My family knows it. Jim, you know it? Yeah, okay. You’ve heard it? “Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need.” That’s the chorus. Now, it’s open to criticism because it only says one thing. But my goodness, if you’re going to say one thing, let it be that: Christ is all I need. You want to hear it? “Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need.” Great chorus. If you’re going to have a chorus that only says one thing, let it be that one. That’s what Paul is driving at here. You don’t need anything else coming in. We’ve got everything we have in Christ. He’s well qualified to carry the day. Just drive your attention to him.

All right, any questions? We’ll have to stop there. Yes, clerk.