Colossians 2:8-15 PERILS TO BELIEVERS The concern of the apostle Paul for those Colossian Christians should resonate in us today because we know history does repeat itself. The issues believers were facing then are similar to those we face. A certain part of our humanity is attracted to the intellectual ideas of various philosophies of men. it makes us feel like we are searching for wisdom and are important enough to be heard and known for our opinions. The warning against the religious philosophy being promoted at Colossae was seriously needed because it was appealing to new believers who had no deep understanding of all they had in Christ. There is a very real danger of being spiritually kidnapped and spoiled by those who compare their own philosophical ideas without any foundation to the plain teaching of the word of God. Biblical teaching has been tried and proven to be accurate over centuries by those who live by faith in God.
We need to be on our guard and take be careful in our discernment of those things to which we listen. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, which is not bad in itself, but if we seek it through our own research and personal intellectual interests rather than the wisdom which is from above, we place ourselves in a position to be deceived. There are smart people who are spiritually dead and morally unclean, who have a lot of "God-talk" but promote vain speculation, the traditions of men, and outright fraud in the name of God in order to benefit materially. In the pursuit of knowledge, not only are we in danger of trickery, intellectual nonsense, and fraud, but such speculation leads people to embrace the traditions of men as if they are fundamental truths.
Traditions claim authority because they came from those who have passed on ideas from others and give them over to those who do not have their convictions based on that which is from God. Traditions in themselves can be useful as well, as long as they are Bible-based and Christ-exalting. When we hear materialistic teaching that is motivated by worldly practices, and it disregards Christ in any way, we must remember that teaching is contrary to God. The appeal to the natural man and his fears leads people to worship the creature more than the Creator and appeals to human vanity. Any teaching that disregards Christ is evil.
There are various forms of Gnosticism today that deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and still claim to be Christian. Some of the well-known groups are growing rapidly because those who listen to their doctrine forget to compare authentic truth as found in the scriptures and the teaching of biblical practices with the deception of those who are seeking followers and funds. The contrast between them is starkly revealing. Our completeness as believers is in Christ alone, not in our understanding of the religious forms that are being propagated. The rudiments of the world are things set up in a row, like letters of the alphabet to repeat in elementary school or ceremonial training in religious practices, instead of after the Person of Christ, who is the basic measure of all human knowledge.
Paul took the time in the early part of the letter to the Colossians to prepare them for the main points he wanted to teach them by making plain who they were as believers and why he was writing to them. Now in these verses, he openly begins his charge against false teachers with a very clear statement of the truth. There is not one or more ways to view God - all aspects of God are seen in bodily form in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only One Mediator, only One God who is revealed to us in Christ; there is only One who has all power and authority under His dominion. There is only One who is Head over all things; there is only One who is the Ultimate Source and Maintainer of all things.
The Lord Jesus is the truth in positive terms. He is not an agent of truth. He is not a god-like man. The fullness of God has its fixed abode in our Lord Jesus. God is active in Him; He is not just a part of God. All of the go-betweens the Gnostics taught about were false then, and they are false now. They have no connection with God as mediators. Angels as mediators or any other person or attempt to find some way to God or learn God apart from the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to us is wrong. Everything is in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are complete in Him, not wanting any other requisite to salvation. He is God even though He has a human body; He is not some ethereal spirit or shadow form of God. He is the real, the one and only true God-Man who has bridged the barrier between God and man. As believers in Him, we are complete in Him - in a state of fullness in Him. We have no need to go to philosophers or rabbis to find the truth. Jesus is the Truth. All fullness is in Christ, so why should we go to anyone else or look for anything else? Our faith is in Him!!
Our faith is concentrated in the One who is the exact image of the invisible God. We are united to Him and have become part of the body of which He is the Head. He is the supreme authority and Ruler over every power or order, whether it be good or bad. The ceremony of circumcision was refuted because the whole body of the believer is to put off sin, not just a piece of skin cut off. Circumcision outwardly has nothing to do with being accepted by God or receiving His salvation. It is in the heart of a person that one puts off "the body of flesh" and the sins associated with that. Corruption of our natural and sinful passions are cut off, so we will live after the Spirit. That is the "circumcision of Christ."
"What think ye of Christ" is the key to any teaching. When we are alive in Him, we are set at liberty from the law because we are in Him who fulfilled the law's demands. He has made us victorious over the principalities and powers that seek to claim our allegiance. We testify to that inward fact of what took place in the heart by the outward act of baptism. Grace has done its work inwardly, and we testify to that publicly. Faith in Christ goes way beyond forms or religious acts to the "operation (working) of God": in our lives. We testify to our faith through this experience. Christ's death for us testified to the fact of God's love for us. Christ was raised from the dead by the "operation of God" for Him. He died so that we might live. We live for Him and through Him and die to ourselves. We died to sin so that we can live in Christ, and we live in Christ so we can die to the world.
We have been made alive together after the moral and spiritual part of our old nature had died and been buried. Now we live "with Him," joined together with Him. The "law of ordinances (bond)" has been canceled out, and the signed and sealed certificate of a debt that had to be paid is now set aside by the higher degree of grace. The work of the cross, which Christ has completed, has eliminated the decrees of the law. It had made demands that no one could meet to make us aware of sin. The law condemned us and stood against us, but on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ took care of every charge by taking our place. The debt is forgiven, and the clean slate of a new life begins. The signed confession of the old debt is canceled, and it has been "nailed to His cross" as a testimony of the great triumph that took place there.
Those who held our sins over us as a threat to blackmail us have nothing now with which to charge us. The bond that was against our peace, happiness, and comfort, and burdened us because of an unfulfilled law, is no longer an obstruction between cultures or between God and man. Those "principalities and powers" that have been disarmed by the public death of Christ have been made a public spectacle, along with all the forms and traditions that make men feel good about themselves. The victory of the cross that focuses on the preeminent One still stands today as a victory for us. The cross’s message remains relevant to every person's needs today.