Colossians 2:4-7 Legalistic moral-ism vs. Christianity
Read Colossians 2:1-8
A few highlights
from earlier passages
2.2 – mentions full assurance – last time I taught we talked
about the assurance of salvation for believers which rests in Christ’s
sufficient work done for us, not in our own good works to save ourselves
2.3 – Paul stresses “knowledge” in this letter because he is
refuting a heresy that emphasized secret/hidden knowledge as a means of
salvation (think Kabala or Scientology)
Charles: Read 1
Tim 3:16 for a biblical definition of mystery (which is the incarnation of
God in Christ)
2.3 – treasures – false teachers threatened the Colossian
Church and claimed to possess a secret wisdom and transcendent philosophy
available only to the spiritual elite. In sharp contrast, Paul declared that
all the richness of truth necessary for salvation, sanctification and
glorification is found in Jesus Christ, who himself is God revealed in flesh
Sandy: Read 2
Corinthians 3:4-5 (sufficiency in Christ)
2.4 – so that no one may delude you – Paul did not want the
Church of Colossae to be deceived by the persuasive doctrines of false
teachers, which assaulted the person and work of Christ. That is why chapters
1-2 stress Christ’s deity and his sufficiency both to save believers and raise
them up in spiritual maturity.
Now, I know that delude and dilute are different words
but think about this analogy:
Imagine that sound Biblical doctrine is a large glass of
blood red Kool-Aid and what false teachers do over time with their doctrine,
philosophies and ecumenical/unity teachings is pour out the Kool-Aid and
replace it with plain tap water.
So what happens over time?
Their message becomes less and less about the red blood of
Christ that saves you, and looks more and more like every other works based
religion’s clear glass of tap water.
That’s the goal of false teachers to chip away at the
uniqueness of the Christian faith like a stonemason until Christianity looks
like every other world religion.
2.5 – absent in the body – we need to remember that Paul is
not lounging in a palace somewhere or off teaching in a seminary, he’s a
prisoner of Rome (in bondage) when he’s writing this letter and even though
he’s not able to be present with the Colossae Church this does not lessen his
concern for them and their faith, instead of his own persecution.
The terms he uses “the good order” (referring here to the
relationships between one another in the Church) and “firmness” (or being
grounded in the Gospel of faith) were both Roman military terms referring to a
solid rank of soldiers ready for battle – like that old church song Onward
Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ the royal Master, leads against the foe, forward into battle, see his
banners go.
2.6 – walk in Him – is a familiar NT term denoting the
everyday life of a believer
2.7 – not a faith
but the faith – the objective since
used here stresses the truth of Christian doctrine. Spiritual maturity develops
upward from the foundation of biblical truth as taught and recorded by the
Apostles
Ralph, Eric, Doug:
Read 1 Timothy 4:6-10, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, all of Titus 2– and while we read it think
about how Paul is exhorting us to be rooted, built up and established in sound
biblical doctrine.
Verses 6-8 – a certain contingent of the Colossian Church
promoted a philosophy of asceticism (strict self denial and obedience) as a
form of spiritual disciple.
We could parallel Paul here in Colossians 2 with Mark 7
where Jesus is teaching on the traditions of Men (the Rabbinic rules and
regulations) vs. the Commandments of God listen to what Christ says in Mark 7:6
And he said to them,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors
me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they
worship me, (why is Jesus denouncing them – because they’re) teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men.’
In these few passages we can see Paul’s Pastoral style:
the Christian “ought” (as in, this is how a Christian ought to live) always
flows out of the Gospel.
For instance, listen to verses 6 & 7 expanded this way:
Since you have received
the Gift of Eternal Life in Jesus Christ
Therefore, walk (or
live your life) in Jesus Christ,
Be rooted firmly in
the Gospel teachings of Jesus Christ,
Be built up (or
sanctified) by Jesus Christ,
Having been
established in the Faith by Jesus Christ,
Just as you have been
taught about Jesus Christ,
Therefore, always be abounding
in thanksgiving for Jesus Christ.
I feel like with churchgoers I’m always having the same
battle over and over again. I’ll hear some false teacher say; if you want to be
a Christian (or today people say, if you want to be a Christ-follower) then you
need to do this – usually a good work of some kind. But Paul is constantly
saying in his epistles Christian, since God has
already done all the work necessary for salvation for you therefore in thankfulness, not in duty go out and
do good for the family of faith (your local church) or for your neighbors. And
I’m telling you, it’s a completely different kind of message!
For example, my prior pastor and a couple of the elders
would hold up 5 fingers and tell me, “Bennett, you need to do 5 things to get
saved.” – now really I don’t care what those 5 things are but you know what
that sentence tells me is that the life, blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is
not sufficient to save instead – my works were required for my salvation.
And that’s the complete opposite of what we’re taught in
Colossians. The Colossians will go on in the faith they’ve been founded in with thankfulness as apposed to the rat
wheel of pious, legalistic good works and then frustrated, anxious guilt – the
mind of the “religious” non-Christian worries constantly, “Am I good enough,
have I done enough? Am I good enough, have I done enough? Am I good enough,
have I done enough?” And I can put that mind at ease… of course you’re not good enough. Jesus said (in Matthew 5:48) you
have to be absolutely 100% morally perfect every second of every day in
thought, word and deed, to not ever sin. But that’s exactly why Christ came to
Earth not for the healthy (the self-righteous) but for us sick sinners. That’s
why we rest and put our trust in Him, and in his work done for us.
So here’s where, in application, I would turn from the
Colossae Church to the American Church today.
Will someone:
Read Luke 24:44-47
Pope Benedict in his book Jesus of Nazareth and in other
public addresses has said officially that the Catholic Church will no longer
try to convert Jews to Christianity. What happened to Jesus’ command to
proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations,
beginning from Jerusalem?
Jews, by the way, still reject Jesus as their Lord, God,
Messiah or Savior, but the Pope says that the Church’s job is to convert
Gentiles and God will see to converting the Jews himself later.
Rick Warren has actually asked the false god Allah for
forgiveness at the end of the introduction to a letter entitled “a
Christian response to A Common Word between Us (that’s Muslims) and You
(Infidel/Christians). The quote is, “Before we ‘shake your hand’ in responding
to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All Merciful One and of the Muslim
community around the world.” Since the All Merciful One is a common title for
Allah, like Yahweh or Lord is for God then any Muslim seeing this would infer
that “Pastor” Rick Warren was repentant to Allah or that, at least, Warren
meant that the Christian God and Allah was one and the same god.
Islam (like my old church) teaches salvation by faith plus 5
kinds of good works: The Five Pillars of Islam – are five basic acts, which
are considered required for salvation. These are summarized in the famous
Hadith of Gabriel. The Qur’an presents them as a framework for worship and a
sign of Muslim’s commitment to the faith. They are the Shahada, 5 daily prayers
bowed toward Mecca, fasting during the daylight hours of Ramadan, and going on
pilgrimage to Mecca, which is required at least once in a lifetime.
The Shahada, since many of you may not know – means “to know
and believe without suspicion, as if personally witnessed”; it is the name of
the Islamic creed. The Shahada is the Muslim declaration of belief in the
oneness of God and acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. The declaration
reads: There is no god but Allah, and
Muhammad is the messenger of God. Which means if you or Rick Warren
believed in the Trinity or that Jesus is God, or that Jesus was the one and
only Messiah/Christ then you’re a heretic according to Islam.
Joel Osteen in a Washington Times article Osteen: Americans’ faith at all-time high says
he does think that Mormons are Christians, quote: “I believe that Mormons
are Christians, I don’t know if it’s the purest form of Christianity, like I
grew up with. But you know what, I know Mormons. I hear Mitt Romney – and I’ve
never met him – but I hear him say, ‘I believe Jesus is the son of God,’ ‘I
believe he’s my savior, ‘and that’s one of the core issues.”
So what do Mormons believe?
1 – Mormons believe that there are old men living on the
moon
Quote, Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, as recorded in
the Mormon’s “Journal of Oliver Huntington” Vol 2 pg 166
“The inhabitants of the moon are of a more uniform size than
the inhabitants of Earth being about 6 feet in height, they dress very much
like the Quaker style and are quite general in style, or the fashion of dress.
Though they do live to be very old coming generally near 1000 years.”
2 – Does this sound like a Christian?
Quote, Brigham Young successor to Joseph Smith, another one
of their “infallible” prophets from Journal of Discourses, Vol 1, pgs 108-109
“If you want to know what I do with a thief that you may
find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and suffer him not to commit another
iniquity…if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should be very apt to
“send him home,” (reference to the afterlife) and that is what I wish every man
to do, (murder thieves) to put a stop to that abominable practice in the midst
of this people…I will prove my works whether I can mete out justice to such
persons, or not. I would consider it just as much my duty to do that, (murder
thieves) as to baptize a man for the remission of sins”
3 – Men can become gods
Quote, Roger Anderson from the Mormon Millennial Star Vol.
54, Journal of Discourses Vol. 2 pg 345, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
pg 345, Doctrines and Covenants, section 130.22
“As man is, God once was, as God is, man may become.”
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.”
“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as any
mans.”
“If we should take a million worlds like this and number
their particles, we should find that there are more gods than there are
particles of matter in those Worlds.” Are there Millions of Millions of gods?
Isaiah 43, 44, 46 are all pretty clear there is only one God.
4 – Mormonism and the Negro
Quote from the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, July
17, 1947, see Mormonism and the Negro, by John J Stewart and William E. Berrett
pgs 46-47
“From the first days of the prophet Joseph even until now,
it has been the Doctrine of the church, never questioned by any of the church
leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the
Gospel.”
5 – Another perverted Gospel
The Gospel to Mormonism is, “Faith, Repentance, Baptism,
Receiving the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands, Morality, Loyalty, Tithing,
following the Words of Wisdom, Duty, and Celestial polygamous marriage for all
eternity.” (LDS chart of FREE AGENCY and Articles of Faith No.4)
6 – Mormonism teaches that salvation depends upon good
works and acceptance of Joseph Smith.
“No man who rejects the testimony of Joseph Smith can enter
the kingdom of God”
“Men have work to do if they would obtain salvation.”
Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1 pg. 190 & Vol. 3 pg. 91
Rob Bell says in his books Love Wins/Sex God/Velvet Elvis
that there is no real Hell (as in a place of Eternal punishment and unending
fire and torture) he says there are only the Hells of your own making in both
your mind and here on Earth. Yet no one in all of the Scriptures had more to
say about Hell than Jesus. No stern messenger of doom from the era of the Judges,
no fiery Old Testament prophet, no writer of imprecatory Psalms, and no
impassioned apostle not even all of them
combined - mentioned Hell more
frequently or described it in more terrifying terms than Jesus Himself. Rob
Bell clearly doesn’t believe in the Jesus of the Bible or His teachings. He
finds the very idea of Hell morally repugnant and believes it is one of
the main reasons “why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian
faith.” He scoffs at the idea that Divine Justice requires endless punishment
for unrepentant sinners. In direct opposition to what Jesus Himself taught in
Matthew 25:46, Bell insinuates that it would be a gross, cosmic atrocity
if the doom of the reprobate is everlasting
in the same sense that heaven’s blessings for the redeemed are everlasting.
Brian McLaren is a
Liberal/Emergent theologian. His gospel from pg. 139 of his book a New Kind of
Christianity, quote “Jesus’ gospel says that the kingdom of God is at hand
[which means] God’s new benevolent (or goody-two shoes) society is already
among us…this phrase which shimmers and glows in relation to the dominant
social reality of Jesus’ time: the kingdom-oriented term “Christ” means
“liberating king,” the one who will free God’s people from oppression, then
confronts and humbles their oppressors, and then leads both of them into a
better day (aka universal salvation).”
Now this sounds like happy
hippies and unicorns farting rainbows of pure joy and peace on Earth but
McLaren’s false gospel says nothing about sinners receiving repentance and
faith for the forgiveness of their sins won by Christ’s substitution, which is
the Gospel by every definition we read in Scripture.
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