Kingdom Treasures & Colossian Car Prowlers

Every year, about this time, we hear public service announcements (PSAs) telling of people who have had Christmas presents stolen out of their cars while shopping or from their homes when no one was home. It only makes sense that we should take sensible precautions to safeguard our possessions. We don’t leave bags of things in the car where anyone can see them unless you want them stolen. 

Photo: Greg Dueker

A couple of weeks ago someone smashed the back window out of the van my daughter drives. They didn’t steal anything and she said she was insulted! However, the dangers of theft at this time of year don't end with our cars, but extend to our credit/debit cards, and even our very “identities.” May I suggest that the same thing is true spiritually—there are those (both outside and inside the church) who would like to steal our, faith, joy, peace, and hope this holiday season? 

This week as we consider Colossians 2:1-19, we will see that it contains at least four spiritual PSAs (Paul’s Spiritual Announcements) from the Apostle Paul for the current threats faced by the Colossians.  These warnings are interspersed with verses that speak of the amazing kingdom treasures we have in Christ. Let’s walk through this passage together…

Kingdom Treasure # 1 (v. 2-3, 9) In Christ you know all that you need to know.

Paul prays that the Colossian believers might be encouraged, united in love, and have the peace that comes with “full assurance of understanding of God’s mystery.” This is invaluable!

• All wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ… this does not mean that wisdom is hidden in the sense of concealed (like the Gnostics taught), but that it is stored up and secure in Christ who makes it available to any who would ask.
• and in him the whole fullness of God dwells…not just a cheap facsimile or a temporary appearance but a fully real and permanent fullness.  

Warning # 1 “So that no one would deceive/delude you” (v.4)

The "errorists" (what Scholars call the Colossian false teachers) were making efforts to deceive or delude (paralogiomai) the believers. This word carries the idea of cheating someone by false reckoning. I am reminded of how many times in the Old Testament God talks about the importance of economic justice through honest weights and measures. The errorists were misrepresenting the treasures which the believers had in Christ. The world still devalues and misrepresents these treasures. We must refrain from listening to the fast talk by which they attempt to turn us from what we know to be true. This line of argumentation reminds me of some of the credit card fraud/identity theft commercials on TV as well as a hilarious meme I saw on social media recently which stated, “The problem with Internet quotes is that you can never be sure who said them. -- Abraham Lincoln”

Kingdom Treasure # 2 (v. 6-7)

You received Christ Jesus the Lord… and you get to walk in him [live] the same way you received him.

Paul reminded the Colossians to live in the same way that they had received Christ. Why do we give lip service to being saved by grace through faith but then tend to live our lives by legalism and self-effort? Paul confronts this tendency head-on.

Therefore, as you 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.

• Rooted, built-up in him not in our own efforts... which reminds us that we are not without a foundation in Christ.
• Established in the faith (the body of truth) hence they were not easily shaken and can continue just as they were taught.
• Abounding in thanksgiving. As we have seen in recent posts, the Christian is to be characterized by overflowing gratitude, not a cascade of complaints.

Warning # 2 (v.8) 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.

The errorists wanted to spiritually “take captive” (slyagōgeō) like so much pirate booty; to carry one off as a slave…in this case to the control of their teachings. Errorists would have taught that the knowledge of becoming truly spiritual and attaining heaven was only available through their “spiritual knowledge” or “philosophy.” This empty deceit ("hollow and empty" NIV) was...

• according to human tradition (This seems to point to pagan theories of that day not so much to Jewish tradition.) Do we allow culture to shape our view of God and filter how he sees us? I think this is very common.
• according to elemental spirits  (to which you died v. 20) is perhaps a dig at the false teachers' “spiritual knowledge” being less impressive than they thought.
• not according to Christ …the "philosophy" of the heretics was not in keeping with the truth as it was revealed in Christ. Remember how the Grinch in the original Dr. Seuss animated TV special thought he could prevent Christmas from coming by stealing all the Who’s possessions? His motivation was not in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, and thankfully he learned his lesson.

Kingdom Treasure # 3 (v. 10-15)

We have been qualified by Christ and welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here is a quick inventory (for insurance purposes) from this very rich theological passage…

• We have been filled in him which means that spiritually we don’t need someone’s “secret knowledge” for us to be complete (v. 10).
• We have received a spiritual circumcision (not external but internal) at our conversion which is the sign of our welcome into the kingdom of heaven (v. 11).
• Our being "buried" and "raised" with Christ conveys the thought not simply of burying an old way of life and rising to a new kind of life but of our sharing in the experience of Christ's own death and resurrection (v.12).
• We were dead in our trespasses and rebellious individualism, but now God has made us alive with Christ (v. 13). [See also Romans 5:6-10]

Warning #3 (v. 16) Let no one pass judgment on your relationship with God based on food or festivals.

Paul lists several controversial qualifiers that the errorists (whether pagan or Jewish) insisted upon. This kingdom is not about whether we eat or fast, nor is it found in keeping or not keeping various Jewish feasts for they were shadows that are now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As we head into the Christmas season we should be reminded that two camps will oppose us.

• There are those secularists who hate Christmas for challenging their paganism and don’t want any suggestion or reminders that God came to earth to save them. (John the Baptist faced such opposition.)
• There are those “Grinches” within the church who like to hate all the symbols of the season, for being too pagan—from Christmas trees to lights and logs and the other symbolism all around us. (Jesus faced this kind of resistance.) I was pleasantly surprised that the movie, Saving Christmas, by Kirk Cameron addressed this problem in a light-hearted engaging way.

Kingdom Treasure # 4 (v. 17) The substance belongs to Christ

        These are a shadow of the things to come,

                but the substance belongs to Christ.  

The “shadows” have been superseded in the “substance” or reality of Christ. If we know the language of the errorists, then we will see the biting irony of Paul’s choice of words throughout the letter.

Warning # 4 (v.18-19) Let no one disqualify you insisting on …

                            asceticism and

                            worship of angels, 

                            going on in detail about visions, 

                            puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 

               and not holding fast

                                   to the Head,

from whom the whole body,

                          nourished and knit together

                                      through its joints and ligaments,

                                              grows with a growth that is from God.

In this final PSA-style warning, Paul hints that following the errorists would lead to disqualification. They advocated the abandonment (or minimization) of simple faith in the death and resurrection of Christ in favor of the…

• False humility of asceticism (denying oneself the simple pleasures and even basic necessities of life)
• Worship of angels (hierarchies, aeons, emanations, etc.) but Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus' name is better than that of any angel! 
• Overemphasizing details about their supposed visions 
• Not holding fast to the Head (Christ) who is “the reason for the season”

If you have not experienced this forgiveness and welcome by the Lord you can do so today. It begins by confessing that we are not able to save ourselves from our sins (whether rebellion, mistakes, or weaknesses) and deciding to place our trust in Jesus Christ alone. If we ask God to forgive us, because Jesus died in our place, and put our trust in him he will do it (e.g., 1 John 1:9; Ephesians 2:8-9)!

Jesus told a story about this message of hope being like seeds scattered by a farmer and how they fell on different kinds of soil representing various types of hearts (Luke 8:4-15; Matt. 13:18-23). He said that when the message falls on hard ground the original car prowler the devil steals it away. Don't let him do it again! Let's respond in trust and receive the good news!