2016-08-26
Good Morning Dear Ones,
For the last two weeks, I have described a seriously competing, human-crafted philosophy called Gnosticism that provided plenty of stress to the apostle Paul [COL 1: 8-10]. He was in house arrest at the time that this human-centered philosophy saw its beginnings in the “Colossian Heresy.” Paul’s concern was that believers in Jesus Christ both learned Christ’s teaching with accuracy and grew in numbers. Unable to travel to Colossae himself, Paul sent Epaphras, who was a true-believing servant of Christ from Colossae that he could trust to deliver this epistle to his fellow citizens in Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea [COL 1: 7].
The stress Paul felt came from the kind of teaching described in 1 TIM 4: 1-5, “The Spirit has clearly said that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected. It is to be received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”
When one looks at the relationship between what Christ, through Paul, taught and what deceived people buying into Gnosticism learned, we see some serious aberrations in thinking and deeply skewed points of view. We also see some serious social issues too.
Gnostics didn’t produce the spiritual fruit that accurate belief in Christ’s truth did. The gifts of the Holy Spirit [GA 5: 22-23] weren’t exhibited by Gnostics. There was an artificial ranking of people in importance in the latter group. This produced disruption in the church. Pride, false humility, leaning on human-crafted regulations, and placing humans at the center of their lives instead of God caused these problems in the Gnostic community. Gnostics were very judgmental. Dualism (the separation of matter, which is bad, from spirit, which is good) doesn’t exist in Christianity. The very notion that only certain people can know truth is foreign to Christ’s way of thinking, as evidenced in JN 15: 13-15. We will find it helpful to review COL 1: 1-14 at this point.
It is made clear that the epistle of Colossians is written from Paul and his young protégé, Timothy. The first section, Thanksgiving and Prayer, is a very characteristic way for Christians to begin something important being done for God. In COL 1: 2-4, Paul acknowledges his thanks to God for the faith in Christ and love the Colossians et al have for all the saints (believers in Jesus Christ). He knows this fruit comes from the shared hope we all have of resurrection, as Christ was resurrected [COL 1: 5-6a]. 1 JN 2: 19, “The world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” In COL 1: 6b, Paul acknowledges the “fruit that the Gospel is bearing” as the church grows and these recipients “understand God’s grace in all its truth.” It was Epaphras, who told Paul about their love in the Spirit, and it is this faithful servant of Christ, who Paul sends to share this truth [COL 1: 7-8]. At this point, verse 9, Paul lets his recipients know that he has been praying continuously, “asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” (This is the same kind of prayer I say for each of you). Paul’s purpose is that his recipients may “live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” His hope is that this will produce great patience and endurance. We are to joyfully thank the Father for making it possible for us to inherit the Kingdom…” This required the breaking of the dominion of darkness over us (sin), and it leads to redemption and eternal forgiveness [COL 1: 10-14; JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; 1 JN 1: 9].
PRAYER: O Lord, we are learning from Paul, who You must treasure for His wisdom, accuracy of spreading the Gospel, and endurance in the face of horrific trials, that we should be joyful, thankful, and willing to acknowledge Your remarkable attributes and deeds. It is clear to us that we need to know Your word well [2 TIM 3: 16-17] and seek You out for Your wisdom [JER 29: 11-13] in order to produce fruit and live worthy lives. Your Son told us, in JN 15: 5, “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” We need and seek Your presence and intervention in our lives. We thank and praise You for blessings already received. Most of all, we offer You thanks for giving us faith in Jesus Christ and the willingness to honestly and openly confess our sins. These are the things that led to us being adopted as Your children and covenant partners. At the time we came to faith, You gave us the hope of the resurrection, following Christ, the Firstborn in all creation [COL 1: 15], the First to be brought from death to life at Your side in heaven [RO 8: 29]. We love and thank You for making Him Your visible image, Whom we can see and understand, for giving Him Your fullness. We offer You praise for Who You are and what You do for us, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Because COL 1: 9-14 contains such important precepts of our faith, I will continue to analyze this passage and then go on to a word study of some key words we need to better understand. God knows the limitations of human perception sufficiently to have written IS 55: 8-9 in which He compares ours to His. This matters, because it is why He made Christ “the visible image of the invisible God” [COL 1: 15a]. This allows us to be able to perceive Him and His teaching. However, it didn’t keep the people alive during His earthly incarnation from the inability to recognize Christ for Who He is. From JN 6: 39-40 and EPH 1: 4-5, we know that God considers it a high priority to bring as many humans as will listen to the truth back to His side in heaven in His own time and way. Knowing this, we are motivated to please God and to be faithfully obedient to Him, even when it means making hard choices. One of those choices for me is trying to choose wisely what I watch on TV or read about in the papers. This becomes increasingly difficult, unless I reach into my collection of past shows and stories, which held to a standard of wholesomeness. Of course this is not life’s most important choices, but it is one example of how I try to put this principle in my own life. Sin begins with evil thoughts. The temptation to have such thoughts is always with us as long as we are on earth. That’s when it’s time to remember, 1 COR 10: 13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2016. All Rights Reserved.
<-- Back to Archives