“Colossians 2”

Sunday, July 02, 2017

God desires that all Christians grow spiritually. We begin as babes in Christ (1 Peter 2:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:17) and over time, we are to grown to “perfection” (Hebrews 5:12-6:3; Colossians 1:28).

Paul refers to this spiritual completeness or maturity with several phrases – good order, the steadfastness of your faith, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, abounding in it with thanksgiving (verses 1-10).

He did not want them to be deceived “with persuasive words” by false teachers, such as the Gnostics or others (verse 4).

The solution to spiritual immaturity and the path to growth is “Christ Jesus the Lord” (verses 6-7). “You are complete in Him” (verse 10). Christ is what we need. And He is all we need. He is our Savior and will supply all of our needs (Philippians 4:19). No one can come to God, except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

Verses 11-23 discuss the struggle between human and divine wisdom.

For some reason, human beings have historically had a tendency to want to change what God has revealed to suit themselves.

God has often found it necessary to remind people that they are not allowed to add to or take away from His word (see, for example, Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19).

The prophet Jeremiah reminds God’s people of his day in Jeremiah 10:23, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”

The Pharisees were often warned by Christ Himself that they must be content with God’s will and not to exchange it for “the doctrines and commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9). To do so would make their worship “vain” or worthless.

They were never condemned for strictly obeying God’s revelation (as many claim today), but for adding their own human regulations and elevating those man-made rules to the status of divine revelation (or even considering their rules and traditions more important than God’s ways).

Let us learn to “speak as the oracles of God,” nothing more, nothing less and nothing else.

--Roger Hillis

Share