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Introduction

There was a church in Laodicea also, about ten miles from Colossae. Paul mentions that church in this passage, and a lost letter to them is referred to later in this book (Col. 4:16). This church at Laodicea had fallen on hard times by the time the Lord Jesus addresses them directly in the book of Revelation, where He has nothing good to say of them as a church. Nevertheless, there were some there who could still hear His voice (Rev. 3:20).

The Text

“For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words . . .” (Col. 2:1-23).

Summary of the Text

Paul has not met these believers, or those in Laodicea, and he wishes they knew the conflicts he had had on their behalf (v. 1). These conflicts were apparently instances of wrestling in prayer, that their hearts might be comforted, that they might be knit together in love, and into a full assurance (v. 2). As they are knit into this understanding of Christ, they find that in Him are all treasures of wisdom and understanding (v. 3). He wants this for them so that they would be immune to beguiling and enticing words (v. 4).

Paul was not there, but he was with them, rejoicing in the steadiness of their worship and faith (v. 5). They needed to walk like Christians; the 10,000^thstep should be just like the first one—by faith (v. 6). They are to be rooted in Christ, built up in Christ, the way they were taught, and overflowing with gratitude (v. 7). The alternative to this progress in sanctification is to be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, the way men do, and not according to Christ (v. 8).

Remember that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ (v. 9). This means that if we are in Him, that is sufficient (v. 10). In Christ we were all spiritually circumcised (v. 11), which corresponds to our baptism (v. 12). We used to be dead, but now we are alive (v. 13). The accusations of the law were against us, and so God removed them by nailing them to His cross (v. 14). This humiliated the principalities and powers, and Christ triumphed over them (v. 15).

This is why and how we are liberated from the fastidious, and regulations having to do with food or drink or calendar observance, new moons, Sabbaths (v. 16), which are all just shadow play (v. 17). Don’t let any man beguile you with this kind of stuff (v. 18), and remember that a certain kind of fleshly mind is attracted to this. Such a one does not hold on to the Head, which is how the body is knit together (v. 19). If you are dead in Christ, then why act as though you were alive to the world and its fussiness (v. 20)? Don’t don’t don’t(v. 21). These things are transient and temporal (v. 22). They have the look of wisdom, they display well, but they don’t do any good whatever (v. 23).

Beguiled

Paul is concerned that the Colossians might be susceptible to a particular kind of worldly wisdom. He warns them against vain deceit and philosophy (v. 8). He says that the deception is deeply embedded in the way this world operates—the traditions of men and the rudiments of this world (vv. 8, 20). When people veer off into vain nonsense, they are doing something that seems to fitsomehow. They think they are finding themselves, or getting down to the bones of the world, but they are actually drifting away from Christ. Paul uses two different words that are rendered as beguiled by the KJV. One is in v. 4 and the other in v. 18. The latter has the sense of controlling or manipulating. This chapter is crammed with cautions, and while their particular first century pitfalls are not with us today, the rudiments of the world most certainly are. Beware of new age spirituality. So beware of crystals, oils, depth psychology, feel-good affirmationism, spelunking in the cavernous world of personality and identity, and the all-round Ophrafication of America.

Beholding Your Order

Why do we worship the way we do? In verse 5, Paul refers to how orderly the church was in its worship. The word there is taxis, and originally it was a military term—much like how we might use the word regimentation. He was pleased about two things at Colossae that he had heard about. One was the steadfastness of their faith in Christ, and the other was the disciplined order of their worship services. For many reasons—most going back to the spontaneity of Rousseau—we tend to think that structured worship is somehow insincere. We tend to think that a prayer that you actually thought through and prayed overas you wrote it is hypocritical. But why on earth would we think that?

Circumcision and Baptism

The Bible teaches that physical circumcision is a representation of spiritual circumcision (Deut. 10:16; Rom. 2:28-29). The physical represents the spiritual. The Scriptures also teach that physical baptism is a representation of spiritual baptism (Acts 10:47). The physical represents the spiritual. We are told here that spiritual circumcision (without hands) corresponds to spiritual baptism (vv. 11-12). So why on earth would we not be able to finish the fourth side of the square? Why doesn’t physical circumcision correspond to physical baptism? And if that is the case, then how would infants be excluded?

Spiritual Knitting

We saw earlier how God wants us to be knit together in love. This happens when we hold fast to the Head, that is Christ. Our growth in the faith is Christocentric, and our love for one another, in order to be fervent, must be Christocentric also. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7).

So love God, and love your brother, in that order. A lover of Christ is a lover of Christians. But if any finite being assumes the place of God in your life, and you love them more than anything else, it will not be long before you run out of gas and they will receive less love than they would if you had kept them at #2. If you cling to Christ then you will be knit to one another. We see this in v. 2 and v. 19.

Christ is the one principle of unity here. We worship an infinite Christ, not an infinite series of little complicated christs.

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Introduction

Remember that Colossae was a Gentile city, and that the church had been planted there about ten years earlier by Epaphras. As a Gentile church, they were in a good position to hear about the mystery of Christ—hidden for long ages past, but now manifested in them.

The Text

“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister . . .” (Col. 1:21-29).

Summary of the Text

Before the gospel had been brought to them, the Colossians were dead in their sins. Paul says that they used to be alienated and enemies in their minds by their wicked works, but now have been reconciled (v. 21). This reconciliation had been brought about through the death of Jesus so that they might be made holy in the sight of God (v. 22). This gospel is something they must continuein, Paul says. This is the gospel that was preached to them, and to everyone (v. 23).

As a minister, Paul now fills up the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the body, which is the church (v. 24). He was made a minister of this gospel for the sake of the Colossians, in order to fulfill the word of God (v. 25). He is talking about the mystery which God hid for ages, but which He has now made manifest to the saints (v. 26). This mystery is Christ within the Gentiles, the hope of glory (v. 27). This is the Christ that Paul preaches, warning and teaching both, and with the goal of presenting every man complete in Christ (v. 28). That is the end toward which Paul labors, struggling to get out what God is working in (v. 29).

Alienated in their Minds

A very consistent element in Paul’s anthropology is his awareness of what sin does in us, how it works in us. We tend to think that certain mental “mistakes” lead us down the wrong path, and that we then wind up in sin as a result. Note how Paul reverses this. They were enemies in their minds and they were alienated in their minds because of their wicked works (v. 21). Sin leads to intellectual futility, not the other way around. The heart drives the head.

Filling Out the Sufferings

Paul says that he completes the sufferings of Christ in his body, and we have to spend a moment here lest anyone think that the sufferings of Christ for redemption were in any way inadequate or in need of being completed. When Paul says this (v. 24), he immediately adds that he was made a minister. Paul was made a minister of the Word, which means that he fulfills the sufferings of Christ’s body that were related to the proclamation of it—not that which was related to the laying of the foundation for it. Christ died, once for all, and that cannot be supplemented. But the message of that death can and must be supplemented, and there are countless sufferings connected with those countless preachers. This is the suffering of Christ’s body, in a different sense. The Lord Jesus, who had completed His redemptive suffering, asked this same Paul on the Damascus road why he was persecuting Him(Acts 22:7).

What Is a Mystery?

We tend to think of a mystery as something that is hidden, period. But in Paul’s vocabulary, a mystery was something that was bound up for ages and generations, but which was eventually revealed and manifested to all. And of course, if we limit ourselves to the New Testament, it will eventually become strange to refer to this as a mystery at all. But if we are steeped in the Old Testament, if we remember that the Jews were our elder brothers in the faith, then the fresh and potent nature of this revealed mystery will remain with us. Paul works through this same glorious truth in the second chapter of Ephesians.

The Hope of Glory

What is the content of this mystery? The content of this mystery is summed up in the phrase the riches of the glory, and then it is amplified by the phrase Christ in you, the hope of glory. This content, the message that Christ would be revealed in the Gentiles as the hope of glory, is a message that Paul says was hidden. But where was it hidden? The answer is plain that it was hidden throughout all the Old Testament. Now that Christ has risen from the dead, and has given His Spirit to saints all over the world, it is fairly easy to find that mystery as we read the Scriptures. Sure, now that we see it we cannot stop seeing it. But we also must not stop seeing it.

Working Out What God Works In

Now Paul says something here which is really similar to the principle he sets out in Philippians. “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13).

And how does he express that same truth here? He says that he labors, in line with God’s working or energy, which works in him with power. A man or a woman who labors in the church, doing plenty of good stuff, is going to burn out unless it is an outworking of God’s prior in-working. Receive what God works in by faith. And by that same faith, work into the world what God worked into you.

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Introduction

Together with Ephesians, the epistle to the Colossians is one of those places in Scripture where you have a much higher densityof truth. The letter is not more true than other passages of Scripture, but there is certainly more truth per square inch. This letter will repay many visits.

The Text

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ . . .” (Colossians 1:1–20)

Summary of the Text

The letter is from Paul the apostle and Timothy both, but since the pronoun I is used throughout, we may assume that Timothy was the secretary (v. 1). The saints and faithful brethren there are greeted with grace and peace from the Father and Son (v. 2). Paul was constantly grateful for the Colossians (v. 3), ever since he heard of their faith in God and love for the saints (v. 4). That faith and love sprang from their hope laid up in heaven, which they heard about through the gospel (v. 5). That gospel, in the Colossians and everywhere, is fruitful from the beginning (v. 6). They learned all this from Epaphras, a faithful minister (v. 7), who reported their love back to Paul (v. 8).

Since the first day Paul heard of their beginning, he constantly prayed that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (v. 9). This is so that they might walk in a way that was fruitful and pleasing to God (v. 10). This would happen as they were strengthened by His power in all patient joy (v. 11), giving thanks to the Father who included them in His inheritance (v. 12). God had delivered them from the power of darkness (v. 13) into His kingdom, and they had redemption through the blood of the Son, which is the forgiveness of sin (v. 14).

This Son is particularly exalted in this book. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation (v. 15). This Son is the Almighty Creator of all things—they were created byHim and forHim (v. 16). He is prior to all things, and in Him all things hang together (v. 17). He is the head of the church, and the arche(the “beginning”), the firstborn from the dead, the preeminent one (v. 18). It pleased the Father that all fullness might reside in the Son (v. 19). And having made peace through the cross, it was the Father’s intention to reconcile everything in Heaven and on earth through that magnificent sacrifice (v. 20).

Background of the Book

For many reasons, the book of Colossians should be considered the twin sister of Ephesians. These two books were written around the same time (62 A.D.), during Paul’s Roman imprisonment—the imprisonment recorded at the end of the book of Acts. Another letter written at the same time was Philemon. All three letters were apparently delivered by Tychicus (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7) and Onesimus (Col. 4:9).

Colossae is located about one hundred miles to the east of Ephesus, in modern Turkey. Ephesus was on the coast, and Colossae was inland. The church at Colossae had been founded about ten years earlier, but not directly by Paul. When Paul was teaching for that three year stretch in Ephesus (A.D. 52-55), a Colossian native named Epaphras heard Paul in Ephesus, was converted, and returned to Colossae in order to plant the church there (Col. 1:7).

Christ the Creator

If something exists, then that something was created by Christ. He is the executive of God’s power, He is God’s power, which is to say, He is God. Consider verse 16 again. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:” (Col. 1:16).

But we are told this many times in the New Testament. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2). If something is, then Christ made it.

Christ the Arche

The word archein verse 18 is translated as beginning, but there is more to this than what a stopwatch measures. The word archeis used in John 1:1, but there at the beginning is the Word, who is God and with God. In Col. 2:15, Christ spoils the principalities (arche), which refers to spiritual rulers. Christ is the ultimate ruler, the ultimate point of integration, the firstborn of all creation.

Paul says this explicitly in verse 15. He is the firstborn of all creation. This is echoed a moment later in the phrase firstborn from the dead. And so we see that firstborn of all creation does not mean “first born creature.” Christ is no creature, but rather the Creator, as already noted. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is God’s declaration of who is really is (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33). Jesus was begotten from the dead, which is what “this day I have begotten thee” refers to in the second psalm.

Christ the Cosmic Reconciliation

Paul says something very striking in verse 20. “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col. 1:20). The death of Christ on the cross did not just result in our forgiveness and our redemption, although it includes that. We see that in verse 14—“in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” And so the estrangement between our unholy selves and a holy God is accomplished this way. But notice that Paul is talking about a much grander reconciliation accomplished through the cross. Here the reconciliation is between “all things” and “Himself.” And the allness of the “all things” includes things in Heaven as well as on earth.

Do not simply think of Heaven as a place that is utterly distant—although the Scriptures do speak of the highest heaven. We should also think of Heaven as something that is near but hidden from us. There are multiple places where we are told that the heavens “opened.” We see this at the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:10). Jesus told Nathanael that he would see it (John 1:51). Peter saw this in his vision of the sheet with the unclean animals (Acts 10:11). This what Stephan saw at his martyrdom (Acts 7:56). This is the revelation that John saw (Rev. 4:1).

So do not say, “who will go up into Heaven to get Christ for us?” (Rom. 10:6; Deut. 30:12-13). No, Heaven is nearby, because Christ is preached, and whenever Christ is preached, He is nearby.

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Rom. 10:8).

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