Colossians 2:1-7
Knit Together
November 25, 2018
Lynchburg, Virginia
EXHORDIUM
Paul now moves in to the reason needed for Christian maturity. Some seem to be in Christ but fall away for various reasons. Sometimes it is simply a sliding into sin. Christians become attached to the world of pleasure and fall away be degree.
But sometimes it is through the cunning deceit of the devil. He presents plausible arguments through false teachers, through the academy, through science or philosophy.
Mature Christians are able to resist falling away because they stick to what they know, Christ Jesus, the Word of God, those other faithful Christian voices through whom they heard the gospel.
In order to resist the world, the flesh and the devil and to stand fast in Jesus Christ, we must be knit together in Christ and in His Church. This makes us strong, steadfast, firm, able to withstand the world, the flesh and the devil.
EXEGESIS
Col. 2:1For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Paul seeks to encourage the saints. He struggles to that end. What does that mean? He prays for them. He writes to them. His thoughts are towards them. What is the result of his encouragement? Or his desire for them?
It is one of the important goals of a minister to encourage the saints. Like Paul, I feel the need to do so and it is sometimes a struggle. Life can be very difficult at times and many may find themselves discouraged. But we need to encourage one another.
The way that we do so is to continue to remind one another who the Lord is, who we are in Him and that we are here for one another. That is how difficult circumstances knit us together.
Riches of Full Assurance- We have an assurance of pardon after the confession of sin. We want you to know that God loves you and forgives you. Here, Paul says that assurance is related to understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery.
That mystery is the same thing we are trying to encourage you with in the Assurance of Pardon in our Worship Service. Namely, that Christ Jesus died for your sins and if you call out to Him in faith and repentance, He is sure to hear you and grant your forgiveness and full access to Him. That message is one of assurance, peace with God and men.
Treasures- Those of you who have been Christians for many years and have studied your Bibles diligently, are beginning to understand this verse. Christ is on page after page of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. All the ‘hidden’ treasures of God are ‘revealed’ treasures in Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus Himself, isthe hidden treasure. This is why it is imperative that we get to know Jesus. Christian maturity is knowing Christ Jesus deeply.
So, as we get to know Jesus, the mystery disappears. This mystery involves both understanding and wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Get understanding for that is the chief thing. In Jesus, we have both wisdom and understanding.
We begin to see what Christian encouragement is and Christian maturity looks like.
V. 2 That they be knit together in love.
This knitting together in love encourages full assurance of understanding of God’s mystery in Jesus Christ. That is, the saints exhort one another on to love and good works. This is why we are interdependent. We need each other in order to grow up in Christ. Christianity is not a private religion but rather a communal religion. By that, I mean it is a religion that we do together, in community. A Christian cannot become mature alone. He must give himself away to others in order to become what Christ wants him to be. He must make himself open to the help of others in order to persevere to the end. We need each other.
To be knit together is to be woven together in such a way that while we are individual strands or knots, we are one piece, one garment, one tapestry. If we are not knit together then we are not the beautiful garment the Lord desires to make of us.
My daughters, Rebecca and Elizabeth, are knitters. They take yarn and make beautiful things. The process sometimes look ridiculous. We can relate to two needles and knitting but sometimes they use multiple needles and have multiple yarns going and it looks like a big wreck. But out of all that chaos comes a beautiful sweater with an amazing gabled pattern. It just didn’t seem possible from all that mess but it worked.
Our lives in the church are sometimes like that. We are a bunch of different people thrown together to worship and serve the Lord. Our lives intersect in ways that do not seem to make sense. But out of all that chaos comes beauty to be rejoiced over. The Lord is the master knitter, making something beautiful and lasting of us.
4I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Paul gives this admonition in order to protect the Colossians from those who would delude them. This sort of thing is going on all the time.
I say this- Two things, being knit together and Christ is the Treasure, from verses 2 and 3. If we stay together we can protect each other from false arguments. Furthermore, if we focus on the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, sticking closely to the text of the Bible, then we can resist false teaching.
There are voices from outside the church in culture that are antagonistic to the faith. They offer an alternative reality. Man and man’s desires are the arbiter of truth for them. There is no objective standard of truth. This is why the unbelieving culture continues to embrace things like abortion, homosexual marriage and various other sinful behaviors. They attempt to defend their positions through science or psychology. At the center, though, is man and his desires.
The arguments seem plausible. What if man is basically good so his desires are good? What if there is no God and so we do not need to do what He says or what is written in a book but whatever seems right in our own eyes? The rocks have an appearance of billions of years of age. So, we must assume the Earth is billions of years old. We are the higher animals, so we must have evolved from the lower animals. And many such ‘plausible’ arguments.
Or in the world of religion. It makes sense that there is a Creator but since there is so much evil in the world, we know that He does not have anything to do with His creation. We cannot comprehend eternity past with God as the only existent One, so we imagine an entire host of gods existing through the ages. And many such ‘plausible’ arguments.
We, who stick together and are schooled in Christ, find these sorts of arguments appalling but many find these sorts of argument appealing, at least plausible. We need to grow up in Christ if we are going to be able to tell whether plausible arguments are appalling or appealing.
Paul is apart from them but cannot wait to hear if they are learning to be mature in Christ. That maturity looks like good order and firmness. In fact, these two things go together splendidly. Good order is discipline, doing the same things over and over. God is a God of order. Remember, He took the void and chaos and created everything that we see. He put it in good order. As image bearers of God, this is one of our chief aims, to order and organize the world.
This was Adam and Eve’s job in the garden. This is all of our jobs as we take dominion in the world. We are to put our personal life, our homes, our churches, our communities, in good order. That is, we are to order them in accordance with God and His Word. This is nothing less than extending the Dominion Mandate by bringing all things into subjection to Jesus Christ.
Firmness has to do with being steadfast, which is a common theme of the Apostle. Stand on the Rock that is Christ. Do not be moved from there. Remember and stand strong in the things that you know. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Be firm in what you know and do not waver from His truth. This is firmness, good order and leads to perseverance, patience, endurance, and joy.
Romans 5:3-5 3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Similar progression towards Christian maturity- Salvation, suffering, endurance, proven character, hope, God’s love, gratitude, joy.
EXHORTATION
Col. 2:6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Paul is exhorting them to stand fast in Jesus. But he is doing more than that. He is exhorting them to steadfastness and perseverance. Part of Christian maturity is endurance. We endure by getting in shape. When you begin to train for a 26.2 mile marathon, on the first day you might not be able to run even a mile without stopping to rest. 26.2 miles seems impossible. But if you persevere you begin to develop endurance. The next week you can go two miles without stopping. The fifth week, you can run 10 miles without stopping. The 16thweek, you can run 20 miles without stopping.
Being rooted and grounded in Jesus is like persevering in a training program. After a while, what seemed difficult, is not so difficult. You can move on to harder things. But we have to practice.
The purpose of being rooted and grounded in Jesus is perseverance. If you know the Lord and are practiced in His ways, you are strengthened to face all the various difficulties that come your way.
In the first marathon I ran in Richmond, I was developing an injury along the way. As it turned out, it was an ITBand injury that took many months to heal. But at the time I had no idea what I was dealing with along the way. I just kept on moving. It was the training I had done that enabled me to keep going even when I had a good reason and an excuse to quit.
This is why we need to know Jesus, know the Bible, and be knit together in a local church. That is all training the Lord uses to get us through the difficult stretches of life where we just might not make.
In the following verses, Paul talks about some of the hard things that might trip us up along the way. There are those who would capture us with philosophy and empty deceit. An immature Christian falls for these things like a marathon athlete stopping his race after the first mile. A mature Christian keeps on running right by them intent on the goal of pleasing Christ and finishing the race.
Be grounded in Christ and knit together as a body of believers enables us to finish the race set before us.
Established in the Faith
What is the result of being rooted and grounded? Being established in the faith. There are many Christians who are not really established in the faith.
Think of the parable of the seeds, some hear and believe only to have it snatched away. Others grow up and have the sun scorch the plant. Others grow up for a while but get choked out by the worries of the world. But then some grow up are rooted deeply and produce fruit, 30, 60 and 100 fold. That is what it means to be established in the faith.
As you walk in Christ you build up strength to be established in Him. There may be many difficulties in life but you are not going anywhere, you are not listening to the competing voices because you have already settled in your mind and heart who the Lord is and that you belong to Him no matter what. You are established in the faith.
Abounding in Thanksgiving
What marks a Christian? What marks a mature Christian established in the faith? Gratitude. This is an important point and one we ought to practice regularly. We just had a Thanksgiving and I hope you all had much to be thankful to God for. At our table, we had the Chrismans and the Andrew Barrys and the John Barrys. All of them have suffered great losses this year. It was the hardest year of their lives. For my own part, this has been one of the hardest years of my life.
And in the midst of all of this suffering and sorrow, we all sat down with an abundance of Thanksgiving. Life is inscrutable like that. At the very place where you may find yourself the saddest, you find yourself overflowing with gratitude and then there is joy.
Joy in the midst of sorrows, rejoicing in sufferings as Paul says. Such a people are established in the faith.
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