Colossians 2:8-20 An Appearance of Wisdom

Colossians 2:8-20

An Appearance of Wisdom

December 2, 2018

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         This passage is very helpful for us. There are many schemes that have an appearance of wisdom, that with retrospect, we realize were not wise at all. Generally speaking, the appearance of wisdom is something that appeals to our flesh. At the time when it is appealing, it is easy for us to justify it as wisdom, or appearing to be wisdom. But when we compare it to what we already know to be true, either of God’s character, or of the specific revealed will of God in the Bible, then the appearance of wisdom disappears.

         

EXEGESIS

Col. 2:8  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. ⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 

See to it- This is a command. You have control over whether or not someone takes you captive.
 This is an important distinction. Eve was deceived by the devil but she was culpable. It did not happen to her unaware. She was deceived willingly with her eyes wide open. This is true of most of us. We are not captivated against our will. However, we are captivated against the Lord’s will. I mean by this what the Lord has already told us, His revealed will. If we are not on our guard, then we can be deceived but if we measure everything by the standard of God’s revelation, God’s will, then we will not be deceived.

Philosophy- love of wisdom. Of course, Christian ought to love wisdom, so we should be philosophers. But the Greeks had a love for talking about various pursuits of truth outside the revealed will of God. They had a pantheon of gods with contradictory systems of belief. They made a mockery of such things, pursing truth as if it were its own category outside the realm of the gods. But we know that our God is the source and even definition of truth. His truth is revealed in Creation and the Bible. Creation leads us generally to truth and we can check what we see in Creation by what God has revealed in His Word. The specific revealed will of God always trumps His general revelation in nature.

We are susceptible to this. In academia, there are many arguments against Christianity, the authority of the Bible and basic Christian ideals and virtues. This antipathy to Christianity is not new. The human heart rebels at the Christian message which puts Christ at the center. Man wants that place.

Human Tradition- At the time Paul is writing, we do not have in mind the traditions of the church. He is thinking in terms of Plato or Aristotle. Human tradition would be those bits of wisdom that were passed down from our forefathers. We sometimes speak of Old Wive’s Tales. Often, there are solid truths in them. Likewise, from the ancient or modern philosophers we find aspects of truth. That should not surprise us. But when these truths run afoul of Scripture, we reject them.

Elemental Principles of the World- He is saying that these principle are below Christ. Christ is pre-eminent, so if the principle you are operating under is a man-made principle, or even if seems to have come from the angels, themselves, it is still below Christ. In that sense, basic, not pre-eminent.

The Fullness of Deity- Again, our standard is Christ. If we have this standard, why would we submit ourselves to a lessor standard? That is foolish. 

We are Filled- Furthermore, he says that not only does Christ reveal the Father, but we also have been filled up through Christ. Thus, we have this witness directly in us. So, if we have the principle of God’s Word and standard, then why would we subject ourselves to man’s standard? That makes no sense. 

Of course, there is a great temptation to do so. It is men in power and authority that pressure us to heed them. This is true in academia, in politics, in the media, in entertainment and social medias, as well as the culture around us. They are all calling us to measure things by their standard and not God’s. But that would be settling for a lower standard, not the one we stand firm on. 

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by

putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 

The circumcision without hands refers to two things at the same time. In the Bible, circumcision was the connection of God’s people to Him through covenant. They covenanted to be His people and He promised to be their God. The sign of this covenant was circumcision. It represented the holiness of God’s people by the putting away of sin. It was never meant to be the cleansing of the flesh. The Bible repeatedly exhorts God’s people to circumcise their hearts. That is, put away evil and sin from your hearts and follow after God.

Now, he speaks of a circumcision made without hands through the circumcision of Christ. That is, our covenant head is now Jesus Christ. It is He who cleanses us from our sins. The sign of this covenant is baptism, where we died to the elemental principles of this world and became alive to Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus is critically important to our life in Him. He is raised to new life and just as we died to sin in Jesus, we are also raised to new life in Him. There is the promise of the Resurrection of the Body to everlasting life for all of us. However, through God’s Spirit, we who belong to Him, have now, already, been raised to new life, ascended with Jesus to the right hand of the Father, and are made partakers of everlasting life.

¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authoritiesand put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

The Colossians were doubly dead. They were dead because of their sinfulness in Adam and their own sins. They were also dead to the promises of God through Covenant. That is, they were not part of Commonwealth of Israel.

But God is able to give them life in Christ and through Christ to unite them to His Covenant people. This is no longer the Commonwealth of Israel, but a greater people, Christ’s Church.

 Canceled Debt- The flesh and law created a huge debt. The flesh is fallen and the law points this out. It says “Thou shalt not!” But the flesh still does those things it ought not to do. Thus, the law condemns men in the flesh. But through Christ, who took upon Him the penalty due us all, canceled the debt against us. We are no longer debtors to God because of sin.

Disarmed Rulers- The rulers in heavenly places are disarmed by Christ. He made a show of them on the cross, triumphing over them. They thought they got the victory by killing Jesus but Jesus got the victory for us all by dying for sinners. This was particularly proved when Jesus rose from the dead.

Rulers and authorities are disarmed now! We are not waiting for Jesus to gain the victory over His enemies. He has already done so. He did so on the cross. He proved in the Resurrection. Then God testified to this fact when Jesus ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father to rule over Heaven and Earth. We may not yet see all things in subjection to Jesus but they are.

Hebrews 2:8-9 ⁸Thou hast put all things in subjectionunder his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothingthat isnot put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Col. 2:16  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 

This is reference to adhering to the customs related to Judaism. The food requirements disappeared when Peter was given the vision that all foods are clean. That was a weight lifted off them and they had freedom to eat whatever was put before them. But there were those who still put pressure on Christians to follow the food prohibitions.

         This is a danger to us. Remember that even Peter fell into the pressure. When the men came to Galatia from Jerusalem, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles and only ate with Jews. Paul calls him out on it as going back to those elemental principles of the world that have no power to save. It was essentially a rejection of salvation by grace through faith.

         This passage does not mean that we do not need to honor the Lord’s Day as the Sabbath. He is talking about still honoring Saturday as the Sabbath, even though the Christians have moved on to worshipping the Lord on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the day of Resurrection.

         All those old types and shadows pointed to Christ. The Old Testament system was in place as types until the substance of the matter arrived, namely, the person of Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Let 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, ¹⁹and 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.

What are some of the pressures? Judaism, honoring various holidays. But also asceticism, denying comfort to the body or even punishing the body as a religious exercise. Again, this is a threat to the gospel. If you can become righteous or mature by punishing yourself, then why did Christ die? He took all the punishment. It is true that we can enter Christ’s suffering. We suffer in this world. But our suffering is not the ground on which we are saved. That ground is only the obedience of Christ. So, stop trying to earn salvation that way.

He has identified multiple pressures that wage war against maturity in Christ. Judaism, academic intellectualism or philosophy. He now turns a different direction. This is likely some sort of Gnostic influence. There are those who claim a higher knowledge. They say that they have heard from angels. We might call this the charismatic influence. They say that you do not have enough information about Jesus from your Bible. You need a special teacher who has personal insight into heavenly and spiritual things to tell you exactly what to believe and do. 

This sort of personal revelation religion is rampant where the church is growing fastest, sub-Sahara Africa and South America. It manifests itself in the form of the Prosperity Gospel, which promises blessings of health and wealth for the followers of Jesus. However, there is very little of the Bible taught and many believers are deceived as to the truth of the gospel. They suffer and become disillusioned with false teaching. This brings shame on the Church of Christ.

Instead, we must hold fast to Christ, our Head. The Church must submit to Him and to so as specifically revealed in His Word. We are thankful for the Church and for ministers of the gospel and we are glad to hold them accountable to the Word of God.

EXHORTATION

Lots of Rules Do Not Make a Mature Christian

Col. 2:20If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²²(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

We died to the rules of Judaism and we live for Christ. We died to the subtelties of Philosophy. Our only ideal form is Jesus, Himself. 

The only reason to submit to rules like do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, is because we think these rules will make us righteous. Or, that such rules will keep us from sin. But the things are not sinful. The sin is in our hearts. So, if our hearts have been purged from sin, we do we think abstaining from pork or meat will somehow help us? It will not.

So, do not look towards man-made righteousness, towards those teachers who promise some extra private knowledge, or towards asceticism. None of these things can make you righteous. Only Jesus can do that. 

In fact, when we look to these things instead of to forgiveness in Jesus, we actually commit another level of sin. We may abstain from meat but sin pops up in other areas of our lives and defiles us.

Jesus points this out among the Scribes and Pharisees numerous times. There problem was not that they were law keepers. They were not. They claimed to keep the law but Jesus reveled to them several times, that they were adulterers, greedy, murderous and other such heinous sins. So, if the Pharisees, the model of attempts and law keeping did not help them be righteous, why do you think it will help you?