Stability in Jesus

Welcome to week five of Finding Stability, which is our women's Bible study, through the book of Colossians, and today we're covering Colossians chapter 2, verses 8 to 23. And it's finally time in our Bible study for the warning portion of this letter. Paul said there was three things that he did. Proclaiming the gospel, teaching the gospel, that platform of truth that we talked about, and then warning against what wars against the platform of truth. And as Christians, that should be the things that we do as well. And so we should maybe take note as we go through this of Paul's two-step approach to this subject, and that is warning and reminding. We're going to go back and forth in these verses and see warning and reminding. It's one thing to go around warning people about dangerous ideas and philosophies, but the real benefit comes from reminding them who they are, who they belong to, and what Jesus has done for them that has fundamentally transformed their life. But both are important, and that's what we find in these 15 verses. So let's get started on verse 8.

For in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So we're going to pause there. We have two concise sentences that give a warning and a reminder. What is the warning that we see here? Do not be taken captive. You're already, Paul's talking to Christians, so it's like you're already standing on a foundation of Christ. Do not be taken captive. Don't allow yourself to be captured and diverted another direction. Well, what might capture their attention or divert their affections? He names philosophy here. Now, this is not the academic discipline of philosophy, like, what are you majoring in, sociology or philosophy? That's not what we're talking about. This word means the love or the pursuit of wisdom. And then we say, well, now wait a minute, because that sounds biblical. I think the Bible tells me, get wisdom. And it does. But Paul mentions this, this love or pursuit of wisdom, and he qualifies it with that phrase, empty deceit. Wisdom of emptiness. Trust in emptiness. Nothing to back it up. So we're talking about the philosophy of man as opposed to the revelation of God. Now, when we think about what the Psalms and the Proverbs tell us, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you see the difference there? And so that's real, true wisdom based on knowing and fearing God. So let's talk about these deceiving philosophies, empty philosophies. Paul said they could be based on human tradition, what people come up with, what they hold on to, what they pass down from one generation to another, including but not limited to what we might call superstitions. And then Paul said also, he mentioned the elemental spirits of the world. That's not a phrase that we handle very often. The NIV says the basic principles of the world. The easiest one for me to grasp is the NLT, which says the spiritual powers of this world. So I want to mention a few things to give legs to this idea. And the first thing I would mention is naturalism, which devotes our attention to nature rather than to God. And many tribal traditions focus on naturalism. It gets people to be focusing on the created rather than the creator. This is super common. Spiritualism, devoting attention to the spirit world, which without Christ is demonic. And so Eastern religions often focus on spiritualism, which directs a person's focus on the spiritual world rather than on the true God, who is also spirit. And then intellectualism, devoting attention to what can be learned through observation. And people who are raised in a post-Christian culture like ours have kind of pieced together life. And they have kind of gathered information around them from school, from friends, from podcasts, from books, from reading. And then they take this and in their mind, they create a platform of truth for themselves, which is called my truth. And this is super common. So all the isms that I mentioned are a problem. If we search for wisdom according to them, did you notice the three times that Paul used that word according to? He said, according to human tradition, dangerous. According to the elemental spirits of the world, dangerous. And then he said, according to Christ, yes, positive, because in him, the fullness of deity of God dwells bodily and you have been filled in him. And so that is the wisdom that we are to seek according to Christ. And that's the reminder sentence, warnings and reminders. The reminders we are united with Christ as we studied last week, Christ in you, the hope of glory. So before Paul goes back to warnings, he's going to hang out in this reminder section just a little bit more, add some dimension and understanding. The Bible is filled with mental pictures for us to symbols and shadows and things for us to understand what things abstract concepts are like. And this is where Paul's going to go with this. And he's going to use two mental pictures for us. One of them is from the Jewish Old Testament tradition, and one of them is from the Christian New Testament tradition. Both of them are a physical symbol of a spiritual reality. Both of them portray an external change or an external understanding of what was internal. And of course, what you wrote, what we're talking about is circumcision and baptism. So let's read that. Let's read Paul's words

So since Paul went to the trouble to talk about these things, let's just mention here that circumcision, even though it was an outward sign given to Abraham, was always intended to symbolize an inward surrender of the heart. The Bible teaches that throughout the whole Bible. And baptism, also an outward sign or a demonstration, symbolizes as well an inward surrender of the heart, inward change of the heart. So I think that the brilliant idea of placing reminders here in the midst of warnings is because it's a key strategy for us to prevent us from being taken captive because it reminds us we have been fundamentally changed in Christ. We weren't always in him. Did you know that? We weren't born in him. We needed every one of us needed to hear and understand the bad news that we were sinful. We were dead. We were uncircumcised. We were lost. That's why I said in the study guide, if you need to, if you want to get somebody saved first, you have to get them lost. And so that's what the next verses do. The next verses are going to get us lost. Look at verse 13.

So again, people aren't born good and sort of gradually fall into the bad category because of sin or the dead category because of sin. We are born spiritually dead. And our only hope of becoming alive is putting our faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. These are the things that you underlined in blue. You added more to your arsenal of what you understand with your blue underlines. And the three that we underlined were forgetting. gave our trespasses, canceled the record of debt, and disarmed the rulers and authorities because we had a trespass that needed to be forgiven. We had a debt that needed to be paid. And there were rulers and authorities who had a right to us to rule over us before Christ. But after we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we realize now, especially through a passage like this, what has been accomplished for us on the cross, that Jesus exercised his right to forgive our sins, that Jesus stood in our place. We had an IOU, we had a debt. He stood in our place and paid it for us. And I love this. He triumphed over the rulers and authorities, he opened up his creation, and now they have no power over us. This is what has been accomplished for us. This is what we should meditate on because just because we're in him doesn't mean we are bulletproof now. Okay, if we walk back in our mind to the first chapter, verse 23, remember kind of our theme verse that says, Paul said, continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. We're to hold on, we are to continue, remember our position in Christ. It would be a tragedy once Jesus disarmed those rulers and authorities, if we simply invited them back in. That would be a tragedy. Invited them back in to rule over us, and that is what this warning is about. That is why Paul gives this warning part of the letter. To the Colossians, he's warning them of, as we moms say, stranger danger. And so in verse 16, he starts off, he goes, therefore, since God no longer passes judgment on you, don't let anyone else, no one, pass judgment. And I think we should pause and just remember where we started. In our introduction, we kind of looked into their world a little bit, and we asked the question, what was coming against them? What was the stranger danger in their world? And we said it was a mixture of three things. There was a Jewish element that seemed to want to require true believers to worship certain days and to deny themselves certain foods and follow certain rules. And there was a pagan element that came in, and they wanted to emphasize the self-denial and or this interesting worship of angels. And there was a philosophical element that said, but if you really want to be holy and know God, then you need to seek out this mystical wisdom that we have to offer so that you can really know God. So verse 16 again,

So let's handle those things a little bit, these observances like festivals and Sabbaths. In the Old Testament, God gave his people a lot of things to observe regularly, and they were intended to set a rhythm of remembrance so that when the reality showed up on the scene, they would recognize the reality because they had established a rhythm of remembrance. A lot of different things, but let's just take Passover, for example. God gave them this ordinance of Passover and said, do this every year. And there were elements that in their rhythm of remembrance that things like the spotless lamb and a particular selection day, a particular day of the month, the 10th day of the month, and the 14th day of the month, the sacrifice day, and everybody gathering in the homes and the blood over the homes and the sheltering under. This was their rhythm of remembrance. And then all of a sudden, when Jesus, the spotless Passover lamb, came into Jerusalem on the 10th and was crucified on the 14th, it should have been a billboard that lit up and they should have said, this is what we have been remembering all this time. There is the reality. And many of them did. Many of them understood the reality. But then there was many of the Jewish people who were like, I don't care if the reality's here or not, we still do it. We still do the Passover and we're making them, and so they were passing judgment on the Christians if they didn't do it. And the Christians are like, ah, the reality's here. It was only meant to point us to that. And so I don't know how much of a problem it is today, but I do know that in every decade or so, there's a movement that pops up that wants to reestablish, often it's called the Hebrew Roots Movement, and it wants to reestablish all of those things that were meant to point to the reality. Verse 18, Paul said,

Okay, so Paul's doing some more warning here. First word we see is asceticism, which maybe you didn't even use this week except for writing it in your notebook. But it's basically practicing a predefined guideline of self-denial for spiritual reasons. Practicing self-denial for spiritual reasons. Now, let's not get discipline and asceticism mixed up because if you're like me, perhaps there's some area of your life with a certain amount of indulgence and you need a layer of discipline, and discipline is a good thing. But in this context, and even Paul said, he told the Corinthians, he said, I discipline my body. So that's not what we're talking about. In this context, asceticism promotes the idea that a person can attain a higher spiritual state by adhering to whatever guidelines are in vogue in the moment, whatever is set out. And so there are certain things that are avoided, even marriage, that become the pathway. Avoiding these things becomes the pathway to holiness. And who doesn't want holiness? Holiness is like an inner circle. It's like, yes, I'd like to be in the inner circle. And I got to thinking there's a lot of things in our life that set that tone, set that idea of a higher level or an inner circle. Just in high school, for example. In high school, you have a national honor society. And we look at those people and it's like, oh, they're a little bit smarter. They're a little bit more intellectual. And there's a basketball team that has a starting five. And they're a little bit more athletic. They're a little bit more capable. And there's a jazz band that has soloists. And they're a little bit more talented. And we're trained to think about a higher level, an inner circle. And that's not bad either. If I need brain surgery, I want the girl or the guy who went to the higher level. I want the proficient person. So it's not bad. What is bad is when this concept migrates into our spiritual life. And then somehow it is suggested to us that we start on the normal plane and we move up to a higher level where God will like me more, where I'll become a real Christian, where maybe I'll have more of the Holy Spirit. Maybe I'll have a better place in heaven if indeed I do these things that higher level Christians do. That's the danger. And that's what Paul is warning against. Paul said, don't let them disqualify you. Jesus already qualified you. So don't go back on that. And then he talked about the worship of angels, which I think was something that the original readers could relate to. I was almost just wanting to skip over this. It's like, I don't know anybody in my world that promotes that. Until this week, we get a note on one of Paul's teachings. Listen to this. The only way to truly worship God is through prayer meditation. You need to connect to God and the angels spiritually to feel God in your heart. Reading the Bible is not enough. Most pastors don't like that because they have a fear of not being needed. Well, first of all, the statement, reading the Bible is not enough, I'll agree with that. You have to read. absorb, and apply the Bible. I'll give him that one. But I know dozens and dozens of pastors, and I do not know one of them who stays awake at night worried about not enough people needing him. It just doesn't happen. But there you go. This is still, there's still things that sweep in and out. You have to connect with God and the angels. So it's still there. All these things do is they result in a prideful condition. Puffed up by his sensuous mind is the way Paul said it, which is literally a mind of flesh, rather than stability in Jesus. And that is the mind of the Spirit, the mind that is set on what Christ has done. So verse 20, we're going to wrap this up, finish this off.

So what I want to do is take this final warning section, and I want to break it into four groups. And I'm going to call it Practical Advice for Stability in Jesus. I decided this teaching today should be called Stability in Jesus. So in these last verses, Paul gives us practical advice for stability in Jesus. And the first one is, don't focus on the perishable. Paul's words are referring to things that all perish as they are used. Don't focus on the perishable. That statement becomes a fantastic filter to say, am I being encouraged to focus on something that is perishable here? Food, drink, apparel, even days of the week? Now, next week, chapter 3 is going to lead us into thinking about non-perishable things. But here, we're saying, don't focus on the things that are going to perish. So if you want to keep your hair long because you love long hair or your husband loves long hair, keep your hair long. But doing so does not promote holiness because hair is going to perish. If you've had COVID or chemo, it perishes much faster than you ever wanted it to. If you want to avoid pork because you don't like the texture or it doesn't agree with you, well, then go ahead. But abstaining from non-kosher foods is not a requirement for holiness. Food perishes. If you love how you feel in a dress because it makes you feel feminine, then go ahead and wear dresses. But it is not a requirement for holiness. Clothing perishes. And if you need to gather with your people and do church on Tuesday night because you work every Sunday in the ER, which I love to find Christians in the ER on a Sunday morning, don't get anybody to tell you you're doing wrong. Sunday is not a requirement for holiness. Saturday is not a requirement for holiness. What does the Bible teach us? Don't forsake the gathering. The important thing is being knit together. The important thing is gathering. See how this applies to things that perish? So if something perishes, it's not a requirement for holiness, right? Second, be careful with human traditions. Paul said, according to human precepts and teachings. Every age has created traditions, teachings, precepts that seem spiritual. They seem to promote holiness. But they truly only accomplish promoting a man-made religion. And there's a lot of things we can think of that fall into this category of human traditions, human precepts, and teachings. I think about, in this country, our history with the Puritans when they first established churches. What did it look like? The men were on one side, and the women were on the other side. Isn't it easy to see how that becomes a tradition? What was the day that they didn't do that? What did that look like? I'm sure there were some people, it's like, no, no. It has to be this way. This is the right way to do things. This promotes holiness. Or even in our generation, we transitioned from a little bit more choral arrangement in hymns to a little bit more of a simple worship song sort of a thing. I love them both. But there are some that have to focus on the human tradition. And then there are some that think the King James 1611 Bible, that was the only time in history when there was anointed translators. And no one has ever been anointed to translate the Bible again since then. And so it's a human tradition. That's the only Bible that's acceptable. So there are all these things that we do. And Paul's warning, don't think your holiness comes from these human traditions. Third thing, understand the appeal of appearances. Those are my words. Paul said, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom. But we should understand the appeal of an appearance. We love a good appearance. I just spent way more money than I should have just buying pumpkins and gourds and corn for my front porch. But I am very happy with how it looks, because I have a great street appeal right now. You may come to my house and admire my statement. We love a good appearance. We love to get a new outfit. Doesn't it make you feel put together, like I can accomplish something? Makeup, lipstick, all those things. Doing something for a good spiritual appearance can give us that same temporary feeling as we get when I put my lipstick on. OK, I'm ready to go. This is good. But it fades, just like my lipstick. And so we need to seek out that permanent assurance of resting in Christ, what he did for us, the things you underlined in blue, rather than any of this temporary seeking out a good appearance, so that others will think that I am holy, I am spiritual. And the last thing is realize there's no power in the flesh. Paul said, they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Because we realize that flesh does not overcome flesh. Only the spirit can overcome the flesh. If there's anything that's coming at me, wanting to take me captive, wanting to grab my attention, what it does is it turns its attention to me, what I do, how well I do it, what I don't do, how all those things. If it's turning its attention to me, then it is a work of the flesh. And I thought to myself, do you know what? Works of the flesh always migrate from puffing me up to sweeping Jesus under the rug, always. It starts by making me feel pretty good about myself. And then it moves on to sweeping anything Christ has done under the rug to make sure that I'm captured and I can only continue to do something myself to make me feel good about myself. But if we want to grow in our relationship with God, if we want to have that holiness that we're talking about, it is done through the spirit. It is done through his spirit. And that's where Paul is taking us next week in chapter 3, setting our mind on things above. We've fully established now all these things that will perish, all these things that capture our attention. This is what we want to leave behind. And now we want to set our minds on things above. So Lord, that's what our prayer is, that you would enable us to do that. Lord, if there are any things in our world, in our lives, that we've even allowed in our family that fall into these categories, Lord, I pray that you would give us the wisdom to deal with it. Lord, we fully understand that as we have been in Christ, we've been established in Christ, saved in Christ, that these powers and authorities have no rule over us. And so Lord, give us wisdom from you, Lord, that helps us to put them, keep them in their place, and that we don't invite them in to puff up our flesh, Lord. Thank you for this chapter. And Father, we just look forward to digging into your word again next week. In Jesus' name. Amen.