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The greatest enemy to edifying spiritual growth in the lives of those that love God is not carnal sin, but religious bondage and deception and the systems of error they promulgate. Colossians 2:8-23 deals specifically with this trickery.
Watch out – you WILL run across these things.
Colossians 2:8-14,
Our last study in Colossians involved Colossians 2:1-7. All the Treasures of Wisdom and Experience
Remember, Colossians is a letter of correction, meant to bring the believers back to the simplicity that is in Christ.
Verse 6,7 As you have therefore received (lambano – take unto yourself in practice by means of revelation) Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him; Rooted and built up in him as you have been taught (by the revelation of Christ), abounding therein with thanksgiving.
I include these verses first, because the religious bondage, deception, and systematizing of error which is described in the next verses, all in the name of God, will be such a deviation from what God has revealed within you of the spirit of Christ.
Verse 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Beware is the Greek word blepo, one of 13 Greek words translated “to see,” and this specific word indicates “to use the ability to see, either physically or with the mind.” God is telling us to keep our eyes open, because there will be dangerous obstacles we will encounter, and we need to stay on guard. We are to have a picture in our mind of what we are being warned about.
Take heed (blepo) of what you hear (my instruction), for what measure you mete (the effort you put into getting a picture of what I’m saying) it shall be measured to you; and unto you that hear (are thus instructed) shall more be given. Mark 4:24
Spoil means “to strip of value.” When we become children of God, our real value is the spirit of Christ within us. Nothing will strip away that valuable thing from our experience like a) intellectualizing the things of God, or b) needing to look good to others.
Philosophy comes from the Greek philosophia, “the love of wisdom.” Getting wrapped up in arguing with people, trying to prove your viewpoint, needing to prove your viewpoint, trying to prove that God is, or that Jesus really did get up from the dead; trying to prove to a religious zealot that we’re free from the law. These things are a waste of time, and involving yourself with them will strip you of the value of your fellowship with God in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Vain deceit is “the deceit of vanity.” One-upmanship. Needing to prove you’re right. Even needing to be right (See The Need To Be Right.. What was The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?), in our mind. Thinking you need to look triumphant in every situation. Unwilling to have people look down on you. These things come from vanity, where we are the center of our universe.
To me, a good example of the deceit of vanity is the picture of a man who gets caught up in an argument with a group of friends. So totally immersed in his own thinking, he counts the ongoing success of his argument by how many continue to disagree with him. When finally his is the only voice left speaking, he realizes he’s won. Raising his eyes to proudly and haughtily view his defeated audience, he sees that he is standing completely alone.
the tradition of men– it’s the way it’s always done. It’s the way the world thinks, acts, reacts. “Why do we do it this way?” “Because that’s the way it’s always been done.” Nooooo! Stop and think. Why do you do it that way? Why do you react the way you do? Try looking at a situation from God’s point of view! Question everything!
This tradition of men includes (especially) the way religion behaves (and not just the Christian religion). The way it does things. Church on Sunday, Pray toward Mecca four times a day, dress your finest, give your money, do the bake sales, get counseling from the head pastor/preacher, sit down, shut up, don’t ask too many questions, etc. Am I saying any of this is inherently bad? No! But doing it just because “that’s the way it’s done” is bad! Why? Because it strips you of spiritual value!
Verse 9 For in him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (theotes – Godness, deity, divinity. Literally, the nature of God) bodily.
The fullness of the nature of God dwells in the spirit of Christ, which dwells not only in Jesus, but in the body of Christ. Hey, that includes us!!! That fullness does not dwell in any religious practice, argument or defense. It dwells in Christ and in Christ alone! The fullness of the deity of God dwells in the Christ in us, and when we are in Christ, we are in the fullness of deity! (“… that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19)
Verse 10 And you are complete in him, who is the head over all principality and power;
That word complete is in the super superlative in the Aramaic. Good, better, best, beyond the best. We are completely, absolutely completely complete in Christ, who rules over, on top of and beyond all other influences, abilities, and powers.
Verse 11, 12 In whom (Christ) also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.
As we are circumcised in Christ, not physically, so we are baptized in Christ, not physically. Baptism and circumcision are two very powerful traditions engaged in by the nation of Israel; signs given to them by God Himself, meant to establish in their national consciousness, spiritual realities that would eventually come about. The Jews baptized long before John the Baptist came into the picture. There is a baptismal pool in the temple.
Circumcision was a sign to Abraham and his offspring that God was going to do what they could not do in their flesh. Our circumcision in Christ is the ability we have been given by Christ himself to trust in things we cannot see; to reject what our mind and our senses tell us, in favor of what God promises us in Christ.
Baptism signified the death required by sin, and then resurrection. A man went into the water as one thing, figuratively died, and came out reborn as something entirely different. The word baptizo was used of dipping cloth into dye, so that it went in colorless, and came out with the color, the nature of that into which it was dipped. Water baptism represented a coming out as clean as the water one was dipped into. Our baptism in Christ represents our dying in Christ, and coming out alive unto God. What is required of us? To believe in the operation (the energizing) of God in raising Jesus from the dead.
Verse 13, 14 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened (made alive) together with him (Christ), having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
The “uncircumcision of our flesh” was our inability to do anything but walk by our fleshly mind. We could not see, understand, much less walk in, the truths of the spirit of God.
This handwriting of ordinances that was against us refers to the traditions of religious men and their interpretations of God’s Word which seek to be imposed as being God’s will on the lives of others.
These ordinances that were against us, contrary to us indicate the man-imposed dogma (man’s opinions) which seek to be imposed upon us as being of God, but which are merely of man. They are all too eager to point out every fault and failing of ours, and to bring us into a bondage of fear of making a mistake or getting it wrong. This dogma is indiscriminate in its condemnation. It can never treat us each individually, or with compassion. It merely points out our sins and condemns us for them. If it finds no sin, it spends its time warning us to watch out for sin.
These laws were “taken out of the way“… literally, taken out of our midst (out of the midst of our minds and our fellowship with others) and were nailed to the cross upon which Jesus died. Their abusive power over us died with the death of Jesus.
“Contrary to us” means literally “enemies by stealth.” They are presented as being beneficial guides, though they are no such things. The present themselves to us as helpful and friendly, but are in reality detrimental and enemies to our relationship with God. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing! If logic is our god, and we can not withstand the logic of these dogmas when presented to us, then we are likely to fall under their influence to our spiritual detriment. If the lordship of the spirit of Christ rules our logic and our minds, then we will detect the destructive nature of these dogmas as they are presented to us and will reject them as not being of God, even when those we love might disagree vehemently with us.
In a few days we’ll conclude this study of Watch Out, by taking a look at the rest of this third chapter of Colossians.
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See related studies:
Discerning Devil Spirits
What or Who is antichrist?
The Approval of Man
