Have you ever felt pressured because someone has told you that your faith is inadequate? Seventh day Adventists, for example, would tell us that we are wrong to worship on a Sunday and therefore outside God’s will. Or someone else might tell you that it is only by fasting that you can really get close to God. Others would claim that meditation is how you really become one with God.
When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he gave three warnings. We looked at one several weeks ago.
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
In 2:16 he says, “Do not let anyone condemn you, or judge you, because you are, or are not, doing certain things.” And in 2:18, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.”
We can be offered superior knowledge (hollow and deceptive philosophy). Or a superior lifestyle (judged by what you eat and drink). Or superior spiritual experience (false humility and the worship of angels). And those things can look very spiritual – very Christian. Presumably they appeared sufficiently spiritual to confuse the Colossians. But they are a trap. READ Colossians 2:16-23.
There are always people keen to tell Christians that their faith is not all it could be and that they have the key to a fuller experience of God. That seems to have been happening in Colossae. People were saying, “We have some extra knowledge. There are secrets that are revealed to only a few. Ordinary Christians are living a very limited faith. We can give you the secret to a fuller faith.”
It might be extra knowledge. It might be rules to live by and you will experience more of God. Or it might be that they talk about superior spiritual experiences they have had and that you can share.
But Paul’s answer is that Jesus is sufficient.
Col 2:6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him...
If the fullness of God dwells in Jesus and Jesus dwells in the Christian, how can you have a fuller experience of God than that? If Jesus has given us new life and has cancelled sin and defeated sin, then all we need in Jesus. We don’t need to go beyond Jesus to something else – no extra knowledge; no observance of rules; no superior spiritual experiences.
Everybody who is truly a Christian has Jesus. Yes, we need to deepen our relationship with Jesus and grow in our knowledge of Him. But, if we have Jesus, we have everything. We don’t need to add to Jesus.
Paul says, “Once you go beyond Jesus, you don’t actually find greater freedom. You become slaves. You don’t find even more knowledge. You become deceived. You don’t get closer to God, as these people might claim. You get further from God.”
What would be some examples? What about those who claim to have superior knowledge?
Mormonism is supposedly an improvement on Christianity based on further revelation – the secrets revealed by the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith. Islam is similar. Mohammed’s also claimed to have visions and revelations from God that add to Christianity.
But there are many examples closer to home. There are plenty of books in our bookshops which tell the secrets to spirituality that have been revealed to the authors through angels or whatever. Some of those books might be in Christian bookshops. I am pretty sceptical of books written by people claiming some new revelation.
Whenever anybody does claim some special revelation, or has spotted some new secret in the Bible, it immediately makes that person look superior and we all feel confused and condemning thinking that maybe we haven’t got it right – that our understanding, or our experience, must be inadequate.
What about examples of people who teach a superior lifestyle? Paul refers here to people who judge you by what you eat or drink or whether or not you observe certain festivals and occasions. Christians are pretty good at making up rules. In his day that might have included whether or not you ate meat that had been offered to idols and whether or not you drank alcohol. Christians in our own day have had pretty strict rules about alcohol – to the point of saying “Christians do not drink alcohol” and making the judgement that anyone who does is not a real Christian. Does the Bible say that? No. That is going beyond the Bible.
Some Christian groups have had strict rules about dancing and playing cards and going to movies and all manner of things. And they have judged other Christians on the basis of those rules.
Some Christians are very definite that all Christians should speak in tongues. Others are equally definite that tongues is of the devil. Some Christians are very definite that there is only one way to be baptised. We can easily think of religious sects that have rules about hairstyle and dress.
There are rules about what we can do and what we can’t. You can’t eat this, you can’t drink that; you must observe this ritual or that practice. Rules, rules, rules. You know, Christianity isn’t about rules. It is about doing the right thing. It is about living a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him, as we saw in 1:10. But we do those things because we love Jesus and want to please him, not because doing this or that will make us more spiritual.
Then Paul talks about false humility and the worship of angels and people who boast about what they have seen. There are people who claim superior spiritual experiences. They worship angels or maybe it means they worship like the angels. Again, I am pretty sceptical about books written by people who claim to have been taken into heaven or hell. Maybe they have but the danger is that they seem to have this superior spirituality and superior knowledge and who can argue with them? There would be people who claim dramatic experiences of the Holy Spirit and that everyone should have the same experiences.
But Paul talks about these kinds of things taking us captive, condemning us and disqualifying us. It can be that serious. We can be disqualified from the race. We can lose our salvation.
In v.17, Paul describes these rules as “a shadow of the things that were to come”. That probably is a reference to Old Testament religion. The Old Testament was the shadow of what was to come. He contrasts that with “the reality is found in Christ.” The Old Testament system of laws and sacrifices etc. is not wrong in itself but it is only the shadow. The substance – the reality – is Jesus.
Notice in v.18 too that Paul says that people who claim superior spiritual experiences actually are not spiritual. Often it is very human – a desire to impress or to gain control over people. And he says that they are proud - puffed up with these useless ideas. He says that they have lost contact with the head - Jesus, the head of the body. They claim superior spirituality but actually by going beyond Jesus they have lost contact with Jesus. And, Paul says how divisive this can all be. The body is held together by its ligament and sinews. But if some Christians have lost contact with the head then they are no longer serving the body as they should be and helping hold it together. It is through contact with Jesus that the body grows. If some have lost contact with Jesus we cannot expect the body to grow.
In vv.20-23, Paul says all these rules are worldly. They are all to do with things that will perish and they are simply human rules. They don’t come from God. So why would the Colossians – or why would we – submit to all this stuff that has nothing to do with Jesus? Well, maybe because it is so deceptive. Paul says it appears to be wise. It looks like real humility and self-denial and therefore deeply spiritual. If someone lives under severe self-discipline it looks noble and very spiritual. But if it is just human rules, it isn’t noble. It is folly. It isn’t humble. As Paul says, it can actually be pride. It isn’t spiritual. It is human.
And, Paul says, these rules lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Living by strict rules can seem to be a holier life – a life lived for God rather than just to satisfy the senses. Sensual indulgence means living to satisfy the senses – the flesh. It can seem that harsh, disciplined, ascetic living leads to victory over our appetites. But Paul says that these rules lack any value in doing that. Victory over living for the flesh is found in Jesus, not in discipline and rules. As an example perhaps, people who live disciplined lives as part of a sect in a commune somewhere can appear to have denied themselves and conquered their human appetites but often is it in precisely those settings that there is sexual abuse. Or that the leaders are accumulating great wealth?
Discipline and rules won’t change our hearts. Only Jesus can. That is why Paul, in this letter, keeps talking about the centrality, the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to go beyond Jesus. We need to know Jesus better. Forget the pressure other people put on you; just get to know Jesus better.
But isn’t there value in discipline? Shouldn’t Christians be disciplined? Of course. Paul knew all about the value of discipline.
1 Cor 9:24-27 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Clearly, if we are going to grow in our faith or be of any use to God, we are going to have to be disciplined. We are going to have to be disciplined in giving time to reading our Bibles and to prayer. Being selfish is often easy. Being obedient takes discipline.
But that discipline is about knowing Jesus more clearly, loving Him more dearly and following Him more nearly. It is not a set of rules, or special knowledge or superior spiritual experiences that become a substitute for Jesus, as if we can achieve because of these things when actually success comes only from Jesus. Nor is it a set of rules or special revelation or superior spiritual experiences that claims to go beyond Jesus – to add to what Jesus can do for us. Ideas and practices that are ultimately human and worldly – no matter how spiritual they appear – have no value in helping us be God’s holy people.
Time and time again, in this book, Paul says that Jesus is what we need and all that we need. He is sufficient. He is everything. The fullness of God dwells in Him. In today’s passage, all these other things are a shadow. Jesus is the reality. People can have great ideas but they might also have lost contact with the head and it is the head who gives the body unity and growth. Behind many of these philosophies and lists of rules are demonic forces who long to keep us from God. Jesus has defeated those forces and set us free from them. Why would we go back and submit to those forces?
Be alert to people telling you that what you really need to be close to God is some superior knowledge, superior lifestyle or superior spirituality. Jesus is the ultimate. You cannot go beyond Jesus. If you go beyond Jesus, you actually go away from Jesus.
If you are a Christian, then Jesus dwells in you. You don’t need anything else. If you are hungry and thirsty for more of God, then get to know Jesus better. Don’t go beyond Jesus. Go to Jesus. Last week we saw that Paul’s goal was that people would know Jesus. It is not about rules. It is about knowing Jesus. Make that your goal: to know Jesus and to help others know Him better. That is the ultimate.
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