"The Power of God for Salvation"

The death and resurrection of Christ is God's nuclear grade attack on His enemies. With it he has obliterated demonic hopes of victory and utterly demolished Satan's hitherto, relatively unchallenged, death grip on the world-God's world, I might add. Christ has pounded His enemies; they will never rise up again. He has also made a way of escape for all those under Satan's sway; the gospel is "the power of God for salvation" (Rom 1:16). His victory is final, decisive, irreversible, and of "cosmic proportions."

Just as the victory at Normandy spelled the inevitable emancipation of Europe from Hitler's tyrannical dictatorship, so Christ's resurrection secures certain and therefore inevitable triumph for God and his people-a people under enemy control and needing immediate and direct intervention.

How, then, is a person rightly connected to God? How can you actually participate in Christ's victory? How can you gain a share in the spoils? After all, wouldn't you rather be on the winning side? The truth is, there are two sides to story of how to be rightly connected to God.

On the one hand, there is the human side. We are urged over and over again in scripture, through homily, song, and sermon to trust Christ, to yield our lives to Him. For His part, He has promised to richly welcome all those who surrender and seek his forgiveness.

In other words, before we can share in the conquest of God's King, we must first be conquered by Him. He permits no bartering and takes no prisoners. A full and complete surrender is required, and friendship, surprisingly, is the result. Why not welcome Him today as your Liberator and Friend rather than mistakenly defy him as foe?

So from the human side, faith in Christ is the only way to enter into the blessing of the Father (Eph 2:8-9). Hey, it's not that complicated: you love the Son, His Father loves you (cf. John 14:23). Anyone with children understands the logic.

On the other hand, there is the divine side and the way in which God brings together Christ and His work with fallen people and their need. In short, His purpose is to liberate His people through affecting their participation in the victory of His Son. But how?

In short, God "reckons" believers "in Christ" from before the foundation of the world. He has chosen them "in Christ" as recipients of all the blessings heaven has to offer and makes it actual in their experience when His Spirit leads each individual to faith (cf. Eph 1:3-4, 13-14). But, you might ask, to what extent does God count the experiences and benefits of Christ to be ours? The answer: in every way.

God counts us as having been united with Christ in his death and resurrection and the blessings flowing from his life are transferred to us-at conversion and from then on. The death he died, we died. The life he lives, we live (Rom 6:4-5). His victory over the world, the flesh (i.e., ours), and the devil is our victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. His exaltation is our exaltation (cf. Eph 2:6-7). Yes, we can share in the spoils! Daily!

A New Sphere of Existence

It is in light of this new situation in which you and I exist, that is, "in Christ," that Paul exhorts us to holy and happy living throughout his thirteen letters. This is the proper theological framework for all his instruction to the people of God. We are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17).

In short, there has been a realm transfer for the Christian-a wholesale and definitive reassignment from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Col 1:13-14). No longer do we drudge on hopelessly under the oppression of the Mosaic law, sin, death, and judgment. We are indeed emancipated from crippling fear, liberated from the land of guilt, and delivered into the fresh air of freedom and service to the King himself. We are dancing to a new song!

We receive daily supplies, nourishment, good cheer, and guidance from the Lord of Lords. But even more; He is in the process of training our hands for war, empowering our hearts for victory, and causing us to reign in this life. Again, "we live, move, and have our being" in a totally new mode of existence. We are "in Christ."

Just as his death was our death and his life is now our life, so also His battle is now our battle! Because of our intimate union with him in this life now (Col 3:1-2), we are currently engaged with him in His battle against evil and the spiritual powers that oppose him. In fact, we are ruined for anything else but serving Him.

Now someone might ask, "I thought you said that Satan was a defeated foe. How then can he fight against us?" The answer is simple. God has determined for our benefit and for his own glory to execute the punishment phase of the sentence against Satan in a progressive manner.

Thus the punishment against Satan has already begun in the church's victories over him, continuing each day as redeemed people say "yes" to God and "no" to sin and Satan, and will someday culminate in the Devil's decisive and eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

So for the meantime we are to wage war against the powers of evil and wickedness and the spiritual beings that promote rebellion against God. The war our King is currently waging against sin, death, and the Devil involves our participation, though the weapons of our engagement are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Cor 10:3-4).

Therefore, we pray, love, serve, and sacrifice for Him and for others. We salt the earth with truth and kindness (two concepts not seen together a lot these days), seeking the good of all men. This pleases Jesus and He works through it to deliver people, to overthrow darkness, and to establish righteousness.

It is completely true that we add nothing to the sufficiency of the vicarious death and resurrection of the Son of God. But his cross work is not only the basis of our salvation it is also the pattern of our discipleship. It call us to sacrificial service. Thus we are to fight against the fallen powers of the universe as He himself did.

So What? A Few Important Questions

So there we have it! A quick review of the saving work of God, its relationship to you, the believer, and the fight you have now been called to engage. In light of this my questions are rather straight forward and simple, though the answers may take some thought.

First, do you really understand what God has done for you in Christ? Has it sunk in and is it now flowing through your veins? Is it your life-blood? Or, does it remain something outside the core of your heart, like a person locked out in the cold? Ask the Lord to search your innermost being. Reflect on your choices this week.

Second, do you realize, therefore, that Biblical Christianity is not a self-help religion? It is not about making good men better, but about making dead men alive! There's an entire worldview difference between these two thoughts! The former is rooted in religion, the latter in divine rescue. What does this entail with respect to your need for God's Spirit, strength, and power now (cf. John 15:5-6)? Have you ever really prayed for God to come upon you with power, understanding, and wisdom (cf. Zech 4:5)?

Third, if you were to follow the Lord as a good soldier, what would that look like in your current situation? What would it look like for you and your church to wage war against oppression, drugs, crime, injustice, loneliness, hunger, and spiritual darkness in people's lives, in school yards, on your streets, and in your communities?

Should we wait for people to darken the doors of our churches or should we "head out," aggressively praying for God's intervention? Is it not time for us to go and tell the leaders in our communities that we are here to help in anyway we can? In our willingness to serve, perhaps lives will be changed and a hearing for the gospel won. We may even find Christ already on the street and in the schoolyard ahead of us!

The church is the hermeneutic for the gospel, the grid through which the world should be able to rightly interpret God-His character, will, and ways (cf. 2 Cor 5:20). The reason the world does not understand the gospel, however, is primarily due to the church's actions which speak so loudly that the lost world cannot hear our words.

Now the best way to be heard-at least as far as I know-is not by yelling louder, but by loving more (cf. Matt 5:16). I wonder what that would look like. I think it's fairly clear...the time is now! The time is now for the church to root herself in God and his saving work and to concentrate on living that out. Then the world will begin to understand that the gospel is for us (all men), that is, when they see it working through us (Christians).

Have you ever shown up for a meeting at the wrong address? I mean, have you ever actually gone to the front door of someone's house, opened it, and innocently walked in only to discover-to the horror of all involved-that you unwittingly went into the wrong house? Can you imagine how the owners must have felt as they helplessly watched a perfect stranger leisurely stroll unchallenged into their house? Can you imagine how red your face looked when the truth flooded into your cheeks?

Well...our church holds weekly prayer meetings. They begin at 6am on Monday mornings at a certain elder's house. Now here in Canada it's still dark at 6am in the morning (at least in March). Anyway, a friend of mine was on his way to this prayer meeting, to a house he'd been at countless times before. It's a house located in a subdivision with several other similar-style houses. Upon arriving at 5:50am he parked his car, pulled himself out, rubbed his tired eyes and sleepily stumbled around the snow drifts and up the driveway.

Now I might have some of the details incorrect, but the story proceeds basically as follows: My friend claims he remembers noting a different vehicle in the yard. Clue #1. "Wow," he muttered to himself, "Jordy must have bought a new car." Then he noticed the garage door. Under the outside light he realized that it was a different color! Clue #2. "Man," he mumbled again, "Jordy must have painted the garage door this weekend! He's been busy!" As he passed the garage he went around to the front door and noticed that it too was different. Clue #3. Opening the door (without knocking, of course) and walking into the foyer, he noticed rather astutely that that too was different. Clue #4. Walking past all these clues, including different colors and pictures on the wall, he ran into clue # whatever in the kitchen...a person staring at him in her bathrobe! It was then that his dream was shattered and the nightmare began. I must confess...when I heard this story I never laughed so hard in all my life!

Sometimes, no matter how many clues we're given to the contrary, we still persist in believing an error. In our culture today, no matter how many clues God gives us, we persist in believing He doesn't exist. We're absolutely convinced that we're reading the "facts" correctly. But we're not. And the problem is not that there's a shortage of clues; the supply always exceeds the demand in God's world.

The fact is, we live in an age characterized by information explosion, doubling, even tripling our clues in the blink of an eye. The half-life of any college degree now makes the paper it's written on almost useless. But, people appear to be more confused than ever about life's important questions. "What is happiness?" "What is meaning?" "Why am I so given to materialism?" And, most important of all, "Does God exist?" It's like we're building an automated world of which we will have no part since we, by our very nature, are not machines! And it seems that God has no part in this world either.

Take science for example. Some scientists argue that we're only at the beginning of the scientific knowledge explosion, i.e., that we're only at the beginning of the avalanche of clues God will send our way. Of course, many of them don't believe God has anything to do with the clues, but therein lies the point of my story above.

Nonetheless, in many respects and in comparison to years past, the fields of astrophysics and mathematics-two fields which are inextricably bound up, one with the other-demonstrate the rapid advance in scientific clues that point away from evolutionary models toward a Designer.

Astrophysicists now generally agree that while the actual center of the universe cannot be known, it had an actual beginning and is finite. This is due in large measure to the ground-breaking work of the famous German physicist Albert Einstein and his theory of general and special relativity. Others such as Stephen Hawking later developed Einstein's equations to include not just matter and energy, but also space and time. Thus Einstein opened the door and paved the way for studies in unified field theory.

Studies as recent as the late 1990s have shown that the four forces of physics (namely, electromagnetism, the weak and strong nuclear forces, and gravity) can be unified. At first, the theory of supersymmetry demonstrated that electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces can be unified. That left only gravity to be integrated into the model. This occurred as recently as 1994, when in the wake of certain breakthroughs in mathematics and science, gravity was added to the unified field theory in a consistent way. One of the most significant advances in thought which made these discoveries possible was the idea that perhaps there are more dimensions than just the four readily apparent to us. The unified theory with its understanding of "strings" and "massless black holes" makes sense in a ten-dimensional realm.¹

The famous theologian/medical doctor Albert Schweitzer summed up our situation quite well: "As we acquire knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious." Fewer statements have proved more prophetic.

So the problem is not a shortage of clues as to God's existence. But, things will undoubtedly remain quite befuddling until we realize that we've been reading the clues wrongly and that we're in the wrong driveway at the wrong house. The various strands of atheism supported as they are by the multiple versions of evolution (and other reasonings) will always lead us to the wrong address. It's time to awake from the dream, lest it turn into a nightmare!

It seems to me that we've put God between a rock and hard place. If he showed up in dazzling array (which he certainly will someday), we'd cry out: "Unfair!" "Unfair!" "He's coerced us!" But as he drops clues here, there, and everywhere, we scream out: "Not enough information God!" "Not enough information!" I'm beginning to wonder, as in the case of my friend going to the prayer meeting, if the problem's not with the quality and quantity of the clues, but with us!

Now I realize there's a jump between basic theism, Christian theism, and the belief that God has definitely revealed himself in and through Jesus Christ. But if you're one of those people who believe that there are enough clues, then don't let the naysayers deprive you of your belief in God.

Further, if you believe in God, the One and Only supreme Being who created the entire universe, then I urge you to consider the claims of Jesus Christ. For while "seeing God through creation" is the first leg of a fascinating journey, you're really only half-way there. You need the connecting flight that gets you all the way into the Holy City.

Again, we learn about God's power, wisdom, and self-sufficiency in creation, but we learn about His love, mercy, and grace through Jesus Christ (His kindness, cross, and resurrection)-two chapters, as it were, in God's riveting story about Himself and His creatures. When God brings the two together for us, the bandages on our eyes are removed and our 3-D vision restored. The One whose hands I saw in creation is the very One who died and rose again...and whose face I now behold in Jesus.

Jesus claimed to be God, accepted worship as God, and did the works of God. From creation we learn of God's omnipotence, but in Jesus we learn that God has a face and a name. In short, we learn that He constantly thinks about us and that He wants to be known by us, even to the point where he gave His life to secure our love.

Are you willing to take the risk and pursue a relationship with the Creator through Jesus Christ? Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He also said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me" (John 14:6). Now is the time to determine to read the clues aright and to find the right house. He's there waiting...

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¹ See Hugh Ross, Beyond the Cosmos, rev. ed. (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1999), 27-46.

Have you ever had someone show you a piece of paper with thousands of dots on it, but with no immediately discernible pattern, and then tell you that if you stare intently at the dots long enough an image will appear, as if raised from the page? Some of you know what I'm talking about. You've seen these "things" before and you've stared at them and sure enough an image appeared where no image, i.e., a butterfly, hammer, etc. apparently was before. Do you remember the 3-D like figure?

The same is true of Bible study. Sometimes we have to stare at the text long enough to recognize a discernible image. We don't create the image ex nihilo (from nothing); the text has to surface it in our minds, even though it's been there in the text all the time. The problem is not that our eyes aren't working properly; it's that we've been biased against seeing it. This is especially obvious when it comes to recognizing the corporate focus in the apostles' teaching. Because we live in the West where there exists an infatuation with the individual as opposed to the group/community, we have a much harder time seeing Paul's community focus and valuing it.¹ For example, in 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul says:

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 3:17 If someone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, which is what you are.

Now in English grammar the personal pronoun "you" can either indicate a singular or plural referent. That is, it can refer to one person or to many; the context must determine. But it's amazing how many English readers, when they glance at Paul's statement in 1 Cor 3:16, simply assume that the repeated reference to "you" is singular. They assume that Paul's focus is on the individual. They read it and say to themselves: "I am a temple of the Holy Spirit." But this completely misses Paul's point. The pronoun is plural in Greek.² The apostle is not saying that each one of the Corinthians is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but that the church as a whole is God's temple. The image is corporate, not singular. But we don't have to know Greek to understand this. We just have to have our blinders removed by sensitively reading the immediate context. Then we'll "see" that Paul is talking about the local church in Corinth as a whole, not just individuals within it (cf. 1 Cor 3:1-23).

We automatically do similar kinds of things with the idea of "old man" and "new man" in Paul's writings. We individualize these expressions and, especially in our culture, we psychologize them. But they are expressions referring not (primarily) to "you" as an individual (or something within you), but to "you" viewed within a certain set of relationships. Hence they have a corporate focus with an ethical/spiritual slant; they are not primarily personal and psychological.³ In short, we have taken what is a mountain in Paul and made it a moll hill!⁴

So what does this mean for us? What does the corporate focus in the New Testament entail for the church today? Well it probably necessitates several things, but here are a few important considerations: First, we need to plead with God to forgive us for our self-centeredness. Then we need to ask him to help us genuinely perceive the reality of our oneness in the body of Christ. We did not create this body nor did we earn our way into it; it took a cross to save us all and it is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings us together as one in Christ. So there is no room for boasting or ego trips.

Second, we need to realize that our beliefs, attitudes, and actions have consequences in Messiah's new community. We cannot simply believe or live in any way we want without it affecting others.⁵ We impact our brothers and sisters by our decisions, though all of us have heard time and again, that as long as "my actions don't hurt anyone else, they're ok." But if you're stealing from your employer or killing your soul on pornography, even though you do the latter in the seclusion and privacy of your own home, both will have serious consequences on those around you. You simply do not live in a vacuum; you live in relationships. Nine times out of ten, if you're hooked on pornography, your present addiction came about in large measure through relationships, i.e., a friend, classmate, or acquaintance. But, even if this is not the case, you cannot feed your soul on moral filth and then walk uprightly in your interactions with others! This is true because as the more we feed our souls on evil, the more our desires for the "good"weaken.

Third, we need to realize that it is primarily, though not exclusively, in body-life and worship that the love of God becomes deeply personal and comprehensible to us. In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul says:

3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. 3:16 I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, by being rooted and grounded in love, 3:18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 3:19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, 3:21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

Thus, it is through corporate life, interaction, and worship that we learn the meaning and significance of Christ's atonement and that we experience his present work in the church and in the world. The New Testament really knows nothing of the rugged, individualistic mentality deeply ingrained in much of European, American, and Canadian life. We were never destined to go it alone and we delude ourselves if we think we can really do it and prosper spiritually. Now it is true that there are more or less pure churches, and that joining any church requires prayerful wisdom and guidance, but "going it alone" is not an option open to the obedient Christian. Commit yourself to a church, to receiving from them and to serving them with the strength God supplies.

Fourth, communities of people have often been compared to chains and the strength of any local community is often said to be only that of its weakest link. Now when a person who does not have the Spirit of God hears this truth, he often says to himself, "I must strengthen myself so that I won't be the weakest link." But when the Christian hears this truth, his primary focus is not on how he can become stronger, but how he can strengthen his brother so that his brother will be all that God intended. Incidentally, in so looking to the needs of others, a person is living out the very life that into which God has called them and promised His presence in blessing.

Take these thoughts to heart today and see what the Lord teaches you. If you're struggling with a particular sin, ask for help from a pastor or a trusted and godly friend. You don't have to escape sin's clutches on your own. God's people are here to help. If you feel you have nothing to contribute, well...go, ask the leaders of the church how you can learn more about your spiritual gifts and then put those gifts to use loving and serving others. Also, learn to read the Bible through this corporate lens and you'll begin to "see" God's focus on the community as well as the individual. In the end, remember that you're part of a tightly knit community where "if one part suffers, every part suffers with it, and if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (1 Cor 12:26)!

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¹ The recognition of the corporate focus in the NT is growing within Evangelical circles, but quite slowly.

² The pronoun is actually imbedded in the verb oijdate and ejste, and uJmi`n is clearly plural as well. But someone may respond by saying, "the apostle was addressing the entire church so, of course, he used the plural pronoun. But this does not necessarily mean that he's focusing on them as a unified group. He may have just wanted each individual member to realize that the Spirit of God was in said person."

While this is possible, it is entirely improbable. First, the problem in 1 Corinthians 1-4, of which our passage forms an important part, included divisions over Christian leaders. It is highly unlikely in dealing with this question of divisive attitudes, that Paul would deepen this spirit of individualism by assuring each one as an individual that he/she had the Spirit of God. Second, he refers to them as "the temple of God" not as individual "temples of God" (cf. 1 Cor 6:19-20 for a text that focuses more on the individual though such a text does not promote individualism). Thus, it is clear from the historical and literary context that Paul is referring to the Corinthians as a corporate whole.

³ For further reading on this subject, see my article “Old Man and New Man in Paul”.

⁴ Obviously we could cite hundreds of passages, but space does not permit. Yet this only makes the point more ironic, that those who claim to be a people of the book, i.e., evangelical Christians, so often miss what's obvious in it!

⁵ By the way, therein lies our dignity, i.e., our capacity to affect others for positive change, good, and godliness, but now in a fallen world, therein also lies our depravity, i.e., our potential to impact others for evil, sin, and godlessness.

Introductory Remarks

Because of the rising tide of human philosophies confronting us today, no New Testament book speaks with more relevancy than does the epistle to the Colossians. Not only do we live in an atomic and space age, but in the most technologically advanced age of all time. As in the past, this is a day where, duped by the age-old lie of Satan, man still continues to believe in himself and his ability to solve his problems apart from God as He is revealed in Scripture. Through one avenue or another, man continues to offer his own manmade solutions for the ills of society whether in the form of secular humanism or religious syncretism. But it appears many are becoming discontented over the futility of materialism and somewhat dissatisfied with the idea that life is but a cosmic accident. As a result, many are turning to the New Age movement that has been growing by leaps and bounds. This new movement claims we stand at the brink of an entirely new age of human achievement and potential, one that will unify the world and bring an end to war and an end to hunger through a redistribution of the world’s resources and population control. It will lead to the conservation of the earth’s environment, result in genuine equality among all races and religions and between men and women, and provide a global ethic that will unite the human family. But at the center of this movement is a religious syncretism that rejects the biblical revelation of God as revealed in Christ. According to this movement, Christ is only one of many religious leaders or influences that man may turn to because there are other ways that are equally valid.

Increasingly our generation wants to take religion out of the realm of rational discourse and relegate it to the area of personal preferences and opinions. If there are thirty-one flavors of ice cream, why can we not have similar variety in religions? The gods of the New Age Movement are always tolerant of sexual preferences, feminism, and hedonistic pleasures at almost any cost. Why shouldn’t we each choose a religion that is compatible with our private values? In order to have a meaningful faith, it must agree with our deeply held beliefs. What works for you might not work for me.¹

Thus, Colossians is a book that speaks to our cosmic age and to this New Age movement. But let us not miss the fact that this movement has its source in the occult (though hidden under new names) and in Eastern religions that go all the way back to the beginnings of history with the fall of man.

The New Age movement is not new; it is the most recent repeat of the second oldest religion, the spirituality of the serpent. Its impulse is foreign to none of us. The appeal is ancient indeed; its rudiments were seductively sold to our first parents in the garden. Human pride was tickled, and it jumped.²

The New Age movement promotes a belief in monism. Monism is the belief that all is one, that everything is interrelated, interdependent, and interpenetrating. It promotes the hideous idea that humanity, nature, and God are not separate from each other, but are one. As an illustration, Groothius also points out that John Randolph Price is a New Age writer who teaches that everyone should affirm, “I and the Father are one, and all the Father has is mine. In truth I am the Christ of God,” and that he “tars as ‘anti-Christ’ those under-evolved, ignorant ones who deny ‘the divinity of all men’ (pantheism).”³

As evident from this statement by Price, pantheism is at the heart of the New Age movement. It teaches that “all is God.” But their God is not a personal being; he is an impersonal energy, a force or consciousness. Out of this naturally comes another idea. Since all is one and all is God, we too are gods. The goal of the New Age movement is to awaken us to the god who sleeps within us, to teach us to live like the gods we are. The bait on this pagan hook is Satan’s great delusion from the Garden of Eden, the promise of godhood.

Secular humanism taught that “man is the measure of all things.” Now, because of this promise of godhood for men, the New Age movement says with man all things are possible. The New Age worldview is what could be called “a cosmic humanism.”

But as mentioned, the ideas of the New Age movement are not new. It merely repeats Satan’s age-old lie in a new age using euphemisms or new names to hide and remove old associations and stigmas. As will be shown, the heresy confronting the Colossians had certain similarities to the New Age movement of our day. Colossians is God’s polemic and rebuttal to many kinds of delusions and heresies, but it is especially relevant to what we see happening in the world today.

The Scope of Colossians

Colossians presents the all-supremacy, the all-sufficiency, the uniqueness, and the fullness of the person and work of Jesus Christ as the God-man Savior, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and the total solution for man’s needs both for time and eternity. It is a cosmic book, presenting the cosmic Christ: the Creator/Sustainer who is also the one and only Redeemer/Reconciler of the universe.

One of my former and beloved Greek professors at Dallas Seminary, Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, had the following excellent summary of the importance of this epistle. In the first of a series of articles entitled “Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians” he wrote:

“Without doubt Colossae was the least important church to which any epistle of St. Paul is addressed.” So wrote Bishop Lightfoot some years ago in one of the finest commentaries on New Testament literature. Colosse had been “a great city of Phrygia,” but it was in the afternoon of its influence and importance when Paul wrote the house-church there. And yet the message to Colosse, so bright with the light of the apostle’s highest Christology, has become amazingly relevant in the middle of the twentieth century. With the sudden and startling intrusion of the space age and its astrophysics, nuclear power, missiles and rockets, the church of Jesus Christ has been forced to relate its Lord and Master to the ultimate frontiers. Colossians, which presents Him as the architect and sustainer of the universe, as well as the reconciler of all things, both earthly and heavenly, provides the church with the material it may and must use. Suddenly the epistle to the little flock in the declining city has become perhaps the most contemporary book in the New Testament library.

The usefulness of Colossians, however, is not a recent phenomenon. The epistle is no late-blooming flower, although its grandeur and brilliance may strike one’s eyes with increasing force in the present time. The Christology and the ethics of the letter are important for all time. It has always furnished a proper antidote to humanly devised schemes of salvation. As A. M. Hunter puts it; “To all who would ‘improve’ Christianity by admixing it with spiritualism or Sabbatarianism or occultism or any such extra, it utters its warning: ‘What Christ is and has done for us is enough for salvation. We need no extra mediators, or taboos, or ascetics. To piece out the gospel with the rags and tatters of alien cults is not to enrich but to corrupt it.’” ⁴

The City of Colossae

Its Location: Located about 100 miles east of Ephesus, Colossae was a Graeco-Phrygian city in the Roman proconsular of Asia also known as Asia Minor. It was one of three cities located in the Lycus Valley (Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea) that formed an important trade route, a virtual meeting point between east and west. Colossae was about ten miles from Laodicea and thirteen miles from Hierapolis. At one time Colossae had been a large and populous city, but when Paul wrote to the Colossian church, it had become just a small town in contrast to its nearest neighbors, Hierapolis and Laodicea. From the New Testament record, these two neighboring cities appear to also have contained a congregation of believers (cf. Philemon 2 with Col. 4:16) and are mentioned in Colossians (cf. 2:1; 4:13). Though small, Colossae of Paul’s day was still a cosmopolitan city with different cultural and religious elements that were mingled together. Since God’s concern for His own is never based on human distinctions like size, the Colossian church was still close to the heart of God. He obviously thought it important enough to lay it on the heart of the apostle Paul. Significantly, the letter to this small group of believers became one of the letters of the canon of the New Testament and one of the most important because of what it teaches us regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Its Inhabitants. For the most part, the inhabitants of the area were Gentiles, but there was a considerable quantity of Jews among them. In fact, Barclay wrote, “…we may well put the Jewish population as high as almost 50,000 people. Johnson points out:

Apparently the wool business was particularly attractive to them (cf. Acts 16:14), and this was an important trade in the district. Furthermore, they enjoyed the gay life of Hierapolis. Attention has been called to a bitter Talmudist comment, “The wines and baths of Phrygia have separated the ten tribes from Israel.” Luke bears further testimony to the presence of Jews in the tricities area when he specifically mentions that Phrygians were present in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost, presumably worshiping Jews (cf. Acts 2:10).⁵

Authorship of Colossians

Some scholars have questioned the Pauline authorship of this epistle. In fact, Colossians is sometimes taken to be “deutero-Pauline,” which simply means that on the basis of certain allegedly non-Pauline features of vocabulary, style, and theology, Colossians was written by a disciple of Paul, one well versed in the apostle’s theology.⁶ This will be approached from the external and internal evidence.

External Evidence

Regarding the external evidence, S. Lewis Johnson writes:

There is no historical evidence that the Pauline authorship of Colossians was ever suspect in the early church. Marcion (ca. A.D. 150) recognized the epistle as a genuine letter of Paul. Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 190) was the first to use the epistle definitely. The letter was included among the Paulines in the Chester Beatty codex ⁴⁶, and there is no textual evidence that it ever circulated under the name of any other person. While the available evidence is somewhat scanty, that which we possess argues for the authenticity of the writing.⁷

Internal Evidence

1. The problem of different vocabulary: There are those who maintain there are words and phrases that do not occur in the rest of Paul’s letters, but does this really proves anything? Paul was dealing with a special brand of heresy that required in some cases a different vocabulary. Why should we try to restrict an author to his usual vocabulary under all situations. Shouldn’t every author have the right to change his vocabulary according to the need of his subject? The apostle chose his vocabulary in order to deal effectively with his opponents by showing how their religious terms and ideas could only be true in Christ.

Just as David slew Goliath with his own sword and Haman was hung from his own gallows, so are Paul’s opponents vanquished with their own vocabulary, which has been baptized into Christ.⁸

2. The problem of the theology of Colossians: Some promote the idea that the theology of Colossians advances beyond that of Paul’s other epistles and that it is more cosmological than soteriological, especially for Paul. The idea of Christ as creator and as the fullness of God is too advanced for Paul, at least at this time. We find such ideas in the gospel of John, but that is thirty to forty years later. Barclay responds to this by saying:

First, Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ. In Colosse a new situation met Paul, and out of these unsearchable riches Paul drew new answers to meet it. It is true to say that the Christology of Colossians is an advance on anything in the earlier letters of Paul; but that is far from saying that Paul did not write it, unless we are willing to argue that Paul’s thought remained forever static, and never developed to meet a new situation.… And in face of a new set of circumstances Paul thought out new implications of Christ.

Second, the germ of all Paul’s thought about Christ in Colossians does, in fact, exist in one of his earlier letters. In I Corinthians 8:6 he writes of one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him. In that phrase is the essence of all that Paul says in Colossians. The seed was there in Paul’s mind, ready to blossom when a new climate and new circumstances called in into growth.⁹

Regarding this issue Johnson has a timely answer:

It has also been said that the author of Colossians subordinates the soteriological to the cosmological (Francis W. Beare, “The Epistle to the Colossians. Introduction and Exegesis,” The Interpreter’s Bible, XI, 144), or salvation truth to truth about the universe. But the two categories are not parallel. Paul does not subordinate, he extends. He relates the saving truths of Christ’s salvation to a wider sphere (cf. 1:20 ). The reason for this was seen clearly by Lightfoot, who said, “New forms of error bring into prominence new aspects of truth.” (Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, Zondervan, p. 121.) That there was development in Paul’s theological thinking, one may admit readily, but it was a development resting upon the old foundations. He advanced, but he advanced while still abiding in the doctrine of Christ (cf. 2 John 9). One can sympathize with the remark of McNeile: “There are critics who credit St. Paul with no ability to think on a plane other than that of 1, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans” (A. H. McNeile, An Introduction to the Study of the New Testament, p. 162). It is revelatory of a deep basic lack of harmony with the mind of Paul to restrict the immense genius of the man. James S. Stewart has put it this way: “Paul was always flinging out scouting parties into unexplored theological territory” (Lecture in New College, Edinburgh, January 19, 1961). New and fresh insights into God’s truth on every page are the rule, not the exception, in the letters of Paul.¹⁰

3. The problem of the Gnostic thought in Colossians: It has been advocated that the nature of the heresy facing the Colossians with its Gnostic bent could not have existed until much later. However, scholars have discovered incipient features of Gnosticism present even in pre-Christian movements.

…But the idea of two worlds, the idea of the evil of matter, the idea that the body is a tomb, and that the flesh is evil, are ideas which are deeply woven into both Jewish and Greek thought. There is nothing in Colossians which cannot be explained by longstanding Gnostic tendencies in ancient thought, although it is true that the systematization of Gnosticism came later.¹¹

Paul is clearly the author of Colossians and there is really no reasonable argument against it.

The Church at Colossae

1. It was a Pauline church in that it was indirectly the result of Paul’s ministry.

As far as we know Paul never visited Colossae, at least not at the time he wrote this epistle; he had only “heard” about the church at Colossae (1:4, 9; 2:1). Nevertheless, it was a product of his ministry and beautifully illustrates his commitment to impart his vision of reaching others with the powerful message of the gospel. That this is so is illustrated in the following ways.

First, Paul spent three years ministering the word in Ephesus from the lecture room of the School of Tyrannus. It was during this time all of Asia heard the Word (cf. Acts. 19:8-10, 26; & 20:31). Ephesus had three great attractions that brought people into the city from all parts of Asia. It was a seaport town, a center of commerce, and, with the temple of Diana, it was also a center for idol worship.

Second, while on a visit to Ephesus, a young man from Colossae named Epaphras evidently heard the gospel from Paul and was converted. It appears that he was not only saved, but that he was trained and prepared by Paul to go back and plant a church in his hometown of Colossae (1:7; 4:12).

The story of the establishment of the church at Colossae illustrates an important truth. “God does not always need an apostle, or a ‘full-time Christian worker’ to get a ministry established. Nor does He need elaborate buildings and extensive organizations.”¹² Through Paul’s vision for training others for ministry, God took two men and sent them out to reach and build others in Christ in at least three cities of the Lycus Valley.

2. It was essentially a church made up of Gentile believers.

Though there was a large Jewish population in the Lycus Valley, the Colossian epistle suggests that the membership of the church was primarily Gentile: (1) It is suggested by 1:12, 21, 24, 27. (2) There is a scarcity of Old Testament allusions. (3) Vices that were distinctively Gentile are mentioned in 3:5-7. (4) There is almost no reference to the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles that is found in Ephesians, though one might compare 3:11 and 4:11.

3. It was a church facing serious doctrinal and practical problems.

Though the apostle never gives a formal explanation of the heresy facing the Colossians, the chief focus and features of the epistle along with Paul’s arguments show there was a serious threat of false teaching facing the Colossians. This teaching sought to undermine the person and work of Christ and the sufficiency of the salvation believers have in Him. More will be discussed regarding the nature of the heresy.

The Occasion and Date of the Epistle

Several years after the church was established, around A.D. 61-62. Epaphras traveled to Rome to visit Paul during his first Roman imprisonment where he was under house arrest. While he brought some good news regarding the Colossian assembly (1:4, 8; 2:5), it appears his primary purpose for visiting the apostle was to seek aid against certain false teachings that were attempting to eat their way into the Colossian church.

Paul wrote, therefore, to counter this false teaching and sends this epistle to the Colossians by the hand of Tychicus (4:7). In the meantime Epaphras stayed with the apostle, perhaps because he was forced to because of his own imprisonment (Philemon 23, cf. with Col. 4:12), but surely also for instruction and encouragement from Paul.

What was this heresy like? What was the church of Colossae up against?

The Nature of the False Teaching

Scholars are divided concerning the exact identity of the heresy that faced the Colossians since Paul does not identify the heresy or spell out its exact tenets. Whatever, this “…erroneous teaching has normally been described as the ‘Colossian heresy’ and the nature of it has been discussed for more than one hundred years since Lightfoot wrote his important commentary on Colossians in 1875.”¹³

However, we can determine the features of the heresy by the many allusions, the counter emphases, and by the warnings and teachings of the book. It also seems clear that Paul borrowed certain catchwords and phrases used by the heretical teachers. Some of these Paul filled with biblical content and used them against the heresy itself showing that in reality such ideas can only be found in Jesus Christ because of who He is (His person) and what He has accomplished (His work). Other terms he strongly rejected and totally denounced. Some illustrations are mystery (1:27), fullness (2:9), knowledge and wisdom (2:3), elementary principles or rudiments (2:8), delighting in humility and the worship of angels (2:18), and self-imposed worship (2:23).

From a study of Colossians and from information derived historically, the features of the Colossian heresy fell into at least the following characteristics:

1. As with all heresy, it detracted from the person and work of Christ. It sought to add to His work by calling for human works of religion or asceticism. To counter this, the apostle stresses the divine person and finished nature of the creative and redemptive work of Christ (1:14-22; 2:8-15).

2. It claimed to be human philosophy based on the traditions of men. This philosophy included a Greek form of dualism that believed all matter was evil and that only pure spirit was good. Included was the question, Why is there evil in this world if creation was made by a holy God? Thus, Paul warns us to be on alert to philosophical or religious arguments based on the argument of human tradition that appeals to its antiquity and dignity of the past as a reason for acceptance.¹⁴ In other words, this philosophy was based on the empty speculations of man instead of the sure revelation of God (2:8, 18 with 2:3).

3. It contained certain Jewish or Judaistic elements as circumcision (cf. 2:11 with 3:11), rabbinical traditions (2:8), dietary regulations and sabbatical and festival observances (2:16). However, it does not seem to have been the pharisaic Judaism Paul combated in Galatians. It was worse. It was a native Phrygian and cultic variety that was mingled with Eastern or Oriental mysticism. This means it was eclectic or syncretistic. It sought to take a little from all religions.

4. It contained ascetic elements designed to control the flesh (2:20-23). Paul countered this with the futility of such practices against the flesh and by the fullness of the person and work of Christ and the believer’s completeness in Him (1:19-20; 2:9-10).

5. But, and this is very important for today, the heresy confronting the Colossians seems also to have included the worship of angels (2:18). This points to a pagan and mystical element in this heresy. In light of biblical revelation, these angels turn out to be fallen angels or demonic spirits. In the Bible, we find that there are good (angelic) and bad (demonic) spirits. As Groothius accurately points out, “Angels are the ‘messengers’ of God sent to do his will, usually behind the scenes. The Bible never tells Christians to cultivate conscious relationships with angels, although they do visibly appear throughout both the Old and New Testaments.”¹⁵

In fact, though God used angels to communicate His word, we are warned against their worship. When John responded to the revelation he received through an angel, the angel responded with the following rebuke:

22:8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw them I threw myself down to worship at the feet of the angel who was showing them to me. 22:9 But he said to me, “Do not do this! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who obey the words of this book. Worship God!” (Rev. 22:8-9)

The exact nature of this angelic worship is debated. Some scholars believe angels weren’t actually worshiped but were simply thought of as guiding spirits and intermediators by which men thought they could worship or contact God.¹⁶ Whatever the case, there seems little doubt that in some way, they were advocating occult experiences with these angelic beings or guiding spirits or ascended masters as they are sometimes called in the New Age movement. The goal is to experience some kind of religious fullness and gain contact with God, something that fits with what we see today in advocates of the New Age movement.

6. Finally, it contained and flaunted an exclusivity of mystery, secrecy, and superiority, the element of knowledge for a few elect through some form of initiation by religious experience or religious rites into the mysteries of the cult. This foreshadowed full-blown Gnosticism that would later develop.

As its name would indicate, Gnosticism—the word is related to gnosis, “knowledge”—taught that salvation is obtained not through faith but through knowledge. However, the knowledge, of which the Gnostics spoke, was knowledge acquired through mystical experience and not by intellectual apprehension. It was an occult knowledge that was pervaded by the superstitions of astrology and magic. Moreover, it was an esoteric knowledge, open only to those who had been initiated into the mysteries of the Gnostic system.¹⁷

…The Gnostics were the people who were “in the know” when it came to the deep things of God. They were the “spiritual aristocracy” in the church.

To begin with, this heresy promised people such a close union with God that they would achieve a “spiritual perfection.” Spiritual fullness could be theirs only if they entered into the teachings and ceremonies prescribed. There was also a “full knowledge,” a spiritual depth, that only the initiated could enjoy. This “wisdom” would release them from earthly things and put them in touch with heavenly things.¹⁸

Paul countered this exclusivity by proclaiming the public and universal nature of the gospel which offers a salvation to all who would believe through faith in Christ (1:20, 23, 28; 3:11). He then went on to show that all believers are complete in Christ who was Himself not only the fullness of deity in bodily form, but the fullness of salvation through whom all believers are reconciled to God (1:19-20; 2:9-10).

From these facts, it seems clear that the Colossian heresy was an eclectic blend of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophic speculation, and oriental mysticism combined together with a Christian flavor or element. In other words, like many of the cults and the eclecticism of today, it wore the mask of Christianity, but it was totally false. It used Christian words and Christian phrases, but with different meanings. It claimed to have something for everybody, but in essence provided only a delusion. It was a satanic deception in the following way: “While at its heart it was a combination of Judaism and paganism, it wore the mask of Christianity. It did not deny Christ, but it did dethrone him. It gave Christ a place, but not the supreme place. This Christian facade made the Colossian error all the more dangerous.”¹⁹ In other words, it taught that Christ was insufficient and that one must go beyond Christ into the fullness of what they had to offer. We find the same thing happening today with many of the cults that will likewise use some Christian terminology, but with completely different meanings. All the features found in this cult at Colossae would later be found in full-blown Gnosticism. So it may have been an incipient form of Gnosticism combined with elements of Judaism.

So, what are some things we can learn from this?

1. We see that false doctrine or theology is not only the product of Satan’s deceptions, but it leads one deeper and deeper into his delusions both in theology and practice.

2. There can be no neutrality toward God, the Bible, and Christ for neutrality leads to hostility.

3. There can be no morality and no genuine, lasting, and real humanism or true concern for man without sound theology. The idea that you can have morality without the absolutes of Scripture is a myth, a satanic delusion.

4. Without the absolutes of God’s Holy Word as our foundation, we end up with a world-view that will in some way distort and undermine the being and character of God and His salvation for man in Jesus Christ. The product of this is some from of idolatry, mysticism, agnosticism, pantheism, monism, atheism, or dialectical materialism. When that happens, there is no end to the moral breakdown and degeneracy in humanity for false theology leads to ungodliness.

Do we have any of this heresy today? Yes, we do; and it is just as deceptive and dangerous! When we make Jesus Christ and the Christian revelation only part of a total religious system or philosophy, we cease to give Him the preeminence. When we strive for “spiritual perfection” or “spiritual fullness” by means of formulas, disciplines, or rituals, we go backward instead of forward. Christian believers must beware of mixing their Christian faith with such alluring things as yoga, transcendental meditation, Oriental mysticism, and the like. We must also beware of “deeper life” teachers who offer a system for victory and fullness that bypasses devotion to Jesus Christ. In all things, He must have the preeminence!²⁰

The Theme of Colossians

The theme is the fruitful and effective power of the gospel message, a message that heralds the supremacy or preeminence, headship, and the sole sufficiency of Christ to the church, which is His body. In this little book, we see Paul’s “full-length portrait of Christ.”²¹ Christ is the object of the Christian’s faith (1:4), but why? Because He is God’s Son (1:13), the Redeemer (1:14), the very image of God (1:15), the Lord of creation (1:15), the head of the church (1:18), the fullness of salvation (1:19), the Reconciler of the universe (1:20), the One who contains all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3), the standard by which all religious teaching is judged (2:8), the fullness of God, undiminished deity (2:9), the One under Whom all power and authority is subjected (2:10), the Victor over all the cosmic powers (2:15), the reality of the truth foreshadowed in Old Testament types and figures, regulations and rituals (2:17), the One exalted and enthroned at the right hand of God in heaven (3:1), the One in Whom we are complete and in Whom our life is hidden, protected, and kept (2:10; 3:3), the One by Whom our new life will be gloriously manifested at His coming again (3:4), and it is through Him and because of our new life in Him that we ought to put away our old manner of life from which we have been marvelously saved (3:5f).

Is it any wonder that Charles Wesley wrote: Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find.

Purpose

The purpose in writing Colossians was threefold: (1) to express Paul’s personal interest in the Colossians (1:3, 4; 2:3), (2) to warn them against reverting to their old pagan vices (cf. 3:5ff.), and (3) to counteract both the theological heresy and its practice within the church at Colossae (2:4-23). Paul counters the false theology with sound Christology and then spells out the practical outworking of this in the everyday life of the believer.

He was writing to correct the effects of the religious theories and speculations of the Oriental minds of the ancients concerning (1) man, sin, and salvation, (2) the effect of this on Christology—the person and work of Christ, and (3) the practical behavior of the church.

False theology always leads to wrong behavior and there are at least two main reasons for this: (1) it is futile to deal with man’s condition in sin (cf. Col. 2:23), and (2) it is faithless or bypasses God’s solution for man’s sinful condition through Christ. False theology always contains a wrong view of God, man, sin, and salvation.

Colossians is just as relevant today as it was in the day when Paul wrote the epistle. The names of the heresies have changed along with many of the religious and philosophical ideas, but certain elements are always there in the vain imaginations of man, and to these, no matter what the religious or humanistic idea being promoted in society, Colossians speaks loud and clear. This historical relevance is one of the marks of inspiration. Wiersbe has an important word regarding the relevance of Colossians for our day:

The church today desperately needs the message of Colossians. We live in a day when religious toleration is interpreted to mean “one religion is just as good as another.” Some people try to take the best from various religious systems and manufacture their own private religion. To many people, Jesus Christ is only one of several great religious teachers, with no more authority than they. He may be prominent, but He is definitely not preeminent.

This is an age of “syncretism.” People are trying to harmonize and unite many different schools of thought and come up with a superior religion. Our evangelical churches are in danger of diluting the faith in their loving attempt to understand the beliefs of others. Mysticism, legalism, Eastern religions, asceticism, and man-made philosophies are secretly creeping into churches. They are not denying Christ, but they are dethroning Him and robbing Him of His rightful place of preeminence.²²

The Parliament of the World’s Religions met in Chicago in 1993. The parliament met to unify the world’s religions, to probe, to try to understand other religious heritages, but above all, they met to unify and break down the barriers that separated the various religions of the world. But what place did it have in the more than 700 workshops that were held in during the eight-day conference? Lutzer, who attended to get a feel for what was being taught and believed writes:

…At times He was variously admired, quoted, and favorably compared to other religious teachers, ancient and modern. He was seen as one more stage in the evolutionary development of religion; indeed, He was a very necessary and important stage, but He was only one enlightened man among many. It was noted that in our day He is overshadowed by others but that He should be admired for being the man for His times. A special man for His times.

Except for one or two speakers (one said of Him, “He didn’t even know the world was round”), Christ was thus revered for His contribution in the history of religion. He was even described by some as a revealer of God, a man who had achieved the highest degree of enlightenment. Others allowed that He was the Master of Masters, the one who shows us the way; the one who is to be loved and followed. But alas, He was only one among many others. Though He was respected, He was not worshiped.

What I saw and heard in Chicago is a microcosm of your school, business, and community. The people who live next door and your associates at work most likely believe that it doesn’t matter what god you pray to because every deity is ultimately the same deity shrouded in a different name. According to the 1993-94 Barna research report, nearly two out of three adults contend that the choice of one religious faith over another is irrelevant because all religions teach the same basic lessons about life (George Barna, Absolute Confusion, [Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1993], 15.).²³

Let us not forget that Christians were killed in ancient Rome under Caesar, not because they worshiped Jesus, but because they would not worship Jesus and Caesar.

…Various religions covered the whole Roman world. One such was the cult of Mithras, a popular Persian form of Zoroastrianism which had reached Rome by 67 B.C. Nobody cared who worshiped whom so long as the worshiper did not disrupt the unity of the state, centered in the formal worship of Caesar. The reason the Christians were killed was because they were rebels.…²⁴

The early church rejected all forms of syncretism because they were convinced that Jesus alone was God and the only way of salvation. Colossians firmly stresses this truth. Thus, as with the early church, so the church must not tolerate the syncretism of our day. We can tolerate genuine pluralism, the idea that the religions of the world can peacefully co-exist, but not syncretism, the idea that the beliefs of various religions can be mindlessly combined. Our society today wants a tolerance that mindlessly accepts all beliefs. This kind of tolerance is unacceptable to the Bible-believing Christian, or at least, it should be. There are two kinds of tolerance that are necessary, however. As Lutzer points out,

Let me be clear that tolerance can be defined in two legitimate ways. As mentioned in the first chapter, legal tolerance is the right for everyone to believe in whatever faith (or none at all) he wishes. Such tolerance is very important in our society, and we as Christians should maintain our conviction that no one should ever be coerced into believing as we do. Freedom of religion should not only be retained in Western democracies but promoted in other countries as well.

Second, there is social tolerance, a commitment to respecting all men even if we vigorously disagree with their religion and ideas. When we engage other religions and moral issues in the ideological marketplace, it should be with courtesy and kindness. We must live in peace with all men and women, even with those of divergent faiths, or those who have no faith at all. We don’t need any more self-righteous Christians who piously judge others without the humble admission that we are all a part of a fallen human race; we are all imperfect and we are all created in the image of God. Tolerance, like patience, is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

But the tolerance of which I speak—our national icon, if you will—is something quite different. This is an uncritical tolerance that avoids vigorous debate in the quest for truth. This new tolerance insists that we have no right to disagree with a liberal social agenda; we should not defend our views of morality, religion, and respect for human life. This tolerance respects absurd ideas but will castigate anyone who believes in absolutes or who claims to have found some truth. This tolerance, someone has said, includes every point of view except those points of view that do not include every point of view. This is tolerance only for those who march in step with the tolerant crowd.

This new god is our one absolute, the one flag still deemed worthy of our honor. This kind of tolerance is used as an excuse for perpetual skepticism, for keeping any religious commitment at arm’s length; it is also a doorway for being vulnerable to accept the most bizarre ideas. Truth, it is assumed, might exist in mathematics and science, but not in religion or morality. The pressure to accept this uncritical tolerance is growing every year.²⁵

The book of Colossians is about the supremacy of the person of Christ. He has no equal among the religious leaders of the world religions because He and He alone is God’s Son and the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Indeed, He is “the image of the invisible God, the sovereign and preeminent one among all creation” (Col. 1:15). He has no equal or anyone who even comes close. On the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross and His glorious resurrections, Peter said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Therefore, as we study this vital epistle, let us take heed to Paul’s warnings against adding to or subtracting from the person and work of Jesus Christ:

• Speaking of Him in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3), Paul wrote, “I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable” (Col. 2:4).
• Then, because in Christ all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form (2:9), he warned, “Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (2:8).
• And finally, concerning adding certain religious observances, he warned, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days that are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ” (2:16-17).

Outline²⁶

I. Doctrinal: The Person and Work of Christ (1:1–2:3)

A. Introduction (1:1-14)

1. Paul’s Greeting to the Colossians (1:1-2)

2. Paul’s Gratitude for the Colossians (1:3-8)

3. Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians’ Growth (1:9-14)

B. The Supremacy of the Person of Christ (1:15-18)

1. His Relation to God (1:15)

2. His Relation to Creation (1:16-17)

3. His Relation to the Church (1:18)

C. The Supremacy of the Work of Christ (1:19–2:3)

1. The Plentitude of His Work (1:19-20)

2. The Purpose and Application of His Work (1:21-23)

3. The Propagation of His Work (1:24–2:3)

II. Polemical: The Heretical Problems in Light of Union With Christ (2:4–3:4a)

A. Exhortation Against False Teaching (2:4-8)

1. Exhortation Regarding the Methods of False Teachers (2:4-5)

2. Exhortation to Progress in the Life of Faith (2:6-7)

3. Exhortation Regarding the Philosophy of the False Teachers (2:8)

B. Instruction of the True Teaching (2:9-15)

1. The Believer’s Position in Christ (2:9-10)

2. The Believer’s Circumcision (2:11-12)

3. The Believer’s Benefits (2:13-15)

C. The Obligations of the True Teaching (2:16–3:4)

1. Negative: Emancipation from Legalistic and Gnostic Practices (2:16-19)

2. Negative: Emancipation from Ascetic Ordinances (2:20-23)

3. Positive: Aspirations for the Heavenly Life (3:1-4a)

III. Practical: The Practice of the Believer in Christ (3:4b–4:6)

A. In the Everyday Walk (3:4b-17)

B. In the Home (3:18-21)

C. In Servant/Master Relationships (3:22–4:1)

D. In Prayer and Witnessing (4:2-6)

IV. Personal: The Private Plans and Affairs of the Apostle (4:7-18)

A. His Special Representatives (4:7-9)

B. His Personal Salutations (4:10-18)

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¹ Erwin W. Lutzer, Christ Among Other gods, A Defense of Christ in an Age of Tolerance (Moody Press, Chicago, 1994), 22.

² Douglass Groothius, Confronting the New Age (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., 1988), 17.

³ Groothius, 16.

⁴ S. Lewis Johnson, “Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians, Part I,” Bibliotheca Sacra, (Dallas Theological Seminary, Vol. 118, #471, July 1961), 239.

⁵ Johnson, 240.

⁶ Murray J. Harris, Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament, Colossians & Philemon (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1991), 3.

⁷ Johnson, 241-242.

⁸ Johnson, 242.

⁹ William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 2nd ed., 1959), 122.

¹⁰ Johnson, 243.

¹¹ Barclay, 121.

¹² Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Complete (Victor Books, Wheaton, Ill., 1981), 9.

¹³ Peter T. O’Brien, Word Biblical Commentary, Colossians, Philemon, gen. ed., Glenn W. Barker, NT. ed., Ralph P. Martin (Word Books, Publisher, Waco, Texas, Vol. 44), xxx.

¹⁴ O’Brien, xxxii.

¹⁵ Groothius, 36.

¹⁶ O’Brien, xxxiii, 143.

¹⁷ Curtis Vaughn, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, New Testament, Frank E. Gaebelein, gen. ed. (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1976-1992), electronic media.

¹⁸ Wiersbe, 10-11.

¹⁹ Vaughn, electronic media.

²⁰ Wiersbe, 13.

²¹ Vaughn, electronic media.

²² Wiersbe, 18.

²³ Lutzer, 11-12.

²⁴ Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? (Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, NJ, 1976), 24.

²⁵ Lutzer, 29-30.

²⁶ Part of the outline used here is taken from an outstanding series of 12 studies by Dr. S. Lewis Johnson in Bibliotheca Sacra, “Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians,” beginning with Vol. 118, # 471.