Col 2:7 | KingComments | STEP | The enemy is tirelessly busy attacking the nature of believers, namely, the nature of their faith. He wants to damage their trust in God – that is the meaning of believing – as much as possible. He will try to make you doubt certain truths of the faith. For example, he tries to persuade you that God did not mean all that. If you reject his arguments and repel his attacks, he will try a different way. When he does not succeed in taking away something from you he will try to add something to your faith. He offers some appealing motivation. Do you want to believe more and better, and deepen your faith? Then he has the exact solution for it. . To avoid yielding to this danger, the enrichment by additions to your faith, Paul takes you back to the beginning. You have received Christ and accepted Him. Is there anything else that you accepted besides Christ? Indeed, you were not saved – nor were the Colossians – by Jewish or Greek wisdom or by Christ plus additional wisdom. It is clear and must be strongly emphasized that Christ is sufficient for your salvation. He is also sufficient for your walk as a Christian. All that is required for salvation comes from Him. Further you have accepted Him as “the Lord”. You have accepted Him as the absolute sovereign Ruler of your life. There were no negotiations. As it was when you first accepted Him, it should be so even today. “So walk in Him” is a commandment and that means other ways of walk are forbidden. Walk in Him means that you put into practice what you know of Him and that you are doing His will in your life. . You draw your life force from Him, and not from any philosophy because you are “rooted … in Him”. That way you are standing firm like a tree that withstands the storms. Rooted in Him reminds you of what happened at your conversion. Christ is presented here as the soil in which you were rooted at your conversion. From then on you get your entire food from Him. Therefore it is important to be firmly rooted and your roots penetrate deeper and deeper in Him. “Built up in Him” makes us think of a house. Here you see Christ as the corner stone on which you build your life’s house. The structure of the house is dependent on Him; the construction is done in Him. Therefore you must align yourself with Him so that He can show you the plan and process of building. When you are deeply rooted in Him, orientating yourself to Him for the building up of your faith life, you will be strengthened in the faith. Faith is the truth of faith that you believe. Faith finds its center in Christ. Faith affects Him. Confirmed in faith means to be confirmed in Christ. You can see that it is all about Him. Even in your life of faith all things are from Him, through Him and for Him. These were not new things for the Colossians. They had already been taught them. I wonder if it is so with you too. In any case you have the touchstone in your hand to test the teachings that you received at your conversion and thereafter. You might discover some things in your life that need to be changed, also your view of things. You will also have the desire to apply them and do them as it is said here. After you have received the right teachings and accepted them you will surely overflow with gratitude. There is much reason for thanksgiving if you let work in you what you have become and received in Christ, considering how this is perfectly enough for now and forever. Thankfulness to God is at the same time a protection against temptation to doubt the faith delivered to the saints once and for all. When your heart is full of the wonderful truths of the gospel your thanksgiving will ascend to God. Thanksgiving is an effective antidote to the poison of false teachers. . “See to it” Paul insists. Do not think you are immune to the wiles of the enemy. He prowls around and considers every believer a prey. He plans even to carry you away as loot from the Lord Jesus. Two means he uses are philosophy and empty deception. Philosophy is as old as the world, but it has never saved a man from misery and sorrow caused by sin. The reason is the world’s philosophy ignores sin and pretends sin doesn’t exist. That is the reason every solution philosophy offers is empty deception. This cannot be otherwise because philosophy is a product of the tradition of men and connects seamlessly with the elementary principles of the world. The elementary principles of the world are all the individual parts that make up the world’s system. God has no place in this system. If the tradition of men besides Christ gains any value over the knowledge of God, it is in contradiction to the Scripture ( ). If you begin to favor the traditions instead of the Bible, it means that doubt replaces assurance. Traditions are from men and not from God. Where traditions get room, the door to the elementary principles of the world is opened. In many ways they have crept into the service to God. You recognize traditions where outward appearance is the measure of the spiritual level of the service. The Spirit of God is supplanted by an order that is made by men. For example consider situations where only qualified, eloquent people should preach, and where altar, cloth, music and icons decorate the whole event. Paul sets the whole system aside with one stroke of the brush or better with one name: Christ. The twofold danger, philosophy and human tradition, is contrary to Christ. He who has Him has everything. . What do you need more than that you have Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily? This is almost the same expression that we find in chapter 1 ( ). There he refers to the time when Christ was on earth to fulfill the counsels of God. Today ( ) He is in heaven as the result of the finished work of redemption. In both the expressions you can see what Christ was when He came to earth and what He still is and will remain forever. He took a body then and has always had a body since, although now He has a glorified body. He became Man in order to remain so forever. The dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in Him is a present and an ongoing dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in the glorified Son of God at the right hand of God. It is not that only certain aspects of the Godhead dwell in Christ, but the totality of all God’s attributes, for He is God Himself. He does not share His Divine power and majesty with any single creature. The body He has taken is imperishable forever. . The conclusion Paul draws from this, of course is breath-taking. He says that you are in Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in Him you have been made complete. You lack nothing. In Him you are perfect before God. On the one hand you see that God is presented in Him in all His fullness ( ); on the other hand you possess in Him the completion and perfection of God. You lack nothing in terms of your position before God. There is nothing and no one who can take place between you and Christ, because you are in Him. Philosophy and tradition can add nothing to this perfect position. On the contrary anything you take from them will drive you far from God. Do you want that? And remember that He is beyond not only all men, but also beyond all angelic powers created by Him. In that Person you have been made complete. What more do you want? Now read Colossians 2:6-10 again. Reflection: What contrasts do you find in these verses?

‏ Colossians 2:7

Brought to Fullness in Christ

The enemy is tirelessly busy attacking the nature of believers, namely, the nature of their faith. He wants to damage their trust in God – that is the meaning of believing – as much as possible. He will try to make you doubt certain truths of the faith. For example, he tries to persuade you that God did not mean all that. If you reject his arguments and repel his attacks, he will try a different way. When he does not succeed in taking away something from you he will try to add something to your faith. He offers some appealing motivation. Do you want to believe more and better, and deepen your faith? Then he has the exact solution for it.

Col 2:6. To avoid yielding to this danger, the enrichment by additions to your faith, Paul takes you back to the beginning. You have received Christ and accepted Him. Is there anything else that you accepted besides Christ? Indeed, you were not saved – nor were the Colossians – by Jewish or Greek wisdom or by Christ plus additional wisdom. It is clear and must be strongly emphasized that Christ is sufficient for your salvation. He is also sufficient for your walk as a Christian. All that is required for salvation comes from Him.

Further you have accepted Him as “the Lord”. You have accepted Him as the absolute sovereign Ruler of your life. There were no negotiations. As it was when you first accepted Him, it should be so even today.

“So walk in Him” is a commandment and that means other ways of walk are forbidden. Walk in Him means that you put into practice what you know of Him and that you are doing His will in your life.

Col 2:7. You draw your life force from Him, and not from any philosophy because you are “rooted … in Him”. That way you are standing firm like a tree that withstands the storms. Rooted in Him reminds you of what happened at your conversion. Christ is presented here as the soil in which you were rooted at your conversion. From then on you get your entire food from Him. Therefore it is important to be firmly rooted and your roots penetrate deeper and deeper in Him.

“Built up in Him” makes us think of a house. Here you see Christ as the corner stone on which you build your life’s house. The structure of the house is dependent on Him; the construction is done in Him. Therefore you must align yourself with Him so that He can show you the plan and process of building.

When you are deeply rooted in Him, orientating yourself to Him for the building up of your faith life, you will be strengthened in the faith. Faith is the truth of faith that you believe. Faith finds its center in Christ. Faith affects Him. Confirmed in faith means to be confirmed in Christ. You can see that it is all about Him. Even in your life of faith all things are from Him, through Him and for Him.

These were not new things for the Colossians. They had already been taught them. I wonder if it is so with you too. In any case you have the touchstone in your hand to test the teachings that you received at your conversion and thereafter. You might discover some things in your life that need to be changed, also your view of things. You will also have the desire to apply them and do them as it is said here. After you have received the right teachings and accepted them you will surely overflow with gratitude.

There is much reason for thanksgiving if you let work in you what you have become and received in Christ, considering how this is perfectly enough for now and forever. Thankfulness to God is at the same time a protection against temptation to doubt the faith delivered to the saints once and for all. When your heart is full of the wonderful truths of the gospel your thanksgiving will ascend to God. Thanksgiving is an effective antidote to the poison of false teachers.

Col 2:8. “See to it” Paul insists. Do not think you are immune to the wiles of the enemy. He prowls around and considers every believer a prey. He plans even to carry you away as loot from the Lord Jesus. Two means he uses are philosophy and empty deception.

Philosophy is as old as the world, but it has never saved a man from misery and sorrow caused by sin. The reason is the world’s philosophy ignores sin and pretends sin doesn’t exist. That is the reason every solution philosophy offers is empty deception. This cannot be otherwise because philosophy is a product of the tradition of men and connects seamlessly with the elementary principles of the world. The elementary principles of the world are all the individual parts that make up the world’s system. God has no place in this system.

If the tradition of men besides Christ gains any value over the knowledge of God, it is in contradiction to the Scripture (Mt 15:3-9). If you begin to favor the traditions instead of the Bible, it means that doubt replaces assurance. Traditions are from men and not from God. Where traditions get room, the door to the elementary principles of the world is opened.

In many ways they have crept into the service to God. You recognize traditions where outward appearance is the measure of the spiritual level of the service. The Spirit of God is supplanted by an order that is made by men. For example consider situations where only qualified, eloquent people should preach, and where altar, cloth, music and icons decorate the whole event.

Paul sets the whole system aside with one stroke of the brush or better with one name: Christ. The twofold danger, philosophy and human tradition, is contrary to Christ. He who has Him has everything.

Col 2:9. What do you need more than that you have Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily? This is almost the same expression that we find in chapter 1 (Col 1:19). There he refers to the time when Christ was on earth to fulfill the counsels of God. Today (Col 2:9) He is in heaven as the result of the finished work of redemption.

In both the expressions you can see what Christ was when He came to earth and what He still is and will remain forever. He took a body then and has always had a body since, although now He has a glorified body. He became Man in order to remain so forever. The dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in Him is a present and an ongoing dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in the glorified Son of God at the right hand of God.

It is not that only certain aspects of the Godhead dwell in Christ, but the totality of all God’s attributes, for He is God Himself. He does not share His Divine power and majesty with any single creature. The body He has taken is imperishable forever.

Col 2:10. The conclusion Paul draws from this, of course is breath-taking. He says that you are in Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in Him you have been made complete. You lack nothing. In Him you are perfect before God.

On the one hand you see that God is presented in Him in all His fullness (Col 2:9); on the other hand you possess in Him the completion and perfection of God. You lack nothing in terms of your position before God. There is nothing and no one who can take place between you and Christ, because you are in Him. Philosophy and tradition can add nothing to this perfect position. On the contrary anything you take from them will drive you far from God. Do you want that? And remember that He is beyond not only all men, but also beyond all angelic powers created by Him.

In that Person you have been made complete. What more do you want?

Now read Colossians 2:6-10 again.

Reflection: What contrasts do you find in these verses?