A. Paul’s conflict.
1. (1) The depth of Paul’s conflict for the Colossians and others.
For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
a. What a great conflict I have for you: This great conflict was inside Paul (I have for you). It wasn’t that Paul fought with others about the Colossian Christians. Paul described his spiritual warfare and heartfelt care for the Colossians as a great conflict.
i. Paul used athletic imagery in Colossians 1:29 (striving), and he continues that sports metaphor with the words great conflict.
b. For as many as have not seen my face in the flesh: Apparently, Paul had never visited Colosse himself. Most of the Colossian Christians had never seen his face in the flesh. Even as Paul’s authority extended to those he had never met – to those who had never seen his face – so it also extends to us.
2. (2-3) Paul’s specific concerns and goals in the spiritual conflict.
That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
a. That their hearts may be encouraged: Paul wanted this because he was concerned about their enthusiasm. He knew that discouraged, downcast Christians are easy prey for the world, the flesh, and the devil.
i. Encouraged: “The word he uses is paraklein. Sometimes that word means to comfort, sometimes to exhort, but always at the back of it there is the idea of enabling a person to meet some difficult situation with confidence and gallantry.” (Barclay) Paul wanted these Christians to be fit for heroic action.
b. Being knit together in love: Paul wanted this because he was concerned about their unity. The unity wouldn’t come from coercion, but love.
c. Attaining to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery: Paul wanted this because he was concerned about their understanding. He knew that their unity and steadfastness was not just a matter of love, but also of growing together in God’s truth.
i. Paul knew that their unity came from not only love, but also from the truth, from both being knit together in love and growing in the understanding and knowledge of God’s truth.
ii. The true wisdom Paul wanted them to know in Jesus would bring them together – indeed, knit them together in love – instead of dividing them the way that false wisdom did.
iii. For Paul, real riches were found in the believer’s full assurance. Many lack full assurance about the character of God and are unconvinced that He is really good and loving. Others lack full assurance of their salvation and wonder if their Christian life is for real. Great freedom and confidence comes when we come to this full assurance.
d. To the knowledge of the mystery of God: The term mystery of God is used in a few different ways in the New Testament. Here, Paul uses the term regarding the character and person of God – something we could not know unless it was revealed by Him.
i. “The word ‘Christ’ is in the same case as ‘mystery,’ placing it in apposition with it. The mystery is Christ.” (Wuest)
ii. “Others might lead them astray with specious talk of mysteries; but there was one mystery above all others – the mystery of God’s loving purpose, disclosed in Christ alone – and Paul’s concern was that they should come to know this all-surpassing mystery, and know it as an indwelling presence.” (Bruce)
iii. Three mysteries are described in Colossians 1:24-2:3:
· The Church as the Body of Christ, for which Paul suffered and served (Colossians 1:24-26).
· The Indwelling Christ, the hope of glory in each individual believer (Colossians 1:27).
· The Revealed Jesus, the treasury of all wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3).
e. Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: This is an important idea in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. With this, Paul refuted some of the bad teaching troubling the Colossian Christians. They were influenced by teachers who told them to seek the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, but not to seek them in Jesus. Paul wrote, “You will only find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Jesus. He has them all.” It’s not wrong to seek after wisdom and knowledge; but we must seek it all in Jesus.
i. When Paul said this wisdom is hidden in Christ, he used the ancient Greek word apokruphos. “His very use of that word is a blow aimed at the Gnostics… Gnostics believed that a great mass of elaborate knowledge was necessary for salvation. That knowledge they set down in their books which they called apokruphos because they were barred to the ordinary man.” (Barclay) Paul wanted all to know that real wisdom was not hidden in secret books, but deposited in Jesus Christ so that all can access it.
ii. “‘Hidden’ does not, however, mean that they are concealed but rather that they are laid up or stored away as a treasure.” (Vaughn)
iii. “Everything we might want to ask about God and his purposes can and must now be answered – this is the force of the verse – with reference to the crucified and risen Jesus, the Messiah.” (Wright)
iv. “He is indeed the Mystery of God, profound in the wonder of His being, and yet so real that the tiniest child talks of Him with sweet familiarity.” (Morgan)
v. When Paul describes the truth of God with words like riches and treasures, he reminds us that God’s truth is precious and worthy of sacrificial seeking.
3. (4) Paul’s earnest warning.
Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
a. Lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words: Those who told the Colossians to find wisdom and knowledge apart from the simplicity of Jesus were very persuasive. The lure of “hidden” and “deep” wisdom and knowledge can be both strong and deceptive.
b. Lest anyone should deceive you: Paul did not say that they had already been deceived, but he clearly saw the danger and warned them about it.
i. It might sound simple, but deceivers are deceivers. They won’t announce their false doctrine as false doctrine, and it will often be similar enough to the truth to be dangerous.
4. (5-7) Paul’s confidence in their present standing.
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
a. I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit: Through prayer – the core of his conflict mentioned in Colossians 2:1 – Paul genuinely felt he was among the Colossian Christians in spirit, even though he was absent in the flesh.
i. “Paul’s sense of being spiritually present with his absent friends could be extraordinarily strong and vivid. Perhaps the most remarkable example is found in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, where he speaks of himself as present in spirit at a church meeting in Corinth (at a time when he was resident in Ephesus).” (Bruce)
b. Rejoicing to see your good order: Continuing with the thought from the previous verse, Paul did not see a Colossian church that was given over to heresy. They were under serious danger, but they were still in good order and displayed the steadfastness of their faith.
i. According to Vaughn, the words order and steadfastness are both military words. “He sees the situation of the Colossians as being like that of an army under attack and affirms that their lines were unbroken, their discipline intact, and their ‘faith in Christ’ unshaken.”
c. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him: This is a wonderful rule for Christian living. We cannot perfect in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit; therefore just as you received Jesus, walk in Him in the same way. The simple things of the Christian life provide continual and reliable spiritual fuel for growth. We always have to be reminded of the things we have been taught.
i. “When he says that they have ‘received’ Christ Jesus as their Lord, he uses the verb which was specifically employed to denote the receiving of something which was delivered by tradition. In other words, the Colossians have received Christ himself as their ‘tradition,’ and this should prove a sufficient safeguard against following the ‘tradition of men’ (Colossians 2:8).” (Bruce)
ii. “That is, Paul is speaking of the doctrines regarding the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, rather than of Him personally, for the former were involved in the Colossian heresy.” (Wuest)
iii. “He does not receive his qualities and attributes [of holiness] as things apart from the Lord Jesus; but receiving Him, he obtains them. The holy man is he who has learned the art of receiving Jesus.” (Meyer)
d. So walk in Him, rooted and built up: Paul used a curious combination of metaphors. As Christians, we walk, but we are also rooted, and we are also built up. The metaphors are somewhat mixed, but the message is clear: be established and keep growing.
i. “It is not usual with the apostle to employ this double metaphor, taken partly from the growth of a tree and the increase of a building. They are to be rooted; as the good seed had been already sown, it is to take root, and the roots are to spread far, wide, and deep. They are to be grounded; as the foundation has already been laid, they are to build thereon. In the one case, they are to bear much fruit; in the other, they are to grow up to be a habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Clarke)
B. Paul warns against and exposes the Colossian heresy.
1. (8) A warning: Don’t be cheated by philosophies and traditions.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
a. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy: The false teaching among the Colossians was marked by an emphasis on philosophy and empty deceit. Most of all, it was according to the tradition of men. It had the stamp of man on it, not God.
i. Peake says the best sense of the phrase cheat you is actually, “lead you away as prey.” It also had the ideas of robbing and plundering. “Their goods were the salvation they had received from Christ; and both the Gentile and Jewish teachers endeavoured to deprive them of these, by perverting their minds, and leading them off from the truths of Christianity.” (Clarke)
ii. This philosophy that threatened the Colossian Christians was a strange eclectic mix of early Gnosticism, Greek philosophy, local mystery religions, and Jewish mysticism. The philosophy threatening the Colossian Christians was so dangerous because it was not obviously sinful and licentious. It was high-sounding and seemed highly intelligent.
iii. Vincent on the word philosophy: “It had originally a good meaning, the love of wisdom, but is used by Paul in the sense of vain speculation, and with special reference to its being the name by which the false teachers at Colossae designated not only their speculative system, but also their practical system, so that it covered their ascetic practices no less than mysticism.”
iv. There is significant debate among commentators as to the exact nature of the Colossian heresy. Some see it as predominately an expression of early Gnosticism with some Jewish mystical elements added; others see it as primarily Jewish mysticism with a few aspects of early Gnosticism. Whatever the exact origin or composition of this heresy, it seems clear that it had both elements.
v. The connection to early Gnosticism is clear from the way Paul brings forth his points.
· Gnosticism taught that God (as a Perfect Spirit) could not come into direct contact with the material world. Paul took care to point out that Jesus is God, and He came in the body of His flesh (Colossians 1:19-22).
· Gnosticism taught that since God could not have direct contact with the material world, that God Himself did not create the world, but He worked through lesser spirits or angels. Paul took care to show that Jesus was the creator of the world (Colossians 1:15-16).
· Gnosticism (and some forms of Jewish mysticism) taught that God did not deal directly with man and the material world, but that He dealt with the world through a series of mediators. Paul took care to show that Jesus did the work of reconciliation Himself (Colossians 1:19-20).
· Gnosticism (and some forms of Jewish mysticism) greatly esteemed these supposed mediators, and considered them angelic beings of a sort. Paul was careful to warn the Colossians that angels should not be worshipped (Colossians 2:18).
vi. The connection to Jewish mysticism is clear from the way Paul brings forth a few more points.
· Jewish influence on Christianity emphasized dietary laws. Paul took care to say that Christians were not under Jewish dietary laws (Colossians 2:16).
· Jewish influence on Christianity emphasized the observance of particular days as an obligation. Paul took care to say that Christians were not under these obligations (Colossians 2:16).
b. According to the tradition of men: The Colossian heresy promoted itself as traditional. It could trace some or many of its ideas back to traditions among the Jews or the Greek philosophers or both. Paul here warned that the tradition of men has no equal authority to the word of God.
c. According to the basic principles of the world: The ancient Greek word translated basic principles is stoicheia. It is a word that can mean several different things based on their context, and Paul may have used such a broad word to cover a variety of meanings.
i. “The noun stoicheia means primarily things placed side by side in a row; it is used of the letters of the alphabet, the ABCs, and then, since learning one’s ABCs is the first lesson in a literary education, it comes to mean ‘rudiments,’ ‘first principles’ (cf. Hebrews 5:12, as the ‘rudiments’ of the gospel).” (Bruce) Because of this association with fundamental elements, the word came to also refer to basic elements such as earth, water, air, and fire.
ii. Many ancient mystery religions thought of the world as a dangerous place, threatened by spirits or spiritual forces they called elements or elemental forces (such as Paul uses the word in Colossians 2:8 and Colossians 2:20). They thought one was protected from these dangerous spiritual forces by either worshipping them or by finding protection under a greater deity or spiritual power that was superior to these elements.
iii. Yet, one might say that Paul’s meaning here certainly includes an answer to early Gnostic ideas, but the meaning also goes beyond those specific ideas. “It has been frequently taken in this sense as the ABC of religious knowledge… the expression must apply to something both [Jews and pagans] had in common.” (Peake)
iv. Common to both Jews and pagans was the basic idea of cause and effect and in a sense it rules nature and the minds of men. We live under the idea that we get what we deserve; when we are good, we deserve to receive good; when we are bad, we deserve to receive bad. Paul warned the Colossians to not subject themselves to this grace-eliminating kind of thinking, and to consider themselves dead to it.
2. (9-10) The completeness of Jesus and our connection with Him shows other philosophies and traditions are unnecessary.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
a. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead: This is a dramatic, airtight declaration of the full Deity of Jesus. Since all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus, He cannot be a halfway God or a junior god.
i. Godhead: “Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead; they were no mere rays of divine glory which gilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season and with splendor not His own; but He was, and is, absolute and perfect God; and the apostle uses theotes to express this essential and personal Godhead of the Son.” (Trench, cited in Wuest)
b. All the fullness of the Godhead bodily: The false teaching among the Colossian Christians was something like an early form of the Gnostic heresies that would come later. These Gnostic heresies made a radical separation between the spiritual and the material. That is why Paul needed to make it clear that all the fullness of the Godhead was in Jesus bodily, not in some strange, mystical sense. John also dealt with this false teaching in 1 John 4:2-3 and other passages.
i. A false teaching related to this in the early church was called Docetism, which claimed that Jesus had no actual human body; He only seemed to have one. Another false teaching was called Cerinthianism, and it said that “Jesus the man” was separate and distinct from “the Spirit of Christ.”
c. And you are complete in Him: This can only be true because Jesus is truly God. If He were not God, we couldn’t be complete in Him. Anything that says we are not complete in Him also takes away from the deity of Jesus.
i. If all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and as believers we are united to Him in a faith-relationship, then we are also complete in Him. Therefore there was no need to go to the false promises and attractions presented by the false teachers among the Colossians.
ii. You are complete in Him: Paul says that this is a fact to be enjoyed, not a status to be achieved.
d. Head of all principality and power: In many New Testament passages, principality and power describes ranks of angelic beings, either faithful or fallen angelic beings (Romans 8:38, Ephesians 1:21, Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, Paul here declares Jesus’ authority over all spirit beings. The false teaching among the Colossian Christians emphasized these lesser spirit beings, but Paul makes it clear that Jesus is far above them.