Aleethia!

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

In this section of Scripture we’re looking at the Colossian error of mysticism or spiritual elitism. In our last lesson Paul spoke out against legalism that had sprung up as a result of the gnostic teaching taking place at Colossae. In these two verses he’s battling against an attitude of superior spirituality based on mysticism or visions and revelations.

In verse 18 he tells the Colossian believers not to let anyone “disqualify” them. This is the only place in the New Testament this Greek word is used. It literally means to act as a judge or umpire, to decide against, to declare unworthy of the prize. The idea of judging builds on verse 16, but here it is more serious. Here it is judging a person’s fitness for eternity. Think of sporting event, “let no one make a bad call against you, that results in you loosing the event.”

Part of this judgement involved “insisting on asceticism.”

When you insist on something, you demand to have it, not accepting anything else. The word translated as “asceticism” literally means humility or lowliness of mind. Someone who insists on humility is someone who is proud of their humility. If you think you have humility, especially if you tell others you are humble, you are not. Humility is so difficult to achieve. Pride is so easy to possess.

The second thing they insisted on was the worship of angels. This is related to the false humility in that they thought themselves humble for not appealing directly to God Almighty, but instead worshiping these “lower deities”. Christ is our mediator with God (1 Tim 2:5). We need not appeal to angels. They are our fellow servants (Rev 19:10) and not to be worshiped.

Today we see this same way of thinking in the Catholic church. They pray to “Saints” and to “Mother Mary” instead of to God. They beg these saints to intercede on their behalf, when we know that Christ is interceding on our behalf (Romans 8:34).

visions…puffed up…sensuous mind

Here we get into the Greco-Roman mysticism of the false teachers. They imagined themselves spiritual because of their false humility and worship of the multitude of spiritual “deities” and would even talk about visions and revelations they have had. Paul says they become “puffed up” or proud.

Mysticism can be defined this way:

1. belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect, may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender.
2. belief characterized by self-delusion or dreamy confusion of thought, esp. when based on the assumption of occult qualities or mysterious agencies.

What Paul is saying here is not to let these mystics condemn you because you haven’t experienced something they say is necessary to really know God. They are saying the same thing the legalists said. They are saying Jesus isn’t enough. It’s Jesus plus. For the legalists, it was Jesus plus my effort and my works. For the mystic it is Jesus plus my experiences, Jesus plus this other spiritual thing you have to experience.

This is akin today to “Christians” who will tell you that you have to speak in tongues or you’re not saved. Or that you may be saved, but you haven’t advanced spiritually (i.e. You’re not as spiritual as they are) if you don’t speak in tongues. Or you have to be born again, and then later baptized with the Holy Spirit.

These are the same kind of lies as the gnostic mystics were teaching in Colossians.

These lies are always based on a bit of truth. That makes the lie more believable. Should we experience God in our lives? Yes! Will some have visions? Yes! Will all have visions? No! Will some speak in tongues? Yes! Will all speak in tongues? No! These are gifts, given by the Holy Spirit as he sees fit. Some are given to be prophets, some teachers, some helpers, some to speak in tongues, some to administer (1 Cor 12:27-31).

Bob Kauflin, in his new book Worship Matters, speaks to the issue of our focus on the Holy Spirit and the dramatic gifts of the Spirit.

Some of us believe in the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence theoretically, but we don’t seem to believe God is active when we meet…

On the other extreme are those who expect the active presence of the Spirit but assume it will always be revealed in spectacular or unusual ways. If certain spiritual gifts aren’t exercised or people don’t appear visibly affected, then they conclude that the Spirit “hasn’t shown up” or that he’s been quenched or grieved…

The Holy Spirit is indeed present and at work every time the church gathers…When people grasp something of God’s glory…when people are convicted of sin…when people receive hope and strength in the midst of trial, the Spirit is at work. ¹

The problem Paul was facing with these false teachers included the fact that they were lording it over the Colossian Christians who had not had these experiences. John MacArthur has some great commentary on this kind of spiritual elitism.

That is very intimidating. They make you feel like a second-class Christian. I have never seen anything. [He’s speaking of their “visions”]

They are all very intimidating–the superpious, hypocritical, self-humiliating people who have deeper experiences with angels, see visions, and receive special revelations, while the rest of us are sitting around at the Bible studies just trying to understand what it says on the page. ²

Mormons believe that Joseph Smith, their founder, had visions and conversations with angels and with God himself. Everyone else had it wrong according to these visions. Only the Mormons have it right according to these visions.

Recently in Flordia there was a “revival” led by a man named Todd Bentley. He claims to have seen an angel named Emma. This angel is the source of his miraculous healings. In fact, he focused more on this angel than he did on Jesus.

Paul tells us not to let these kind of people intimidate us. They are not, in fact, more spiritual than everyone else. They are proud and unspiritual.

Careful! Don’t become proud yourself! It is advisable that we be discerning about false teaching, but don’t become haughty, feeling good about yourself because you’ve got it right and they don’t. When you do that, you’re being just as prideful and unspiritual as they are.

So Paul says these type of people are proud and unspiritual. In verse 19 he tells us they are not “holding fast” to Christ, who is the head of the church. What does it mean to “hold fast” to something?

Literally, this Greek word means “to use strength to seize or retain.”

Christ, as the head, supplies our spiritual nourishment and holds together the body by the power of his Word. To be cut off from the head is to lack spiritual nourishment, and to wither and die rather than grow.

The idea Paul is conveying is that we should cling to Jesus as our only source of strength and growth as a Christian. We can’t look to our effort. We can’t grow spiritually if we’re not clinging to Jesus as our source.

Remember what Paul said about Jesus in chapter 1.

all things were created through him and for him. And his before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. - Colossians 1:16-18

If all things were created for him, and hold together in him, it is especially true of the Church.

Notice also that spiritual growth comes not in isolation, but in community. Our growth is aided by our own personal study time, prayer time, meditation, but the growth occurs in relation to Christ as a member of the body. You cannot be a Christian in private! Our growth occurs as members of the body, headed by Christ. As members of the body, we serve each other. The growth is the growth of the church. As we learn to serve and love one another as Christ would have us do, we all grow spiritually, becoming mature, and the body itself is healthy and growing.

Separate from Christ, there is no growth. There is no health.

Here’s a quote from David Wells, speaking of spirituality in our culture today, he talks about its individualism and its relationship to postmodernism.

While it is the case that the various religions are sometimes raided for their ideas, today’s spirituality remains a deeply privatized matter whose access to reality is through a pristine, uncorrupted self. And all this happens without any necessary reference to, or connection with, others. With its individualism, its wholly privatized understanding, its therapeutic interest, its mystical bent, its experimental habits, its opposition to truth as something which mediates the nature of an unchanging spiritual realm, its anti-institutional bias, its tilt toward the East, its construction of reality, and its can-do spirit, it is something which is emerging from the very heat of the postmodern world. ³

Notice also that the growth is “from God.” God causes the growth of his body. It is not something we can take credit for. Not our spiritual growth, or the numerical growth of the church.

In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul makes clear the idea that God is responsible for the growth, and all the credit and glory goes to him, not to any man.

The point of all this is that Christ is sufficient. Actually, he is more than sufficient. He is an abundance. He is all we need and more. We don’t need our works (legalism), we don’t need false humility and false spirituality, we don’t need new visions or revelations, we need Christ! As Ms. Rebecca taught us about prayer recently, we need more of Jesus and less of ourselves. This is what it means to die to yourself and live to Christ.

Jesus is supreme and sufficient. He is our all in all. We are complete in him.

1. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Crossway, 2008) p84
2. John MacArthur, Colossians Study Guide
3. David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ is a Postmodern World (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005) p152