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.

Last week we looked at Paul’s ministry of encouragement. He encouraged the Colossians to live the Christian life, to realize their position in Christ, and to live accordingly. He encouraged them to hold fast to the faith (doctrine) as it had originally been taught them, and to be thankful toward God in all things.

Now as we begin a new paragraph we see Paul issuing a warning against false teaching. Further in the text we’ll see him confront specific behaviors that need correcting, but at this point he is attacking the system of false teaching itself.

Verse 8 is the focus of the paragraph, verses 9-15 serve as an explanation for the importance of verse 8.

Verse 8 begins with a word of instruction, Paul gives us something to do.

See to it…

What does this mean? It means to make sure. It means to be awake and watchful, beware. It means to be at alert, or on guard. And what is it that Paul wants us to guard against?

…that no one takes you captive…

This is another military phrase that Paul uses. It was used of those who were taken captive as prisoners of war and led away as slaves. Paul is here presenting the idea that the false teachers did not have the Colossians’ best interest in mind, but were instead

…wishing to entrap the Colossians and drag them away into spiritual enslavement. ¹

He then goes on to warn the Colossians by what means these false teachers hope to ensnare them.

…by philosophy and empty deceit…

This is the only place in the entire NT that the word “philosophy” is used. Philosophy is a love or pursuit of wisdom, the study of the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. A person’s philosophy becomes a guiding principle for their behavior.

In a minute Paul is going to give us some characteristics of false philosophies to help us recognize them when they are presented to us. But before doing that he tells us that a false teacher’s philosophy is coupled with “empty deceit.” Deceit is when a person actively attempts to deceive another by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.

Remember my favorite J.I. Packer quote

A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. ²

Paul says that these false philosophies are based, not on Christ or Scripture, but on two other things instead.

The first of these is human tradition. This amounts to the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or simply, long established custom. For the Jews this would be the oral law or legal codes. For Greeks it would be the philosophical views handed down from Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle.

The second basis for these false philosophies is “elemental spirits”. This is the ESV translation. The NIV translates this Greek word differently to “basic principles”. The word, literally translated, means “things in a row”. It came to be used of the letters in the Greek alphabet. Then, just as we might talk about the ABC’s of something, the word came to be used in that manner. In Hebrews 5:12 it is used in this way.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,

The word was also used to refer to the elements of creation itself. Such is the use in 2 Peter 3:10.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies [1] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

You’ll notice the [1] in the text of the ESV translation. Their footnote says it could be translated “elements” as it is in the NIV and NASB.

With the Greek philosophy and mythology of the day suggesting that deities or spiritual beings controlled the elements, the word came also to be used in reference to those spiritual beings. The ESV translators seem to think this is how Paul intended its use here.

If taken the way the NIV interprets it, this phrase could be suggesting that the philosophy being presented to the Colossians was basic, or lower, elementary, when compared to Christ (heavenly). However, this system is ultimately more complicated that the simplicity of the gospel.

When taken the way the ESV interprets it, the phrase could mean the philosophy is based on tradition and worship of spiritual beings who are not Christ.

This second view, as taken by the ESV, fits the context of the Colossian error, proto-gnosticism.

Gnosticism didn’t really hit its zenith until 135-160 AD, but the Colossians were experiencing the beginnings of this philosophical religion. Gnosticism gets its name from the Greek word “gnosis” which means “knowledge.” We derive several english words from this Greek word.

• Agnostic = knowledge of the divine is unknowable, claims neither faith nor disbelief in God
• Diagnosis = identifying a problem by examining the symptoms
• Prognosis = to forecast the likely outcome of a situation (pro = before + gnosis = know)

So the system of Gnosticism is based on knowledge of the supernatural or divine. As a religion, gnosticism is very concerned with salvation, but for the gnostic, salvation is by knowledge alone, rather than faith alone as taught in Scripture.

Gnosticism has its roots in Greek philosophy. Specifically in an idea called “dualism.” Dualism taught that matter and spirit are essentially incompatible. Based on that idea, some Greek philosophers developed another system of thought about the nature of God. They taught that God, in his ultimate reality, is way to holy to be associated with matter. Therefore he could not have directly created. So the idea arose that an entire echelon of divine beings had emanated from the ultimate God. Each successive emanation being further from the source was less pure spiritually, less divine. At the furthest point from the original source, one of these lesser emanations created matter. The creator was referred to as the demiurge, a Greek word meaning craftsman, or maker. In this system, not only were matter and spirit seen as incompatible, matter was seen as inherently evil. If God is good, and is incompatible with matter, matter must be evil. So the thinking went.

As humans, we’re trapped in this evil materialistic world. The Gnostic is looking for salvation from matter, not sin as such. His solution is knowledge of the divine. In his search for salvation, the proto-gnostic bumps into Christianity. Christianity seems to offer some answers, but it doesn’t completely fit in the gnostic system, so syncretism occurs. That is, the gnostic attempts to synchronize the Christian teaching with the Gnostic philosophy of God.

YHWH in the OT comes to be seen as the demiurge. But he appears to be a mean and capricious one. Some Gnostics actually believed the creator to be Satan. Jesus then, was here to save us from the God of the OT. Jesus was seen as not having a real body (because matter is evil remember) but rather just appearing to have a body. He was considered to be one of the many emanations of the divine. Possibly even the lowest, other than the OT God who actually created this evil matter. He was far enough removed from the ultimate God that he could interact with creation without tainting the spirit world.

Angels were seen as higher level emanations than Jesus even, and thus worthy of worship (Colossians 2:18).

Jesus was revered as a teacher of secret knowledge that could lead us to attain the divine.

It is because of this system of belief that Paul writes so strongly of Christ’s supremacy throughout Colossians. It is the denial of Christ’s body that leads to statements like the one he makes in verse 9.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

You see, the false teaching in Colossae was based on this false philosophy and not on Christ. Therefore Paul tells us to “see to it” that we don’t fall captive to this way of thinking.

The “For” at the beginning of verse 9 lets us know that Paul’s warning rests on what he says here concerning Christ

Paul seems to mean that in Christ God’s own nature is present to bless and to manifest his character in the fullest and most complete way possible. ³

In verse 10 Paul tells us that we “have been filled in him” that is Christ. This means we have been completed in Christ. Our salvation is complete in Christ, no need to appeal to angels or philosophy, or legalism, or anything other than Christ.

Verse 10 also tells us that Christ is the “head of all rule and authority”. The word rule is used elsewhere in Paul’s writings (Eph 3:10, 6:12, Col 2:15), along with the word authority (Eph 2:2, 3:10, 6:12 [powers], Col 2:15 [authorities]) to refer to opposing spiritual beings. Christ’s authority is over all other spirits.

Verse 11 talks about the “circumcision of Christ” in which Jesus cuts away our sin nature and separates us to live holy lives. It is Christ who rescues us from the sin found in our material bodies and frees us to relate to God.

Verse 12 draws a picture of our being buried in baptism and raised in baptism. Baptism being the outward sign of our inward circumcision and a symbol of the means by which Christ rescued us from “this body of death” namely his death, burial, and resurrection = the Gospel!

Verse 13 tells us we were spiritually dead outside of Christ. If you are dead, knowledge doesn’t do you much good. It took the powerful working of God’s spirit to regenerate us spiritually (born again) so that we would be alive spiritually and able to experience God.

Verse 14 explains our justification. The accusation of law against us was nailed to the cross. The law was fulfilled, not abolished by Jesus, who “carried the burden” of the law for us, having lived a perfect life according to the law, one we were incapable of living. So he fulfilled the law for us, and then took the accusation made against us for not keeping the law, and bore it to the cross where it was nailed, never to oppose us again. This does not remove the benefits of living according to law, we are to follow Jesus’ example of living, but we are not condemned when we fail, because he succeeded for us. This is what it means to be completed in Christ. This is what union with Christ is all about. We are justified because he is just.

The conclusion to the argument comes in verse 15 where Paul explains the triumph of the cross. Christ not only has authority over the spirits, they were opposed to him and he conquered them by his death on the cross. Satan is known as the accuser of the saints, on what grounds may he accuse us? Namely, that we have broken God’s holy law. Jesus has now disarmed him by removing any accusation the law might make against us.

How does all this apply to us today?

Are false teachings like gnosticism still a threat today?

Yes!

New Age and Kabbalah, along with the philosophical “salvation” offered by self help gurus such as Eckhart Tolle on the Oprah show, are founded on gnostic philosophy.

How are we to guard against false teaching? Paul gave us this answer in verse 7.

Gratitude!

Recently I’ve been noticing something in Scripture. Thankfulness to God is closely tied to being firm in the faith and guarding against error. Consider these verses.

• Romans 1:21 - no thankfulness = darkened heart
• Colossians 4:2 - thankfulness in prayer, together with watchfulness
• Philippians 4:6-7 - thankfulness in prayer tied to the guarding of our hearts and minds
• Ephesians 5:4 - thankfulness with others guards against misuse of our tongue

In our study of Nehemiah last summer we learned that we must both pray and set a guard. Prayer without setting a guard was sloth and hypocrisy. Setting a guard without prayer is self dependence. Prayer and setting a guard is reliance on God coupled with a practical holiness.

I’m convinced more than ever by these verses we just looked at, that one of the primary guards we can set on our minds, hearts, and tongues, is the guard of thankfulness to God. Look back at last week’s lesson for practical ways, and reasons, to practice thankfulness in your daily life.

Footnotes

1. Curtis Vaughan, Colossians, in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol 11, p 198 (Zondervan, 1981)]
2. Quoted in John Owen, “Introduction,” in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
3. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 1994) p. 176