Colossians 2 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,
Christian maturity – that’s the theme of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae. He sets before them and before us the goal to become “Mature in Christ”. Paul want Christians to avoid being sidetracked by false teachers and misleading ideas. He want Christians to move on with Christ and become more like Christ. The secret to Christian maturity which Paul reveals is so simple and straightforward it can be summed up in just one word. And that one word is “Christ”. All we need if we are to become mature in Christ is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing else. Simply Christ Himself.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

We are to be ROOTED in Christ – like a tree which stands firm in all the storms of life because its roots are deep. Not like a cut flower which may be very pretty but is actually dead! And we are to be BUILT UP in Christ – like a building established on immovable foundations.
Jesus Christ is the secret and the source of all Christian maturity, growth and fruitfulness. In Christ we have received absolutely everything we need.
We have FULLNESS IN CHRIST
Here is Paul’s theme in verses 9-15
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
We saw in Colossians 1 that Christ is the image of God, the firstborn of God and the fullness of God.
Colossians 119 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
The full nature of God was in Christ. Christ was “full to bursting” with God. The Living Bible puts it this way. “God wanted all of Himself to be in His Son.” Everything God is, Jesus Christ is! Jesus Himself said so in John 10:30. “I and the Father are one.”
Christ is the fullness And Paul picks us this theme here in Colossians 2 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
Everything God is, Christ is! All the fullness of deity in bodily form. And then Paul says something even more amazing.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Christ has all the fullness of God, Christ is head over every power and authority, and Christ gives to US fullness. You have been given fullness in Christ. Literally it says, “you are fulfilled in Christ.”
Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” is definitely a paraphrase here. But he expresses verses 9-10 like this.
Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too.
We have been given fullness in Christ. This surely follows from what we learned last week from Colossians 1:27 and God’s secret cosmic masterplan, “Christ in you – the hope of glory.” Christ is the fullness of God. Christ is in us. So we have fullness in Christ. Absolutely everything we could ever possibly need, God has given to us in Jesus Christ. Christ is in us – and we share His life, His death and His glorious resurrection.
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

We have been buried with Christ and then raised to life with Him – his resurrection life is IN US! That’s not what we have to aim at in our Christian lives. That’s the starting point! Christ in us – the hope of glory. The fullness of God – in us!
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
We were dead because of our sin. Jesus took away our sins as He died on the cross in our place. So God has forgiven us. And as Christ lives in us, we have everything we could ever need.
2 Peter 1 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Everything we need for life and godliness – because we know Jesus! And in Him we are fulfilled.
That’s why Paul says what he does in verses 6 and 7.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

The secret of Christian living and Christian growth and Christian maturity is to “continue to live in Christ,” rooted, built up and strengthened in His fullness.
So, says Paul, we need to watch out, be on our guards, keep our eyes peeled!
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

There are so many things which can distract us from Christ. Hollow deceptive philosophies. Human traditions. Elemental spirits, which is what basic principles really means. It is so easy to be sidetracked from continuing to live in Christ, conned out of depending on Christ alone. People come along and tell us, you don’t just need Christ. You need Christ PLUS something else. Christ plus rituals. Christ plus experiences. Christ plus rules. That is exactly what had happened to the Colossians. So this letter reminds them and us that we have
Fulness in Christ NOT IN RITUALS (vv16-17)
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
The danger of EXTERNALISM. We know that we don’t become Christians just by going through rituals. We must avoid the mistake of thinking that we need rituals in order to grow as Christians. The risk comes when outward forms and appearances become more important than the inward realities. When good habits are reduced to “going through the motions” or even worse, “putting on a show.”
This had become a problem for the Jews. They had come to depend on the outward act of circumcision rather than trusting in the God who gave them that covenant. Our Christian life does not depend on the outward acts of men.
11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
Verse 8 warns about the dangers of human traditions. Tradition can be beneficial – but it can also replace true faith. Patterns can be helpful, or they can be deadly. A theologian with the delightful name of Jaroslav Pelikan says, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
The Colossians had become sidetracked by festivals, celebrations and Sabbaths. They were distracted by matters of food and drink. Rituals and traditions are only outward things – the reality is Christ. The reality is Christ. Whether it is in our times of worship or our quiet times, or in any area of life, we must make sure we are not relying on mere rituals or human traditions. They can’t help us become mature in Christ. Keep your eyes peeled – all we need is Christ. Not rituals, and secondly
We have fullness in Christ – NOT IN EXPERIENCES (vv 18-19)
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
We know that we don’t need special exotic spiritual experiences to become a Christian. Nor do we need these things to grow as Christians – only the grace of God! But throughout history there have been people who have insisted that if you want move on to a higher level of spirituality you need some kind of special initiation ceremony into the deeper secrets of faith. In the early centuries of the church those misguided individuals were called Gnostics and they persuaded others that there are short cuts to spiritual maturity. Here in Colossians we find some of the earliest precursors to Gnosticism. People obsessed with “special visions” or “angel worship” or “false humility”.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Christians having spiritual experiences of course – just as long as those experiences come from God and not from hysteria or from the devil. P.T. Forsyth said, “We need an experience of Christ in which we think everything about the Christ and not at all about the experience.
We should all pray to be blessed by encounters with God. But beware of anyone who offers you a “special experience” of God immediately turn you into a super-Christian – especially if they expect you to pay for that experience. Because there is no such thing as a short cut to Christian maturity. Christ and Christ alone is the secret – the way, the truth, the life.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is simply letting Christ fill you – more of you in Christ and Christ in more of you. Back in the 1960s and 1970s in the early days of the Charismatic Movement the “hot potato” was the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. That gift is very valuable in personal prayer, but it is not essential for Christian life and growth. In 1980s and 1990s the big issue was “deliverance ministry.” That isn’t a short cut to Christian maturity either. Deliverance is very rarely needed for Christians – normally repentance is all that is needed. Then almost 20 years ago the Toronto Blessing came along – an overwhelming sense of the presence of God. This was a real blessing for many Christians, and it still happens to some people in some places today, but it is not an essential for every Christian. We shouldn’t fight God if he chooses to surprise us with interesting encounters – but we mustn’t chase experiences for their own sake either.
Christians already have fullness in Christ and in the power of His Cross and resurrection. Any suggestion that we might need more robs us of what we already have.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
If we think we need anything more than the fullness we already have in Christ, we are being deceived. So if anybody offers you some special experience, be it extraordinary visions or worshipping angels or anything else you may find from all around the world on the internet nowadays, remember Paul’s warning.
19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Keep your eyes peeled. Neither rituals nor special experiences can help us become mature in Christ – all we need is Christ. Not rituals, not experiences, and thirdly
We have fullness in Christ – not in RULES (vv 20-23)
20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
We know that we don’t become Christians by obeying rules and regulations. We mustn’t be deceived into thinking that all we need to grow to Christian maturity is to obey somebody’s set of rules. That was the mistake that the Pharisees made. Replacing a living personal relationship with God with a legalistic religion of duty bound by regulations and taboos. We must beware of demanding of other Christians, and especially new Christians or young Christians or Christians from other backgrounds and cultures, anything which God does not demand. And we must beware of thinking that God is satisfied if we live according to some set of rules WE have made up – rather than living in constant trust and dependence on Him. The Christian life is not about rules. It is about our relationship with God.
23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Rules may seem helpful and even spiritual. That is why they have been popular in some kinds of churches throughout the centuries. But in fact rules are useless – only Christ and the power of his cross and resurrection can give us any victory over sin and take us on to spiritual maturity.
So we must keep our eyes peeled. So many people tell us that we need “Christ PLUS” if we are to grow as Christians. The truth is we don’t need Christ plus rituals, Christ plus experiences, Christ plus rules, or Christ plus anything else. All we need to become mature in Christ is Christ the fullness of God, living in us and giving us His fullness!
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.