{"id":152,"date":"2012-05-27T21:19:32","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T20:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=152"},"modified":"2012-05-27T21:19:32","modified_gmt":"2012-05-27T20:19:32","slug":"continue-to-live-in-christ-colossians-26-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Continue to live in Christ – Colossians 2:6-23"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colossians 2 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,
\nChristian maturity \u2013 that\u2019s the theme of the apostle Paul\u2019s letter to the Christians at Colossae. He sets before them and before us the goal to become \u201cMature in Christ\u201d. 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 \u201cChrist\u201d. All we need if we are to become mature in Christ is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing else. Simply Christ Himself.
\n6 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. <\/p>\n

We are to be ROOTED in Christ \u2013 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 \u2013 like a building established on immovable foundations.
\nJesus Christ is the secret and the source of all Christian maturity, growth and fruitfulness. In Christ we have received absolutely everything we need.
\nWe have FULLNESS IN CHRIST
\nHere is Paul\u2019s theme in verses 9-15
\n9 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.
\nWe saw in Colossians 1 that Christ is the image of God, the firstborn of God and the fullness of God.
\nColossians 119 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
\nThe full nature of God was in Christ. Christ was \u201cfull to bursting\u201d with God. The Living Bible puts it this way. \u201cGod wanted all of Himself to be in His Son.\u201d Everything God is, Jesus Christ is! Jesus Himself said so in John 10:30. \u201cI and the Father are one.\u201d
\nChrist 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,
\nEverything God is, Christ is! All the fullness of deity in bodily form. And then Paul says something even more amazing.
\n9 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.
\nChrist 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, \u201cyou are fulfilled in Christ.\u201d
\nEugene Peterson\u2019s \u201cThe Message\u201d is definitely a paraphrase here. But he expresses verses 9-10 like this.
\nEverything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don\u2019t 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.
\nWe have been given fullness in Christ. This surely follows from what we learned last week from Colossians 1:27 and God\u2019s secret cosmic masterplan, \u201cChrist in you \u2013 the hope of glory.\u201d 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 \u2013 and we share His life, His death and His glorious resurrection.
\n12 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. <\/p>\n

We have been buried with Christ and then raised to life with Him \u2013 his resurrection life is IN US! That\u2019s not what we have to aim at in our Christian lives. That\u2019s the starting point! Christ in us \u2013 the hope of glory. The fullness of God \u2013 in us!
\n13 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.
\nWe 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.
\n2 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.
\nEverything we need for life and godliness \u2013 because we know Jesus! And in Him we are fulfilled.
\nThat\u2019s why Paul says what he does in verses 6 and 7.
\n6 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. <\/p>\n

The secret of Christian living and Christian growth and Christian maturity is to \u201ccontinue to live in Christ,\u201d rooted, built up and strengthened in His fullness.
\nSo, says Paul, we need to watch out, be on our guards, keep our eyes peeled!
\n8 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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
\nFulness in Christ NOT IN RITUALS (vv16-17)
\n16 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.
\nThe danger of EXTERNALISM. We know that we don\u2019t 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 \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d or even worse, \u201cputting on a show.\u201d
\nThis 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.
\n11 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,
\nVerse 8 warns about the dangers of human traditions. Tradition can be beneficial \u2013 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, \u201cTradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.\u201d
\n16 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.
\nThe 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 \u2013 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\u2019t help us become mature in Christ. Keep your eyes peeled \u2013 all we need is Christ. Not rituals, and secondly
\nWe have fullness in Christ \u2013 NOT IN EXPERIENCES (vv 18-19)
\n 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.
\nWe know that we don\u2019t need special exotic spiritual experiences to become a Christian. Nor do we need these things to grow as Christians \u2013 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 \u201cspecial visions\u201d or \u201cangel worship\u201d or \u201cfalse humility\u201d.
\nThere is absolutely nothing wrong with Christians having spiritual experiences of course \u2013 just as long as those experiences come from God and not from hysteria or from the devil. P.T. Forsyth said, \u201cWe need an experience of Christ in which we think everything about the Christ and not at all about the experience.
\nWe should all pray to be blessed by encounters with God. But beware of anyone who offers you a \u201cspecial experience\u201d of God immediately turn you into a super-Christian \u2013 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 \u2013 the way, the truth, the life.
\nBeing filled with the Holy Spirit is simply letting Christ fill you \u2013 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 \u201chot potato\u201d 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 \u201cdeliverance ministry.\u201d That isn\u2019t a short cut to Christian maturity either. Deliverance is very rarely needed for Christians \u2013 normally repentance is all that is needed. Then almost 20 years ago the Toronto Blessing came along \u2013 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\u2019t fight God if he chooses to surprise us with interesting encounters \u2013 but we mustn\u2019t chase experiences for their own sake either.
\nChristians 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.
\n9 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.
\nIf 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\u2019s warning.
\n19 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.
\nKeep your eyes peeled. Neither rituals nor special experiences can help us become mature in Christ \u2013 all we need is Christ. Not rituals, not experiences, and thirdly
\nWe have fullness in Christ \u2013 not in RULES (vv 20-23)
\n20 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 \u201cDo not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!\u201d? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
\nWe know that we don\u2019t become Christians by obeying rules and regulations. We mustn\u2019t be deceived into thinking that all we need to grow to Christian maturity is to obey somebody\u2019s 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 \u2013 rather than living in constant trust and dependence on Him. The Christian life is not about rules. It is about our relationship with God.
\n23 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. <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 only Christ and the power of his cross and resurrection can give us any victory over sin and take us on to spiritual maturity.
\nSo we must keep our eyes peeled. So many people tell us that we need \u201cChrist PLUS\u201d if we are to grow as Christians. The truth is we don\u2019t 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!
\n6 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colossians 2 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, Christian maturity \u2013 that\u2019s the theme…<\/span><\/p>\n

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