| Understanding the Christ, Part 5: The Revelation of Christ as God in Colossians 2:1-5 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, September 25 2006 00:00 |
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After discussing our personal salvation in Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, Paul returns to the subject of the nature of Christ, coming now to his being the repository of all wisdom and knowledge. The sophisticated pagan mystery religions sought for deeper understanding. Their goal was the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge. By the Hellenistic period, philosophy had turned inward and was more individualized, whereas in the Hellenic period it had dealt with man’s relationship to the city-state. Yet there was discouragement and disillusionment about man’s possessing innate wisdom and knowledge, and the religious leaders had turned away from philosophy to seek some mysterious path to divine wisdom and knowledge. That path could be pursued by initiates who practiced the proper rites and rituals. Paul now asserts that the goal is simple: all wisdom and knowledge resides within the incarnate Christ, and was now available to those in Christ. These treasures of wisdom and knowledge were before a mystery in that they were hidden and completely inaccessible to man. But now they are revealed, and by attaining the understanding for which Paul labored and prayed, Christians may be encouraged in heart and united in love. Paul terms this awareness as “the full riches of complete understanding”. He adds that this understanding will protect them from the sophisticated and subtle reasoning of the religious leaders all around them; they then would not be deceived by these “fine-sounding arguments”. Paul tells them that he is delighted that, even though he is absent from them in body, they are living in an orderly way and manifesting a firm faith. A thoughtful reading of these first five verses of Colossians 2 should provide sufficient reason for any church to emphasize deep, careful, thorough study of the word! How sad when teaching is superficial, for then Christians miss the encouragement and are prey to the “fine-sounding” arguments of slick teachers of religious heresy and error! |
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