Keep Living 3
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
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. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have 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.
We have heard this letter overflow with thankfulness to God for the completed work of Jesus who is the supreme Lord of all lords and of our lives. We have heard that because of Jesus’ superior grace and love, we can remain strong in faith and hold on to the hope his love brings to our day.
We know that these high words of encouragement are spoken to people who are under two threats: The threat from the Jewish community to return to the keeping of God’s Old Testament Law as the way to earn God’s blessing, and the pagan pull to give up any notion of one god and go with the flow of choosing many gods and live in a way that you keep them happy enough to avert suffering and disaster on us all.
Paul has said that Jesus is good news because he is neither of these two heavy burdens in life. With Paul in a poem-like word, we have marvelled at Jesus’ superiority that inspires us to live thankful in all circumstances so that we stay rooted, grounded, established in this good news of Jesus no matter what.
Now the letter changes tone. All of sudden, there is a warning to us.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Hmm. So this life in the high King of Heaven’s rule is not as easy as it seems!
Just like our world now, there were lots of kinds of religious belief in Colossae. Paul knows them well. He is from Tarsus, a centre of philosophical activity. There was so many twists and turns on all the classic Greek philosophies …
There were also what is known as the ‘mystery religions’ – all kinds of rituals and learning about mysterious forces and gods that one needed to discover to be truly free …
In all the human thinking, understanding, rituals, traditions and practices that were on offer around town, Paul’s main thing is warning the people not to get pulled into any of them (like the people in the region of Galatia seemed to have allowed to happen to them).
“You foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you?!’ Paul cries! People who have come to the One true God, Father, Son and Spirit by experiencing and being taught the word of Jesus, the Son of God ended up being pulled into Jewish custom, culture and Law.
The Jewish faith remained quite strong under Rome. Unlike all other different religious beliefs and groups who were simply squashed by military and cultural pressure and forced to pay allegiance to Caesar, the Roman had learn that these Jewish people simply would not bend! So, they remarkable made a deal with the Jewish community. They allowed them to practice their faith alongside of Roman religious observances.
So, the presence of the Jewish community could run free in places like Colossae. And it was attractive to a new convert from the many fickle and confusing gods of paganism. Israel’s God was one and he was clear. The rituals and customs told you that and provided CERTAINTY. They told you HOW to be a person of right faith. And of course, if you went down the Jewish way as a ‘God-fearer’, you got a free pass from any blame of put downs levelled at the Christians (the atheists) when something bad happened.
In a strange twist, I wonder whether this is how the church has been regarded by so many for centuries, when it was the centre of Western society. Up until 10 or 20 years ago, people have been quite comfortable being named a ‘God-fearer’ or ‘Christian’ as they lived around the edges of the local church doing their bit and so, avoiding being called ‘Unchristan’ or lazy or ‘backsliders’ or ‘unchurched’ or ‘de-churched’ and blamed for Western societies woes. Even today, the US president simply has to go to church and be seen to ‘believe’…
This is not the case anymore though, especially in Australia. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Now to be identified as a Christian holds no favour and often outright cursing! Paying correct homage to the Christian God is now seen as lacking any real value by most.
Maybe we are very much like these Colossians who were named ‘atheists’ as they worship a whole different God on a whole different basis – the One true God of all creation who redeemed them by his Son in the power of the Holy Spirit based on his grace and favour, not their effort or intellect, and totally apart from Zeus, Poseidon, and all the Greek philosophies.
Paul is saying to the people that they (and we) do not need the Jewish ritual, customs, laws. Their certainty is less than ours. You can never know if you have performed well enough in Judaism or paganism. Try an hard as you might, you can never be sure you have done enough, been good enough, understood enough
Jesus says life in his economy is not founded on you and me and our doing and knowing or our goodness or lack of. Life in Jesus is founded on Jesus and his knowing and doing and goodness already given in full. This is true certainty for living thankful lives every day because it all depends on him not me.
And this is true certainty for thankful and hopeful living because all this goodness and wisdom from the superior Lord of all lords – Caesar Jesus, has been delivered to you in person by means of a new circumcision – not with knife in your private parts but with water flowing over your head and Jesus speaking in our ears – baptism.
11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, …
Two main features of Israel’s life. Mark them out among pagan culture.
This event marks you out and marks us out as Jesus’ community. You and I already have the badge that shows you belong to the new creation family. You baptism certificate is your proof of adoption paper.
Everything Jesus did on the cross has given forgiveness, both to the Jews who have been working their way to God’s blessing and the pagans who did not know it existed.
So, now that you know who we are thankful to and why we can live deeply connected together in this superior Saviour, it is time to work that through in how you go about living a thankful life with all hope on his extensive grace. We get to the first ‘therefore’.
We are getting practical now. The rest of the letter is the ‘hoe to’ when it comes to living under the superior Jesus true Lord of life in all aspects of our life together – the public domain and the private domain.
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.
In other words, we don’t need the Jewish things of human hands any more. We don’t need the three foundational marks of Jewish faith: Temple, Circumcision and Law.
We now already have true temple, he is a person. We are also already circumcised not by human hands but the Spirit’s power. We also don’t need the Torah to pay our way into God’s good books. Jesus has kept the Law and paid our way.
The Jewish community then, and so many communities and groups now are saying that if you read our books, follow our posts, try our ways, you will know the truth – the hidden truth you really need.
But Paul knows, that when we start reading these books an seeking these groups and beliefs, we will find ourselves wanting to eat the right foods, keep the right festivals’ and etc.
He says, ‘No!’. Both the Jewish and pagan rituals and beliefs are just shadows of the real thing that is here and still coming. Go for the real thing and leave the rest in the shadows.
Not only that, this community, called ‘church’ is not some mystical ‘other-worldly’ community you cannot see or know. It is the living extended human and divine body of the Messiah himself whom you can know!
For Romans and Greeks in Colossae, we humans are in a world of illusion. Behind the things we see and sense is a fire (spirit) and all people are seeing is a shadow of the spiritual realty (matter/substance/body).
The Jews did not buy this what we might call ‘New Age’ belief. Neither should the Christians.
The Messiah is the New Age, in person. He has arrived. He is real. He is now.
Friends, we are this body. We are his community. He is our Head, and he is good.
We share a bond that is forged only in baptism and it’s living out in deep thankfulness to our God. Keep on living, overflowing with thankfulness for him and because as Paul says, the neighbours are watching.
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