COLOSSIANS 2:1-5
ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE KNOWN IS FOUND IN CHRIST ALONE
Colossians 2:1 (Berean Study Bible) For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face,
SUSIE: Paul wrestled in prayer, struggled with hearing of heresy among the Colossian believers, and worked to encourage them and the Laodiceans through correspondence.
SUSAN: He could not be with them in person because of his imprisonment, but he was with them in spirit. He was with them in spirit because he was in constant remembrance of them and their challenges through intercessory prayer on their behalf.
SUSIE: There must have been some new believers added to the church at Colossae because Paul acknowledged those who had not met him face to face.
Colossians 2:2-3 . . . that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
SUSIE: Paul works that others will believe and trust in Jesus and then grow in their relationship to Him.
SUSAN: Paul desired the Colossians and others who read his letters to have a tenacious confidence in their salvation. Paul wanted to be certain that believers had an assurance of their inheritance in Christ that no one could talk them out of. He wanted them to understand that they should be sewn together by their mutual affection for one another.
QUESTION: “And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (1 Samuel 18:1). Paul uses this same language to describe how we as believers are to relate to one another. Susan and I use the story of Jonathan and David to describe the love the Lord has given us as “bonus sisters.” If there another believer that you feel this way about? Why are more of us not “knit together in love?”
SUSIE: Jesus Himself commanded that His followers love one another and said this would be the evidence of their trust in Him.
SUSAN: Jesus taught that the defining characteristic of His disciples would be their love for each other.
By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:35 (BSB)
SUSIE: Paul wrote that he wanted them to be confident in their understanding of the Gospel and the deity of Jesus. One of the heresies plaguing the church at Colossae was that Jesus could not be fully human and fully divine at the same time. Like Gnosticism which came at a later date, this heresy taught that matter was evil which would mean that a perfect God could not inhabit a human body made up of matter. Paul had countered this by pointing out in chapter one that God created everything, and thus, created matter. The mystery of the Gospel message is that Jesus, Father God, and the Holy Spirit are One God and that this God, because of the work of Jesus, can live in those who believe.
Colossians 2:3 (AMPC) In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.
QUESTION: In Ephesians we explored many “riches” that our ours “in Christ.” What type of riches are found in verse 3 above? How do we latch on to these riches that Christ wants us to have?
SUSAN: If you are seeking knowledge, wisdom, insight into life, they are found in Jesus Christ. There is no higher source than the Word of God incarnate through His Holy Spirit who lives in each believer and found in His written word.
SUSIE: The heretical teaching was that there was some type of “higher knowledge” given only to a few, but Jesus makes the knowledge of God’s love available to all who believe the Good News of salvation by grace alone.
QUESTION: Will any supposed “word from the Lord” ever contradict what is taught in the Scripture, the written word of God? Are there people who are given an insight about God that is not found in the Bible?
Colossians 2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.
SUSIE: False teachers can sound very convincing, with plausible ideas; but if they stray from the basic message of redemption through faith in Christ ALONE, they are leading people down a wrong path.
SUSAN: Other religions can sound tempting, but they are deceptive. Those who teach that any and all religions can save a person are false teachers. In fact, even Christianity as a religion does not save us. Our salvation is completely accomplished by our relationship with Jesus, trusting His finished work on the cross and His resurrection, and submitting to Him as our Master.
Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (underline added)
John 14:6 (AMP)
Colossians 2:5 For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.
For although I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see the disciplined and resolute firmness of your trust in the Messiah.
Colossians 2:5 (CJB)
SUSAN: One of Paul’s facilitators (or as I call Susie—Tater) had brought him news of the growth in the believers at Colossae.
SUSIE: He could not be with them physically but still held them up in prayer and praised their undaunted commitment to Christ.
APPLICATION:
Question any teaching that:
- Contradicts the Word of God
- Presents Jesus as anything less than completely God and completely man from conception
- Indicates there is some “higher knowledge” than the Word of God
- Says you must accomplish works in order to be saved