Colossians 2

V1. For Paul it is important that the Colossians knew that he is fighting a great spiritual struggle for them and neighboring Laodicea. He adds: “And for all those who have not personally seen my face.” He expands the circle to all the children of God through the centuries. He wants everyone, including you, to realize that he has a great struggle for every believer. He struggles to make the believers understand that the church is one with the Head in glory. He desires that this full awareness works in their hearts.

He struggles for them because he saw the danger of false teachers, and as a result the Colossians could lose this awareness. He struggles in prayer for this in his imprisonment. He is not struggling against the heretics but for the believers. If believers live in accordance with what they have become and what they have received in Christ, false teachers cannot gain control over them. We should not underestimate the importance of prayer for each other as we struggle along with Paul.

V2. It is good to tell someone that you are praying for him or her. It is an encouragement, a blessing for the heart of the other. They feel supported. Thus prayer is a great tool that God has given to us to comfort others. Even if you are someone who perhaps does not have a public service in the church you can be an instrument of comfort and encouragement. This service is open to every child of God, and can be done anywhere. Paul did it while he was imprisoned; you can do it in your room (Mt 6:6). You should not think little of comforting a heart as if it were something trivial. It is the fruit of a prayer struggle.

Encouragement is needed when fear and discord arise due to emerging heresies, for encouragement provides the heart with strength and resistance. When someone’s heart is encouraged, it affects all aspects of his life, “for from it [flow] the springs of life” (Pro 4:23).

There is one more fruit of this prayer struggle. The believers will be united against the upcoming enemies with their heresies. They will be firmly knit together, with the bond of “love” indeed. Interconnected believers who love each other form an impregnable fortress. Note that it is about a fellowship experience. We cannot experience this individually.

If you isolate yourself you can study the Bible and get spiritual insight, but it will not be possible for you to be strengthened by experience. Maybe you can explain what it means to be united in love, but it is quite different to experience it. You can never really understand something if you do not experience what it means. For example if you are not married you can know about it, but you can only really know it if you are married.

Believers who are knit together are not only protected from evil but they are also open to what is good. Paul comes still closer to the heart of this struggle. He wants to take the believers to the treasury of faith. That treasury is the Person of Christ. All the riches are to be found in Him. Paul wants them to understand this.

If you understand the mystery of God, you have complete security and you know for sure that nothing further can be added. But as long as there is a propensity for pagan philosophy or Jewish traditions, you lack the complete security. You are wronging yourself and above all you are wronging Christ. He is everything. He wants to be everything to you and He is not happy with anything less than that; neither are you, are you? That is why Paul is anxious that you come to the knowledge of the mystery of God.

V3. And where can this knowledge be found? In Christ. For in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. Christ is the great treasury of Divine riches. There is nothing apart from Him that can be complementary to this. Nobody can add something to Him. Everything is hidden in Him, which at the same time is inviting all to search for these treasures. All these treasures are accessible to all believers.

This however requires exertion. Treasures are hidden for their high value. They do not lie on the surface. You know however where you must dig: in Christ. The big question is: ‘How much is this treasure worth to you?’ Your appreciation will be determined by your efforts. Do you doubt its value? Look again closely: all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The word ‘all’ does not allow any exception.

Job makes an impressive comparison of wisdom with the finest metals which can be obtained only with much strenuous effort, and concludes that even all these treasures are eclipsed by wisdom (Job 28:1-28). Job wondered: “But where can wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12). Here is the answer: in Christ.

The wisdom of God in Christ is revealed in a special way by the existence of the church. The manifold wisdom of God is seen in the church (Eph 3:10). That Christ would connect Himself with people who are sinners by nature and let them share in His glory, only the wisdom of God could have thought of that.

In Christ you can know all that can be known of God. There is no true knowledge outside of Christ. People can have interesting ideas or express assumptions both about the origin of creation and about how man can come into contact with God. But whether it is about the origin of heaven and earth or about the church, only in Christ will you get to know both the one and the other.

V4. Paul says all this because the right view is the great protection against misleading teachings. Knowledge of the mystery will keep you from being receptive to errors. You will not be impressed when people approach you with persuasive argument and give the best of their nice rhetoric. A beautiful and fluent argument and a glowing speech are no guarantee that the truth is spoken. Paul himself did not make use of persuasive argument. The power of God was perceivable in him (1Cor 2:4-5).

What is notable with people who want to undermine your faith is that they build their arguments on probabilities, and that their learning system is based on derivations of assumptions. But the truth does not require arguments. One does not need to defend the truth. Speak the truth and the truth will defend itself.

V5. Although Paul and the Colossians had never seen each other, Paul was always busy with these believers. He took upon himself the responsibility for them because they belonged to the church and he was a minister of the church. His deep concern for the churches came on him daily (2Cor 11:28). The evidence of this concern is seen first in the fact that he constantly prayed for them, second that he wrote this letter, and third that he sent Tychicus to them.

Yet there is not only worry. Before speaking further about the seducers, he points out some things that he saw in the Colossians he was happy about. Their good discipline and the stability of their faith in Christ were presented to him so alive that he could see them with his spiritual eyes. Besides their outward order there was also an inner steadfastness which consisted of faith in Christ. Christ was the object of their faith. Outer order and inner stability are mutually reinforcing. They are both necessary to prevent your faith from being taken away from you.

But be on your guard! The enemy can also try other ways to undermine the stability of your faith. When he cannot take away anything from you he would like to add something that apparently deepens your faith. In reality however he wants to scoop out your faith and make it powerless. This is illustrated by the verses following.

Now read Colossians 2:1-5 again.

Reflection: What treasures have you discovered in Christ?

The enemy is tirelessly busy attacking the nature of believers, namely, the nature of their faith. He wants to damage their trust in God – that is the meaning of believing – as much as possible. He will try to make you doubt certain truths of the faith. For example, he tries to persuade you that God did not mean all that. If you reject his arguments and repel his attacks, he will try a different way. When he does not succeed in taking away something from you he will try to add something to your faith. He offers some appealing motivation. Do you want to believe more and better, and deepen your faith? Then he has the exact solution for it.

V6. To avoid yielding to this danger, the enrichment by additions to your faith, Paul takes you back to the beginning. You have received Christ and accepted Him. Is there anything else that you accepted besides Christ? Indeed, you were not saved – nor were the Colossians – by Jewish or Greek wisdom or by Christ plus additional wisdom. It is clear and must be strongly emphasized that Christ is sufficient for your salvation. He is also sufficient for your walk as a Christian. All that is required for salvation comes from Him.

Further you have accepted Him as “the Lord”. You have accepted Him as the absolute sovereign Ruler of your life. There were no negotiations. As it was when you first accepted Him, it should be so even today.

“So walk in Him” is a commandment and that means other ways of walk are forbidden. Walk in Him means that you put into practice what you know of Him and that you are doing His will in your life.

V7. You draw your life force from Him, and not from any philosophy because you are “rooted … in Him”. That way you are standing firm like a tree that withstands the storms. Rooted in Him reminds you of what happened at your conversion. Christ is presented here as the soil in which you were rooted at your conversion. From then on you get your entire food from Him. Therefore it is important to be firmly rooted and your roots penetrate deeper and deeper in Him.

“Built up in Him” makes us think of a house. Here you see Christ as the corner stone on which you build your life’s house. The structure of the house is dependent on Him; the construction is done in Him. Therefore you must align yourself with Him so that He can show you the plan and process of building.

When you are deeply rooted in Him, orientating yourself to Him for the building up of your faith life, you will be strengthened in the faith. Faith is the truth of faith that you believe. Faith finds its center in Christ. Faith affects Him. Confirmed in faith means to be confirmed in Christ. You can see that it is all about Him. Even in your life of faith all things are from Him, through Him and for Him.

These were not new things for the Colossians. They had already been taught them. I wonder if it is so with you too. In any case you have the touchstone in your hand to test the teachings that you received at your conversion and thereafter. You might discover some things in your life that need to be changed, also your view of things. You will also have the desire to apply them and do them as it is said here. After you have received the right teachings and accepted them you will surely overflow with gratitude.

There is much reason for thanksgiving if you let work in you what you have become and received in Christ, considering how this is perfectly enough for now and forever. Thankfulness to God is at the same time a protection against temptation to doubt the faith delivered to the saints once and for all. When your heart is full of the wonderful truths of the gospel your thanksgiving will ascend to God. Thanksgiving is an effective antidote to the poison of false teachers.

V8. “See to it” Paul insists. Do not think you are immune to the wiles of the enemy. He prowls around and considers every believer a prey. He plans even to carry you away as loot from the Lord Jesus. Two means he uses are philosophy and empty deception.

Philosophy is as old as the world, but it has never saved a man from misery and sorrow caused by sin. The reason is the world’s philosophy ignores sin and pretends sin doesn’t exist. That is the reason every solution philosophy offers is empty deception. This cannot be otherwise because philosophy is a product of the tradition of men and connects seamlessly with the elementary principles of the world. The elementary principles of the world are all the individual parts that make up the world’s system. God has no place in this system.

If the tradition of men besides Christ gains any value over the knowledge of God, it is in contradiction to the Scripture (Mt 15:3-9). If you begin to favor the traditions instead of the Bible, it means that doubt replaces assurance. Traditions are from men and not from God. Where traditions get room, the door to the elementary principles of the world is opened.

In many ways they have crept into the service to God. You recognize traditions where outward appearance is the measure of the spiritual level of the service. The Spirit of God is supplanted by an order that is made by men. For example consider situations where only qualified, eloquent people should preach, and where altar, cloth, music and icons decorate the whole event.

Paul sets the whole system aside with one stroke of the brush or better with one name: Christ. The twofold danger, philosophy and human tradition, is contrary to Christ. He who has Him has everything.

V9. What do you need more than that you have Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily? This is almost the same expression that we find in chapter 1 (Col 1:19). There he refers to the time when Christ was on earth to fulfill the counsels of God. Today (verse 9) He is in heaven as the result of the finished work of redemption.

In both the expressions you can see what Christ was when He came to earth and what He still is and will remain forever. He took a body then and has always had a body since, although now He has a glorified body. He became Man in order to remain so forever. The dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in Him is a present and an ongoing dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in the glorified Son of God at the right hand of God.

It is not that only certain aspects of the Godhead dwell in Christ, but the totality of all God’s attributes, for He is God Himself. He does not share His Divine power and majesty with any single creature. The body He has taken is imperishable forever.

V10. The conclusion Paul draws from this, of course is breath-taking. He says that you are in Him, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in Him you have been made complete. You lack nothing. In Him you are perfect before God.

On the one hand you see that God is presented in Him in all His fullness (verse 9); on the other hand you possess in Him the completion and perfection of God. You lack nothing in terms of your position before God. There is nothing and no one who can take place between you and Christ, because you are in Him. Philosophy and tradition can add nothing to this perfect position. On the contrary anything you take from them will drive you far from God. Do you want that? And remember that He is beyond not only all men, but also beyond all angelic powers created by Him.

In that Person you have been made complete. What more do you want?

Now read Colossians 2:6-10 again.

Reflection: What contrasts do you find in these verses?

V11. It is really amazing that you have been made complete in Him. Now therefore it is understandable that the question arises: ‘How did I come in Him?’ Paul explains this in the verses we have before us now. You have become one with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection. By faith you must know that what happened to Him when He died and rose again has happened at the same moment with you too.

The word “circumcision” refers to a practice of the people of Israel in the Old Testament. God placed this as the sign of the covenant He made with Abraham and his descendants (Gen 17:9-14,23-27). What happened then does not happen here again literally, “made without hands”, but it has a spiritual meaning. This circumcision took place "in the removal of the body of the flesh" and indeed at the very moment when “the circumcision of Christ” took place.

Circumcision means that something is cut off thoroughly. For the people of Israel that was the cutting away of the foreskin. Spiritually it means the body – a generic term for all that serves the sinful flesh to express itself – is totally cut off. This cutting away happened through the judgment the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross.

Of course “the circumcision of Christ” has absolutely nothing to do with the literal circumcision that happened with Him on the eighth day after His birth (Lk 2:21). That circumcision happened with hands indeed. But the spiritual significance of circumcision is the judgment of the flesh. In Christ God condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3).

You are circumcised in Him. In the judgment that struck Him, you see the judgment that struck you. That He bore this judgment in your stead does not change the fact that it was executed on you. Only, when God judged you, you were in Him.

V12. Your being one with Him does not stop with that. Death is followed by burial. Burial is the confirmation and the validation of death. Your burial in fact is the signature which certifies this statement. When you are baptized you publicly declare the truth that Christ bore the judgment for you. You show outwardly what happened in you inwardly. You draw the full consequences of your being one with Him by breaking all ties with the world at the very moment of your baptism. One cannot think of a more radical break with the world than being dead and buried. When you think of it, it will keep you from returning to the world and from its influences.

Through your conversion and baptism, and through your death and burial, you no longer exist for the world. This marks the end of your old life and at the same time the beginning of a new life in a new world. You have entered into this new world “through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead”. The fact that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead is proof that the work is done perfectly.

Everything is in order. Whether you feel it now or not the fact remains the same. The question now is not whether you feel it, but whether you believe it. As good as you see your own judgment in His judgment you may see your raising up in His raising up by God. Are you aware of how far reaching the consequences of your own connection with Christ are?

V13. Well, you now know how you came to be in Him. But how does it look now with all the things that you were, with all the sins you have committed before this time? Can they be held against you again? There is a sufficient answer to this question. That answer silences everything that opposes your perfection in Christ.

You fully agree that you were “dead in your transgressions”. Dead in this instance means the total absence of any movement toward God. There is also nothing in this death to which the benevolent desire of God could be directed. You were dead to God and thereby you were not concerned about God’s commandments, but you transgressed them. That was because you were dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh. You followed the affections of your sinful, unjudged flesh (Rom 8:6-7).

Into that state of death and the evil lifestyle and mindset that comes with it, God has brought life by connecting you to His Son. God found perfect satisfaction in His work. He proved that by raising the Lord Jesus from the dead. His resurrection and the fact that you have been made alive with Him is the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins. All sins are forgiven without exception.

The life of the Son and your life in Him give no room for a single question that can be raised regarding any sin that you ever committed. If you are made alive with Him all your sins are forgiven. Possession of life proves that sin is put away because it is resurrection life. Sin cannot enter the area of resurrection.

V14. At the end of verse 13 Paul changes from ‘you’ to ‘us’. He now says something that is primarily purposed for the Jews. It does not mean that it is not written for you. You will see that you received freedom in addition to life and forgiveness. But to understand the power of his words, it is important to bear in mind whereof he speaks in the first place.

The “certificate of debt” is an acknowledgment of debt whereby a person by his signature undertakes to satisfy its contents. That is exactly what Israel had done. When the Lord gave them the law, here called “decrees”, on Mount Sinai they declared: “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exo 19:8; 24:3,7). Soon this declaration became their adversary. Very quickly it became clear that the conduct of their life was completely contrary to the statutes of which they had said they would keep them. The law was an unbearable yoke (Acts 15:10). Their debt grew larger and larger, prohibitively large.

Then Christ came. He paid the debt and took it out of the way. He canceled out the certificate of debt, He tore it up. One takes something out of the way which hinders his pathway or his work. This literally means to make something disappear completely so it doesn’t matter anymore. This is what happened on the cross. There you see that it did not happen by nailing something to the cross but by nailing Someone to the cross. The same word “nail” is found in the imprint of the nails which was visible in His hands after His resurrection (Jn 20:25).

It must be clear to every Jew who believes in Christ that the death of Christ made the very requirement of the law powerless. How easier it is for him to breath now! The threat that comes from the law is over. He is made alive with Christ and therefore he should know by experience what kind of life he has received in Him – the kind of life that can be received in no other way.

What foolishness it would be to give it up by wanting to put oneself under the law again. If you are not a Jew you never were under the law. But it is applicable to you also. What a folly it would be if you subject yourself again to what has been taken out of the way by Christ, even if the intention behind it could be out of gratitude!

V15. You are freed from the law because you are dead. You are saved from death because you have been made alive with Christ. And you are also saved from the power of satan and all his demons because the cross is the victory over the forces of evil. Life, liberty and victory are your portion in Christ. It was precisely by going into death that He disarmed the one who had the power of death (Heb 2:14). He achieved victory before all eyes. The enemy is not only eliminated, he also is humiliated. There is not a single reason to give him any tribute.

All honor belongs only to Him Who was crucified in weakness and overcame in this way. What is weaker and more humiliating than to hang on a cross? But thus He gained complete victory. The triumph is complete.

Now read Colossians 2:11-15 again.

Reflection: Count everything by which you are made one with Christ and what He has done for you. Thank Him for it.

V16. Paul has made your position clear in Christ. You have life. God’s purpose is that you live this life of freedom and that is a life of victory. Outsiders will judge your life. That is alright. But sometimes there are outsiders who want to tell you that you have to adhere to certain statutes. You should not yield to them an inch. Remember, religious statutes have no authority over those associated with Christ.

Do you know what it means if you allow these things in your life? You deny the perfection of the work of Christ and its glorious consequences for you personally. The enemy indeed is disarmed; but certainly his cunning strategy is not over yet. His greatest weapon, death, is no longer a threat. However he wants to devastate your life of faith. He knows how effective Jewish and other religious statutes are. He is successful, if only he can make you comply with them.

The five things mentioned are the characteristics of the religious system which the false teachers hold on to. None of them is spiritual, it is all material and earthly. There is nothing wrong in eating and drinking, but when a religious significance is added to it, it is a mutilation of the true worship to God. In Israel food laws had their place, specifically for annual festivals, the monthly new moon and the weekly sabbath. When these things are brought over into the Christian era, the true meaning of Christendom is lost.

V17. The covenant observances of the Old Testament were shadows of the substance that was to come. The substance is Christ (Jn 5:46). Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament shadows. He is our true food and our true drink indeed. He is the fulfillment of everything that is presented in the various festivals. To implement parts of this shadow in Christendom is to cast a shadow on Christ.

This is like viewing the photo of a person while the person himself is physically present. The one who is satisfied with the photo and ignores the person rejects the person himself. Whoever changes his attention between the photo and the person himself offends the person because he says thereby that the person himself is not sufficient. The desire to mix the shadows with the substance means that Christ is not enough.

Regularly there is a discussion about keeping the sabbath. There are voices which want to make the sabbath, in some form or other, an integral part of the Christian life. A discussion on this subject in the light of what is presented here is completely useless and even dangerous. Of all the twenty-one letters in the New Testament this is the only occasion where the sabbath is mentioned. To keep it? No, on the contrary to abandon it. Is that not instructive?

V18. In verses 16-17 Paul points to the threatening danger from the Jewish side, the observance of the laws and covenants. In verse 18 he points out the danger of falsely so called knowledge in the form of mysticism. Maybe you know of people who claim to have had visions. They drive hard to impress that they have seen things others have not seen. Thus they present themselves as more spiritual than others and view themselves as a kind of mediator. You must go to them to learn specific things about God. They are very humble in their behavior as though they do not seek their own glory. But they worship the angels because these creatures are in the immediate presence of God; through them they can learn more about God.

If you open yourself up to such people and their ideas you run the risk to be robbed of your prize. And that means that after your Christian race you will be robbed of your crown. The only angels who want the worship of humans are evil angels, demons. Holy angels decline this worship (Rev 19:10; 22:9). Another pernicious form of worship is that of Mary as the mediator, as though she is necessary to draw near to God or to the Lord Jesus. This is not the humility with which one seeks the honor of God. It is a false humility and the worship of a creature.

Paul exposes these people by saying that their ideas come out of their own depraved thinking, the thinking of the sinful flesh. There is absolutely no basis for this.

V19. Whoever accepts such ideas no longer holds on firmly to Christ the Head. You are – this is true of every member of the church – personally connected to the Head, without any intermediate person of whatever kind. Your growth results from this direct connection with the Head, Christ Jesus, without any intermediary. God has ordained it thus. Growing this way is growing with a growth which is from God.

Do not let anything or anyone come in between you and Christ. Each member of the body is in direct contact with the Head to fulfill its own function. Through the Head you are connected with all the other members of the body and you grow up together. Do you realize that if you give in to false teachings and traditions of men, not only your own growth is disturbed but that of other members too?

V20. You are again directed to the death of Christ in order to escape from the dangers of the Jewish and philosophical systems. What to die with Christ means is that you are dead to the systems of this world and to its elements. Then how can you subject yourself to certain specific statutes. If you have died then you cannot continue to live as though you still belonged to that system.

All laws and regulations and other things are no longer applicable to you because you are dead. Is there anything that could still exercise power over the dead? Can a dead man respond? Can we expect any action from him? Christendom is not keeping all kinds of commandments or prohibitions. You are liberated from all those because you died with Christ. A renewed attention to these things means that you go back to the world toward which you died.

V21-22. In summary, the decrees “do not handle”, “do not taste”, “do not touch” are earthly and material things. Like all legalism, they involve prohibitions (Mk 7:1-23). They are not applicable to you. It would also be foolish to get involved in them. They are also things that have absolutely no lasting value; they all perish after they are used. This is because they are according to the commandments and teachings of men. What is devised by man will not last long; only what is conceived by God will last forever (1Pet 1:24-25).

V23. Sometimes what is invented by man appears to have great value; nevertheless it is only apparent, and the reality is hollow. Their talk sounds wise, but the content is foolish. Self-will is dominating. The ‘I’ stands in the center. There is no bowing down before God and His Word. They bow down indeed and appear to be very humble, but that is not their attitude toward God. It is their attitude toward creatures which they look up to, perhaps to exceptionally gifted men or even angels.

In the spiritual realm they worship those who are superior to them, but in the realm of matter created by God there is no respect. Thus the body was regarded by the Greeks as a prison in which the spirit was imprisoned – as if were mere dust, meaningless. To allow the spirit to develop, the body was tormented with self-flagellation and fasting. The needs of the body were not to be satisfied. The pride of man wants to dominate everything, even the God created bodily needs. This effort is nothing more than the satisfaction of sinful flesh.

If you are conscious that you died with Christ the enemy will try in vain to gain entry into you with his errors.

Now read Colossians 2:16-23 again.

Reflection: Have you discovered ‘commandments and teachings of men’ in your faith life as a result of this section? What should you do with them?