Prayer: Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence. May your word be our rule, Your Spirit our teacher, And your greater glory our supreme concern. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who gets frustrated with technology? Or should I ask who doesn’t ever get frustrated with technology?! It’s great when it’s working well, but we rely on it so much it’s a real frustration and time consumer when it’s not doing what we expect it to!
I experienced such frustration this past week! With the carpet being laid I had to move out of the office to the meeting room where the internet wouldn’t reach, and it had to be unplugged for some of the time anyway. But on top of that my computer’s battery stopped charging! Fortunately, it worked when plugged in, but I couldn’t then just unplug it and carry it down to where the internet would kick in as it had 0% battery! After a few hours it decided to charge again but didn’t hold its charge for very long and I almost got cut off in a zoom meeting.
I need a new battery. But usually when plugged into the source of power the battery stays charged. The longer it is unplugged and not connected to the source it will gradually lose charge and die.
Today in Colossians 2 Paul reminds us that to be fully alive we must remain living our lives in Christ, deeply rooted, and built up in him. Then our faith will be strengthened, and we will overflow with thankfulness. If we unplug from Christ, we will be more tempted to listen to other voices and seek to fill our lives elsewhere, but we will end up feeling empty. Jesus is the one who will truly satisfy and offers us abundant life in him.
Paul knew that the Colossians were coming adrift, being taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (V8)
So far in his letter Paul has been encouraging them and giving thanks for their faith, hope, and love, reminding them of the truth of the good new of the gospel that Epaphras had taught them. He reminded them, as Erna shared last week, of the fact that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, the creator of all things, the head of the Church and the one who has reconciled us to God the Father.
At the beginning of chapter 2 Paul says again how hard he has been ‘contending’ for those at Colossae and the Laodiceans, praying that they would know the full riches of complete understanding, that they would know Christ. But he also now begins to warn them about listening to the false teachers that Epaphras had told Paul about. Teachers that were pulling them away from the truth they had heard.
But as he warns, Paul continues to build them up with encouragement, he is delighted to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. (v 5)
Verses 6-7 which come in the middle of his letter are the real crux of his message.
After affirming their faith, he says; So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
And then he warns them not to be pulled away by other teachings.
They have received Christ, there is nothing else they need to do but continue to live in him! How do they do this? They must keep rooted in him, go deeper in their relationship, stay connected to him. When a tree is planted it puts down roots to feed and nurture it, to help it grow and produce fruit, if it’s a fruit bearing tree. As it grows the roots go deeper, and the tree will grow best and produce good fruit if the soil is good, and if it is watered and nurtured, which sometimes includes pruning.
For Christians to grow, they must be rooted in Christ. Feeding on his word, reading scripture, spending time in prayer and worship, growing a relationship.
Paul uses another analogy here also, that of being built up in Christ. To have a solid building you need a solid cornerstone. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul goes further in this analogy, he puts it like this:
Christ Jesus is the cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are begin built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2: 20-22)
When we are rooted in Christ and build our lives in him, then we will know fullness of life. We won’t need to go seeking it elsewhere or feel the need to add extra things to our faith or be tempted to listen to other voices. When we are full, then Paul says we will overflow with thankfulness.
Like faith, hope, love, and joy, living thankful lives is another sign of Christian character.
Our lives should be overflowing with thankfulness to God the Father our creator, Jesus our redeemer, and the Holy Spirit who lives in us and guides us in all truth.
We know that practicing gratitude is good for us, even in the secular world it is espoused as beneficial for your mental health. As Christians we thank the one who supplies all our needs, who gives us abundant and new life both now and forever. Giving thanks lifts our eyes to God, remembering his goodness. That is why at bible study we go around the table and share what we can give thanks to God for this week, and we also do that at our prayer and praise service.
Paul continues to remind the Colossians what they can be thankful for; and that is full life in Christ. Our old life was buried with him, and we have been raised to new life in him.
Using Jewish terms, Paul says that they have been circumcised by Christ. That their whole self was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 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.
We get a hint here of possibly what the false teachers were telling the people of Colossae. As with the Galatians, it is likely there were Jewish zealots telling the Gentile Christians that they must follow all the Jewish laws to have real faith. Laws like being circumcised and following the strict rules of the Sabbath or what they could eat and drink. Paul mentions these later in chapter 2.
Paul reminds them that in Christ they have been spiritually circumcised. Their faith in him is what marks them out as belonging to his family, they do not need an outward sign of circumcision. Christ brings freedom from the laws of food and sacrifice. There is nothing they need to do to be more fully alive in Christ than stay rooted and built up in him.
Paul spells out again in verses 13-15 just exactly what Jesus achieved for us in his death and resurrection. Eugene Petersen in the message translation puts it like this:
Entering into (Christ’s) fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in – insiders – not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did with Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive – right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets. (Colossians 2: 13-15)
Paul goes on to tell them not to listen to those who try and tell them what extra things they must do to live a fuller life in Christ.
Who or what have we listened to over the years that might try and detract rather than add to our life in Christ. You might have heard voices like this… ‘you’re not a real Christian if you don’t speak in tongues, or you must worship in this style, or be baptised in this way (full immersion rather than sprinkle), or if you don’t have a half hour quiet time in the morning, or fast from meat on Friday and definitely during lent!’ Or it might be secular voices that pull us away to another form of spirituality, worshipping the created rather than the Creator, practicing some form of new age spirituality and so on.
Some of these things may be beneficial to growing our faith and keeping us connected to Christ, but they are not what assures us of our faith. Again, Eugene Petersen in the message translation puts it like this…
So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadow cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ. Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the head, and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us. (Col’ 2: 16-19)
All we need to live fully in this life and the next is Christ. Remember the Beatles song? All you need is love, da da da da da… All we need is Jesus, who is love, who is the only one who will complete us.
Are you living in him? Paul uses the term ‘in him’ or similar repeatedly.
Live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him…in Christ you have been brought to fullness. In him you were circumcised, and with him we were buried and with him we were raised to new life.
Don’t be tempted like the Colossians were, to be drawn away from living in him, Jesus who is our source of life.
Like my computer, for us to be fully charged we need to stay plugged into Jesus. To be fully alive we need the breath of the Holy Spirit living in us. My computer is at its optimum efficiency when it not just fully charged, but also connected to the internet. We can’t see the internet ‘waves’ or whatever they are, but they are there for our use. We may not see the Holy Spirit, but when we stay connected to the source, Jesus, and are filled with the Holy Spirit we will truly know the magnificent power of Christ in us and bear much fruit.
In him is life. Or as Paul says in Acts 17, In him we live and move and have our being…we are God’s offspring.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for all you have done for us so that we can be assured of our hope in you, forgiveness of sins and live a life fully alive in you. I pray we will not be tempted to listen to other voices that will pull us away from staying fully connected and trusting in you alone. Like Paul praying for the Colossians, I pray that just as we have received Christ Jesus as Lord, we will continue to live our lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as we have been taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.