Freedom – Colossians 2:6-10
Freedom – Colossians 2:6-10
March 9, 2008 AM
By Pastor Lee Hemen
How did you come to Christ? Perhaps a better question would be: How did you receive Jesus? Some will relate their “salvation story” whereby they “accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord,” while others would say it was a gradual process of coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus. This is fine but this is not what I actually mean. In our Christianity we have reduced faith to an act that we have performed in the past. Faith is more than a past act, it is the daily acknowledgment of who you are, what you need to do, and thereby realizing that you cannot do it on your own, and that you moment by moment must trust completely in Jesus, whom you cannot see, with all that you are!
When Jesus said, “Trust in me,” He was not saying we can depend on Him to be nice to us but rather that we are to give up all that we know, think we know, and set our complete faith in Him alone. We are to literally set aside everything we hold near and dear and give it all to Him to use as He wills. Christianity is more than feeling good about one’s self and being nice to others. If you do not understand what it means to place your faith in Jesus, you will never discover the freedom Paul relates in these verses in Colossians. Lets discover what freedom truly means for the Christian…
READ: Colossians 2:6-10
If we receive Jesus by “simple faith,” then why do we not continue in “simple faith?” Children trust their parents, knowing that a loving parent seeks only the best for them. The same is true for the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Why then do so many live unproductive lives in Jesus? We find the reason in these words of Paul to the Colossians. Freedom in faith is found when…
I. Believers continue in Christ! (vv. 6-7)
1. The Christian life is to continue just as it began! Paul relates that “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.” Making someone “Lord” of your life means they are in control of it! Since a Christian’s rests solely on the good news of the gospel, Paul tells his readers not to relinquish its divine authority for any human philosophical sophistry! Christians are to be “rooted” in Jesus alone! They are to be continually “built up” and “strengthened” in their faith! The sad fact is that too many allow their faith to depend on their emotions instead of their trust in Christ! If they relied on their faith they would not be “blown to and fro with every wind of doctrine” that comes along! (Ephesians 4:14) “I am afraid,” Paul lamented over some of his weak brothers in Christ, “that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough!” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) Too many folks are willing to follow whoever comes along with fine sounding words rather than rely on the faith they first believed in! This is why Christians need to be “built up” and “strengthened” in the faith that they were initially taught! As believers are “built up” in Christ, they become more grateful and overflow with “thankfulness” for what they have continued in! Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ!
EXAMPLE: There was years ago a man who spent most of his spare time planting trees. The man seldom watered the young trees because he thought that too much watering spoiled them. “Pampered trees,” he said, “made for shallow roots, and deep roots were something to be treasured.” Those tree are rugged, strong, and durable now. Tall and tough. Adversity and deprivation seem to have benefited them in ways that being sheltered and pampered couldn’t. It made me think about how I pray for others. I'm inclined to pray that God will spare people from hardship, but lately I've changed my praying. I don't ask for the easy way. Instead, I try to echo the prayer of the apostle Paul: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:16-19) I now ask that their roots will go deep in the love of God, so they will grow up sturdy and strong. Then when the winds of adversity blow, they won't be swept away but will stand tall as a testimony of faith. Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ!
Recently several teenagers were mauled and killed when they were antagonizing a caged tiger. He escaped, hunted them down, killed one of them and severely injured others. That happens when you foolishly do something as stupid as prod a wild animal that can kill you. The same is true for those who foolishly dabble in false spirituality. Peter would warn: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Paul reminds us that freedom in faith is found when…
II. Believers avoid spiritual captivity! (v. 8)
1. True wisdom is actually knowing what it truly important! Paul was concerned that no false teacher take the Colossian believers “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy!” True Christian philosophy takes “captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but if one loves wisdom that is not of Christ “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” (Colossians 2:3) then it is simply worshipping an empty idol! Such people will be “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). This kind of philosophy “depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” or as the RSV states: “elemental spirits” of this world! The idea refers to the evil spirits who inspire such heresy and over whom Christ triumphed! Paul reminds us that “even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). “For our struggle,” he relates, “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12) Such a philosophy is demonic and worldly, not godly or Christlike. Unless believers are careful, such philosophy may ensnare them, taking them “captive.” Believers are to avoid spiritual captivity and trust Christ alone!
EXAMPLE: I read about some slave-making ants of the Amazon that illustrate man's predicament of following a false spirituality. Hundreds of these ants periodically swarm out of their nest to capture neighboring colonies of weaker ants. After destroying resisting defenders, they carry off cocoons containing the larvae of worker ants. When these “captured children” hatch, they assume that they are part of the family and launch into the tasks of their enemies! They never realize that they are forced-labor victims. Just as these little creatures are captives from the time of their birth, so we enter the world enslaved to sin and Satan. But there is a solution. By turning to Christ in faith, we are released from the lie of sin. Then by the Holy Spirit's power we can begin serving the truth. In order to remain free though, we have to be willing to stay free in Christ and “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Believers are to avoid spiritual captivity!
It is sad when people think that simply by being practical they are spiritually smart. It is dangerous and can lead to a false sense of self-sufficiency. Then there are those who seem to place their trust in the latest science or recent discovery only to later realize that all of the test results were not in yet. So many people are asking that we trust them, yet few come through on the promises they hold out to us. Whom or what then should we trust? Freedom in faith is found when…
III. Believers trust in what is true! (vv. 9-10)
1. No one ever got lost on a straight road! There is no “fullness” found in a philosophy based on vain human reasoning. For in Christ “all the fullness of the Deity lives.” Hence only in Christ can an individual have true fullness in life! Apart from Jesus is emptiness. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre related that “Life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness.” Jesus would say, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) “…apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) He would say that “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44) The wisdom of God is worth all you own or could ever have! This is why the Teacher in Ecclesiastes would moan, “Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:17) Solomon found out that wisdom worshipped is just plain vanity, whereas only in Jesus do we find real treasured truth! Why? We know that Jesus was God in human flesh! Fully God and fully man: “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form!” And, as believers, we have “been given the fullness of Christ!” This fullness of life comes from Christ’s fullness. We partake of the divine nature through Jesus who “from the fullness of His grace we have all received” (John 1:16). Jesus taught that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they [Christians] may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) We can trust Jesus because of Who He is and what we receive by faith in Him! Freedom in faith is found when believers trust in what is true!
EXAMPLE: At the highest levels of government, military leaders carefully monitor events in their region and around the world. As they evaluate troop movements, missile placements, and possible responses, they try to answer the question, “Where is this going to lead us?” About 600 BC, Jeremiah the prophet asked his countrymen to consider where their action was taking them. The biggest threat to their well-being, however, wasn't an enemy army but their own spiritual and moral decay. People who professed to believe in God were sexually immoral, godless, and cruel (Jeremiah 5:7-28). Even more troubling was the people's preference for religious leaders who said politically correct things rather than the truth (5:30-31). The prophet, knowing that their way of life would ultimately bring down God's judgment, asked them to think realistically, “What will you do in the end?” (v.31). It was a good question then, and it's a good question today. We need to evaluate carefully our relationship with God. Do we stop long enough in our busy lives to ask, “Where is my life headed?” Freedom in faith is found when believers trust in what is true!
Conclusion:
Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ, when believers avoid spiritual captivity, and when believers trust in what is true!
----
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
March 9, 2008 AM
By Pastor Lee Hemen
How did you come to Christ? Perhaps a better question would be: How did you receive Jesus? Some will relate their “salvation story” whereby they “accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord,” while others would say it was a gradual process of coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus. This is fine but this is not what I actually mean. In our Christianity we have reduced faith to an act that we have performed in the past. Faith is more than a past act, it is the daily acknowledgment of who you are, what you need to do, and thereby realizing that you cannot do it on your own, and that you moment by moment must trust completely in Jesus, whom you cannot see, with all that you are!
When Jesus said, “Trust in me,” He was not saying we can depend on Him to be nice to us but rather that we are to give up all that we know, think we know, and set our complete faith in Him alone. We are to literally set aside everything we hold near and dear and give it all to Him to use as He wills. Christianity is more than feeling good about one’s self and being nice to others. If you do not understand what it means to place your faith in Jesus, you will never discover the freedom Paul relates in these verses in Colossians. Lets discover what freedom truly means for the Christian…
READ: Colossians 2:6-10
If we receive Jesus by “simple faith,” then why do we not continue in “simple faith?” Children trust their parents, knowing that a loving parent seeks only the best for them. The same is true for the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Why then do so many live unproductive lives in Jesus? We find the reason in these words of Paul to the Colossians. Freedom in faith is found when…
I. Believers continue in Christ! (vv. 6-7)
1. The Christian life is to continue just as it began! Paul relates that “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.” Making someone “Lord” of your life means they are in control of it! Since a Christian’s rests solely on the good news of the gospel, Paul tells his readers not to relinquish its divine authority for any human philosophical sophistry! Christians are to be “rooted” in Jesus alone! They are to be continually “built up” and “strengthened” in their faith! The sad fact is that too many allow their faith to depend on their emotions instead of their trust in Christ! If they relied on their faith they would not be “blown to and fro with every wind of doctrine” that comes along! (Ephesians 4:14) “I am afraid,” Paul lamented over some of his weak brothers in Christ, “that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough!” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) Too many folks are willing to follow whoever comes along with fine sounding words rather than rely on the faith they first believed in! This is why Christians need to be “built up” and “strengthened” in the faith that they were initially taught! As believers are “built up” in Christ, they become more grateful and overflow with “thankfulness” for what they have continued in! Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ!
EXAMPLE: There was years ago a man who spent most of his spare time planting trees. The man seldom watered the young trees because he thought that too much watering spoiled them. “Pampered trees,” he said, “made for shallow roots, and deep roots were something to be treasured.” Those tree are rugged, strong, and durable now. Tall and tough. Adversity and deprivation seem to have benefited them in ways that being sheltered and pampered couldn’t. It made me think about how I pray for others. I'm inclined to pray that God will spare people from hardship, but lately I've changed my praying. I don't ask for the easy way. Instead, I try to echo the prayer of the apostle Paul: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:16-19) I now ask that their roots will go deep in the love of God, so they will grow up sturdy and strong. Then when the winds of adversity blow, they won't be swept away but will stand tall as a testimony of faith. Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ!
Recently several teenagers were mauled and killed when they were antagonizing a caged tiger. He escaped, hunted them down, killed one of them and severely injured others. That happens when you foolishly do something as stupid as prod a wild animal that can kill you. The same is true for those who foolishly dabble in false spirituality. Peter would warn: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Paul reminds us that freedom in faith is found when…
II. Believers avoid spiritual captivity! (v. 8)
1. True wisdom is actually knowing what it truly important! Paul was concerned that no false teacher take the Colossian believers “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy!” True Christian philosophy takes “captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but if one loves wisdom that is not of Christ “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” (Colossians 2:3) then it is simply worshipping an empty idol! Such people will be “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). This kind of philosophy “depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” or as the RSV states: “elemental spirits” of this world! The idea refers to the evil spirits who inspire such heresy and over whom Christ triumphed! Paul reminds us that “even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). “For our struggle,” he relates, “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12) Such a philosophy is demonic and worldly, not godly or Christlike. Unless believers are careful, such philosophy may ensnare them, taking them “captive.” Believers are to avoid spiritual captivity and trust Christ alone!
EXAMPLE: I read about some slave-making ants of the Amazon that illustrate man's predicament of following a false spirituality. Hundreds of these ants periodically swarm out of their nest to capture neighboring colonies of weaker ants. After destroying resisting defenders, they carry off cocoons containing the larvae of worker ants. When these “captured children” hatch, they assume that they are part of the family and launch into the tasks of their enemies! They never realize that they are forced-labor victims. Just as these little creatures are captives from the time of their birth, so we enter the world enslaved to sin and Satan. But there is a solution. By turning to Christ in faith, we are released from the lie of sin. Then by the Holy Spirit's power we can begin serving the truth. In order to remain free though, we have to be willing to stay free in Christ and “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Believers are to avoid spiritual captivity!
It is sad when people think that simply by being practical they are spiritually smart. It is dangerous and can lead to a false sense of self-sufficiency. Then there are those who seem to place their trust in the latest science or recent discovery only to later realize that all of the test results were not in yet. So many people are asking that we trust them, yet few come through on the promises they hold out to us. Whom or what then should we trust? Freedom in faith is found when…
III. Believers trust in what is true! (vv. 9-10)
1. No one ever got lost on a straight road! There is no “fullness” found in a philosophy based on vain human reasoning. For in Christ “all the fullness of the Deity lives.” Hence only in Christ can an individual have true fullness in life! Apart from Jesus is emptiness. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre related that “Life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness.” Jesus would say, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) “…apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) He would say that “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44) The wisdom of God is worth all you own or could ever have! This is why the Teacher in Ecclesiastes would moan, “Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:17) Solomon found out that wisdom worshipped is just plain vanity, whereas only in Jesus do we find real treasured truth! Why? We know that Jesus was God in human flesh! Fully God and fully man: “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form!” And, as believers, we have “been given the fullness of Christ!” This fullness of life comes from Christ’s fullness. We partake of the divine nature through Jesus who “from the fullness of His grace we have all received” (John 1:16). Jesus taught that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they [Christians] may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) We can trust Jesus because of Who He is and what we receive by faith in Him! Freedom in faith is found when believers trust in what is true!
EXAMPLE: At the highest levels of government, military leaders carefully monitor events in their region and around the world. As they evaluate troop movements, missile placements, and possible responses, they try to answer the question, “Where is this going to lead us?” About 600 BC, Jeremiah the prophet asked his countrymen to consider where their action was taking them. The biggest threat to their well-being, however, wasn't an enemy army but their own spiritual and moral decay. People who professed to believe in God were sexually immoral, godless, and cruel (Jeremiah 5:7-28). Even more troubling was the people's preference for religious leaders who said politically correct things rather than the truth (5:30-31). The prophet, knowing that their way of life would ultimately bring down God's judgment, asked them to think realistically, “What will you do in the end?” (v.31). It was a good question then, and it's a good question today. We need to evaluate carefully our relationship with God. Do we stop long enough in our busy lives to ask, “Where is my life headed?” Freedom in faith is found when believers trust in what is true!
Conclusion:
Freedom in faith is found when believers continue in Christ, when believers avoid spiritual captivity, and when believers trust in what is true!
----
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
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