SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/10/2016 5:35 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 Intro to Colossians (Correspondence)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians 1:1-2
Message of the verses: “1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you
and peace from God our Father.”
In this SD we want to get a general outline of what we will find in this letter, a letter that was written close to the time that Ephesians was written so there will be some similar things found in these letters. The letter to the Ephesians emphasizes on the body of Christ, the church, but Colossians is about Christ who is the Head of the body, and that is the difference.
Paul uses terms that the false teachers, the Gnostics used like fullness, perfect and complete in his letter, but Paul gives the proper meaning to these terms unlike the Gnostics teachers did. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Over thirty times Paul used the little word all. He also wrote about wisdom which was a key term in the Gnostic vocabulary; he had a great deal to say about angels and spirit powers too.”
Let us now
look at a couple verses which show us the theme of this letter which is the permanence of Jesus Christ. “18 He
is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything
(1:18).” “11 a renewal in which there is
no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all (3:18).”
Nothing needs to be added to what Jesus Christ did for us as far as salvation and how the Holy Spirit uses His Word to cause us to grow as we are complete in Christ. You either have Him or you don’t. There is no need of angelic mediators or spiritual emanations.
Paul did not begin this letter by attacking the false teachers and their false doctrines; he began by exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. This is kind of like what a bank teller learns when they begin their job, and that is to understand everything about true currency so that when a false one comes their way they will realize it is false.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that as he begins to exalt Jesus Christ he does it in five areas: “The Gospel message, redemption, Creation, the church, and Paul’s own ministry. The people to whom Paul was writing had become Christians because of the Gospel message brought to them by Epaphras. If this message was wrong, then they were not saved at all!”
After exalting Jesus Christ he then begins to attack the heretics on their own ground. This begins in chapter two where Paul exposed the false origin of their teachings and showed how their teachings contradicted everything that Paul taught about Jesus Christ. Dr. Wiersbe tells us “That the believer who masters this chapter is not likely to be led astray by some alluring and enticing ‘new-and-improved brand of Christianity.”
We next see that after this task is finished Paul had some important things for the church as seen in chapters 3-4. Paul explains here that the greatest antidote to a false teaching—a godly life. What we believe determines how we behave or how we live. Dr. Wiersbe explains “If we believe that matter is evil, we will use our bodies one way; but if we believe that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, we will live accordingly.
“If Christ is truly preeminent in our lives, then we will glorify Him by keeping pure, by enjoying fellowship with other saints, by living each other at home and being faithful at work, and by seeking to witness for Christ and serve Him effectively. Unless doctrine leads to duty, it is no use to us.”
He concludes
his introduction by writing “As we study this exciting letter, we must heed
Paul’s warnings: ‘Lest any man should beguile you’ (Col. 2:4), ‘Lest any man spoil you’
(Col. 2:8), ‘Let no man therefore judge you!’ (Col. 2:16).”
12/10/2016 6:08 PM
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