PT-1 "The Deficiency of Philosophy" (Col. 2:8a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/9/2017 10:01 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 The Deficiency of Philosophy

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  Colossians 2:8a

            Message of the verses:  “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ”

            We begin looking at Paul’s first attack on the Colossian heresy which is false philosophy in our Spiritual Diary for this evening and this will take at least three Spiritual Diaries to complete as there are some very important things we need to cover from this partial verse.

            Paul writes the following to the Galatian church “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1).”  The same thing that was concerning Paul as he wrote to the Galatian church is also concerning him as he writes to the Colossian church, and that is that after being set free through what Christ has done for them on the cross he is afraid that they become enslaved again.  Now I am not suggesting that they could lose their salvation, but their freedom in Christ as they become enslaved with the philosophies that are swarming around the Colossian church.  John MacArthur writes about the first words in verse eight “see to it” which is the Greek word “blepo” and states that it is in the present tense imperative form of this word, meaning Paul is calling them to constant watchfulness and the reason for this is because the danger is near.  They need to continue to stay watchful against this heresy.  Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 16:6 to “watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” meaning that there will always be ravenous wolves around the church.  In Matthew 7:15 Jesus also stated “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  Paul gave a similar warning to the Ephesians in Acts chapter twenty. And also to the Philippians in Philippians 3:2, and Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:1 “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness.”

            MacArthur writes about the words “takes you captive” stating it “is from sulagogeo, a rare word used here in the New Testament and not at all found in extra biblical Greek until long after Paul’s time.  Sulagogeo is a compound word, made up of sute, ‘booty, or spoil of war.’  The same concept is found in 2 Timothy 3:6, where Paul warns of ‘those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses.’  To Paul, it was unthinkable that those who had been ransomed and redeemed should be vulnerable by ignorance and thus in the spiritual war become prisoners of some spiritual predator with false doctrine.”

            This kind of thing goes on today and just with Paul, Pastors today have their hearts broken when one of their flock falls prey to a false teaching or to a cult.  I remember when I was going to my first church after becoming a believer and a Pastor that I had the highest respect for had one of our church members leave our church and join a Roman Catholic church, going from freedom to bondage and it truly broke his heart.

            Paul then describes the means that the false teachers would use to kidnap the believers at Colossae as he states “philosophy and empty deception,” and we have already stated that the Greek word for philosophy is “Philosophia” which means “to love wisdom” and we may have mentioned that it is the only time used in the New Testament.  MacArthur writes of this word stating “It is used here in a much broader sense than the academic discipline, since ‘philosophy is not reducible to the Judeo-Gnostic speculations about which Paul warned the Colossians ‘ (Mark M. Hanna, Crucial Questions in Apologetics ‘everything that had to do with theories about God and the world and the meaning of human life was called ‘philosophy’ at that time, not only in pagan schools, but also in the Jewish schools of the Greek cities’ (The Church in the New Testament Period).

            “The first-century Jewish historian Josephus wrote ‘There are three philosophical sects among the Jews.  The followers of the first of whom are the Pharisees, of the second the Sadducees, and the third sect who pretends to be a severer discipline are called Essenes’ (Jewish Wars 2.2.2).  Thus, the term philosophy was broad enough to encompass religious sects.  The use of the definite article with philosophia shows that Paul was referring here to the specific beliefs of the Colossian errorists.  Most likely they used it to refer to the transcendent, higher knowledge they supposedly had attained through mystical experience.”

            There is more to this but we will have to look at it in our next SD.

3/9/2017 10:40 PM