SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2017 10:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Mysticism”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:18-19
Message of the verses: “18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
We have been looking at legalism in our last few
Spiritual Diaries and now we move on to look at mysticism and John MacArthur
defines this as “the pursuit of a deeper or higher subjective religious
experience. It is the belief that
spiritual reality is perceived apart from the human intellect and natural
senses. It looks for truth internally,
weighing feelings, intuition, and other internal sensations more heavily than
objective, observable, external data.
Mysticism ultimately derives its authority from a self-actualized,
self-authenticated light rising from within.
This irrational and
anti-intellectual approach is the antithesis of Christian theology.” Ok now that we got a pretty good working
definition of this word we will move on and look at it in the context of these
verses from the pen of Paul to the Colossian believers. We know that this letter that Paul wrote
refutes the false teaching that is going on by the false teachers who have come
into the Colossian church as they claimed a mystical union with God. As I said Paul refutes them and he exhorts
the Colossians not to allow these false teachers to “keep defrauding” them of
their “prize.” I believe that the prize
that Paul is speaking of is the one believers can earn while on earth living
for Christ and then given to them in what the Bible calls “The Judgment Seat of
Christ.” It seems like the false
teachers had assumed the role of spiritual referees and so disqualified the
Colossians for not abiding by their rules.
Now that sounds like what the Pharisees did to Christ, and just as that
was wrong, so is this wrong.
John MacArthur writes “Self-abasement” “translates tapeinophrosune, which is usually
rendered ‘humility.’ The NASB emphasizes
the negative use of the term in the present context. The humility of the Colossian errorists was a
false humility. They were delighting in
it, meaning their supposed humility was nothing but ugly pride. It was like that of Uriah Heep, one of the
most contemptible characters of English literature, who said, ‘I am well aware
that I am the ‘umblest person going’ (chapter 16 of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield).”
This false humility was a minor problem with these false teachers as they also would engage in “the worship of the angels,” thus denying the truth that there is ‘one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ (1 Timothy 2:5).
We know that the Colossian church was located in modern
day Turkey what was called Asia Minor, and the other name where it was located
is called the Phrygian region, where Laodicea was also located. John MacArthur quotes a couple of men, that I
will name and also quote as MacArthur writes “Commentator William Hendriksen
notes that in A. D. 363 a church synod was held in Colossae’s sister city of
Laodicea. It declared, ‘It is not right
for Christians to abandon the church of God and go away to invoke angels.” He then goes on to quote an early Church
Father named Theodoret who wrote “commenting on Colossians 2:18, wrote ‘The
disease which St. Paul denounces, continued for a long time in Phrygia and
Pisidia’ (cited in Hendriksen, p. 126).
The archangel Michel was worshiped in Asia Minor as late as A. D. 739. He was also given credit for miraculous
cures.”
As believers in Jesus Christ we know that the Bible
forbids the worship of angels as Jesus told Satan in Matthew 4:10 “"Away
from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"”
In our study of the book of Isaiah we looked at Isaiah
6:1-4 which shows that the angels worship God:
“1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.”
We will continue looking at other passages that speak of
this subject in our next SD.
3/31/2017 10:47 PM
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