Complete

“And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

Without Christ we are dead in sin and insensible to spiritual life and blessing. Without Christ we cannot know God nor understand anything about Him or know Him personally. But in Christ we are made complete in every way. Our souls are alive to God and we are truly alive! We can chose the right and reject the wrong and live with a clear and pure conscience before God and other people.

The work of Christ on the cross of Calvary in paying the penalty for our sin, is enough to satisfy the demands for recompense, of the law of God. The fallenness of our being is made up through what He has done for us. It is personal and Jesus deals in great love with each one of His people. To know Christ in our life and to be personally loved by Him, is the fulfilment of all that we are as human beings. We need look for, or toward, no other, but only to Christ.

When we are right with God, we are really right and all our fretting goes to the cross and not to ourselves. We can cast our burdens on the Lord and He will sustain us. It is the remedy for all of life’s trials and troubles and the answer to all the problems that we face. It is hard to trust people, because they are not able to sustain us, but the person of Christ is able to save us and keep us right through our life. He is utterly trustworthy and loves us despite knowing all the rotten things about us that others don’t !

He is the majesty on high. No one is above Him or can challenge Him in any way. Every ruler and authority in heaven and on earth is under His jurisdiction and control. He is the sovereign ruler over all the world leaders and judges and authorities that we are all subject to. He decides the beginning and the end of our trials and our blessings and works all things out to conform to His holy will. God’s people are at the centre of His heart and they are the apple of His eye… No one can touch them without His permission, as we know from the story of Job. Satan himself has no power over the believer and cannot hurt us or offend us, but only annoy. The weakest saint of God has the victory over this mighty foe, for he is beaten already. We pray to be delivered from his temptations that we might escape all evil and live triumphant lives through Christ.

This is our complete salvation, and we will enter into the full assurance of it and the full immortality of body, mind and soul, when the Lord will return for us. Beloved, we have a glorious inheritance in a life with Christ now, and in the kingdom to come. Indeed it is already here, and we recognise our position in it and rejoice.

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.”

Philippians 3:20-21

The Lord Jesus is able to change us in profound ways and conform our thinking and doing to be like Him. Even in this world we experience His power in our lives to change and grow our spiritual life and draw us near to His presence daily. In the end He will have all the pre-eminence and will change us into glorious beings, like Himself. This is the prospect for every saint of God who believes in Christ and is walking with Him.

Godhead

“For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,”

Here was have the certainty that the Lord Jesus Christ is the second person of the trinity of God. He is not just the man Christ Jesus, but all the fullness of God dwells in Him, in His character and physical being. In His body He is no less God than before the incarnation and Jesus lost nothing of His authority, power and glory, by taking on a human body. The Lord Jesus Christ is the very God, the maker of the ends of the earth and the Redeemer of human souls. He has the right and power to forgive sin, for He has paid its terrible price on the cross. He is the Saviour of the world and the Judge of all the earth.

Within the confines of the physical body of Christ lives the full power of the Holy Spirit and the divine nature and power of the Son of God. In becoming a man, He in no way set aside any of His divine attributes but veiled His glory that He might live among us and die to be our Saviour and Lord. We see a glimpse of that glory at the Transfiguration, where the glory of the Lord shone out from Him and was revealed to the few disciples who were there at that time. We see the pure love of the suffering Saviour as He hung on the cross and laid down His life for His own. We see His power set forth in the resurrection, when the Lord of Life raised Himself as the eternal God and glorious Son of the Father. He is the conqueror of death and hell and no one can stand in His presence without righteousness.

God is found wholly in Christ. The person who does not seek Christ does not seek God. The one who is not satisfied with Christ, desires something more than God! We convey our foolishness in rejecting the Lord Jesus, for there is no one above Him and no one else like Him.

If we possess Christ, we have the Father also. If Christ is in us, then we are indwelt by the eternal God and are redeemed and chosen beings who reflect His glory and are made to be like Him.

“Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.”

1 John 2:23

Tradition

“Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.”

Paul is directly addressing the fundamental issues we face today in all our church situations. We cannot sustain our powers of judgement and ignore what is going on around us. Paul says if we do, we will be robbed of our faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus and lose the cutting edge of our love for Him and other people around us. Philosophy abounds and everyone has their own ideas, walking in the light of their own understanding, but not seeking the wisdom of God. The gospel that will bring people to faith is not preached and people accept the self-help advice and think God is helping them. 

It is all vanity and vexation of purpose. It deceives people and builds the speaker and the hearer up in the pride of their own thinking. These man-made and man-propagated philosophies will drag us down and lead us astray. They are entirely this-world orientated and do not teach the way to God. They are sinful and will lead us away from the Lord and teach us to rely on fables, which will ultimately let us down when the going gets difficult.

Science has been infiltrated with materialistic philosophy and has led to the blinding of the human mind to the glory for the created order. Science has been hijacked by this materialism and it has infiltrated our culture to a detrimental degree. People are living like there is no God, because we have swallowed the falsehood in the name of Science. Science is now the new religion and has set it self up against the Creator to its own detriment. Scientific findings are interpreted by the philosophical mindset of the enquirer and we see the godless belief systems being foisted on our society and taught to our children. We follow the tradition of men and not the revealed Word of the Lord. We close our minds and hearts to Him and prefer our own way. People set themselves up against the Lord and many follow them, because they are accepted as “scientists” or “clever.” This so not what the Bible teaches and we are now seeing the unravelling of the mindset of the atheistic world view and true science is showing us something quite different. 

The Scripture is true and God’s way is the way to life and peace. Our own way leads us to death and the destruction of our minds and hearts. Our minds become dim and we are deluded and our hearts atrophy and we do not accept God anymore. God tells us plainly what He thinks of the worldly mindset. He says it it foolish and will destroy our eternity. People do not believe God or pay attention to His reasoning and verdict on our lives, and so find themselves treading the path away from God and into unbelief and spiritual death. Paul does not want this for His Christians bothers and sisters, and so he is writing this letter and showing the glory of the Lord Jesus. Only as we see Him, will we be kept from error and all falsehood. 

“Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,”

2 Timothy 3:16

Established

“… rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.”

If we are not rooted in Christ we will not be built up in Him. There must be repentance before there is sanctification. This does not only apply to the beginning of the Christian life at conversion, but is true and a feature all the way through our lives. We cannot be established in our faith if there is no initial grounding. We need good teaching and good teachers today more that ever because the times are evil. Yet they are few and far between. There is extraordinary falsehood everywhere, and extraordinary claims taken to men who vaunt themselves on the media. But it is so very difficult to find sound, godly Christian fellowship in our local lives. The church of Jesus Christ has been decimated by error and self-promotion. We have become trivial and shallow and wrong. 

What are we to do?

We must go back to the beginning and relearn the deep doctrines of the Scripture and remember what we were once taught. Perhaps we were never taught it, and have endured all kinds of false preaching and teaching. We need to revisit the Word of God and find out what God says to us and what His character is like and what He requires of us. This is quite different from the easy sound bite that seems to please too many of us. 

To revisit our testimony is a good start and to find out if we are really of the faith of the Scripture and what we really believe. It is imperative that we are trusting in the right Jesus and not our own imagination. Then we must build up our faith as we study the Word of God and put it into practice in our lives. We repent of our waywardness and stick closely to the truth revealed.

If we are established in the faith, taught and keeping to the Word of God, it will cause us to abound in thanksgiving and make us grateful for all the the Lord has done for us. We will cease complaining about our circumstances and be glad for the daily blessings we receive. The striving for the things of this life will stop and therefore we will become deeper and stronger in faith and love.

The basis of it all is Christ. Many have forgotten Him and put him far down the list of priorities in their lives, and some are thinking that they follow Him but it is not the Christ of the Bible. Some are part time and put on the robes of righteousness on Sunday for the church service and then revert to their own clothes the rest of the time.  Some are glad to know Him and tell others about what the Lord has done for them. Others do not have a testimony at all, but are relying on their works to be better than others and that they will be allowed into the kingdom on that basis.  Some fail because they do not lay straight paths for their feet and fall into temptation.

Only Christ is the bedrock, so let us throw off the hindrances and focus on eternity and the life that is to come. If we feather our nests in the now, we will have no love for Christ, no inheritance in the next life and no thanksgiving to the Lord.

Paul is addressing these issues and building the spiritual knowledge of the saints, so  that they will be faithful believers and love the Lord and what He has done for them. Let us also build and get established in the faith and foster the mindset of thanksgiving, and we will be deeply rooted in our faith and stand in the time of testing. 

Walk

“As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,”

We receive Christ by faith, so the rest of our lives from that point are walked and lived in faith in God. 

We walk worthy of the calling by which He has called us heavenward. We do not fall back on depending on ourselves or the people around us, but take the responsibility for our spiritual lives and build ourselves up in our holy faith. Our love is not for this world, but for Christ and His word. Our hope is in the sure promises of God and not in the empty words of other people. 

As we have been forgiven, so we forgive and find ourselves praying for unlikely people, those who oppose us and even hurt us. The change in our mindset could not be greater, as we fix our will at the bottom of our priorities and put God’s will at the top. The subjugation of self is the greatest challenge, and without the saving faith we receive from God, we cannot succeed. 

We start our Christian lives with the power of God, and we continue in that power. We do nothing that would grieve the Holy Spirit into silence in our lives, but continue in the living of life in a righteous way. 

We begin as cleansed and forgiven people, and we continue in that same way. It is the way to life and peace and a deep inner happiness that no one can take away. We give up all for Christ and receive all that we could desire in Him alone. 

“Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13-14

We press on, not resting on our accomplishments and not drowning in our sins, but walking steadily on with our Saviour and Lord. 

Steadfastness

“For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.”

How wonderful to be steadfast in Christ the Lord…

This is the ideal state to be in as we walk with the Lord. To walk with Him steadily and strongly every day without wavering and not falling back, loosing our footing and stumbling around – no falling into sin and succumbing to temptations. To walk worthily with the Lord and please Him every day is our goal. We are not yet made perfect, but we are steadfast.

“…the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

James 1:3-4

It is possible to live a godly life in this world and to please the Lord in all we say and do. It involves the testing of our faith, and that severely, as James points out in his book. But the striving to overcome and the battles against the flesh, the world and the devil, only serve to make us complete.

Paul the Apostle sees these qualities in the Christians at Colosse and identifies with them in the Spirit. He cannot be with them in the body, as he is in prison, but his soul goes out to them, in love and fellowship, and hence the letter. Paul rejoices with them as they rejoice in Christ.

“Don’t be grieved; for the joy of The LORD is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10

This is what sets the Christians apart from the one who does not believe. We should be the happiest people on earth, as we are children in the family of God, have a royal inheritance with the saints of God, and know Christ as our loving and constant companion. There is no fretting or worry or wrong motivations in this state of living. All is peace with God and nothing harms us or disturbs our rest. Life is orderly and settled and full of hope and faithful acts of grace and mercy. We rejoice in the Lord always.

All this is bound up with the closeness of our relationship with our Saviour. Our deep sense of gratitude to Him and the devotion of love is ever on our minds and hearts and lips. We love Him because He loved us first and gave Himself for us. We keep our repentance to the forefront of our thinking and have short accounts with the Lord. We go wrong and put it right straight away. Therefore we are joyful and free people, free to be righteous and kind. Though we may be separated from other believers, we are joined in heart and soul and can commune together in the bond of peace in the Spirit. We encourage each other in the Lord and wait for the great day when Christ will be revealed and our steadfastness will give way to eternal perfection.

Delude

“Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech”

The Apostle Paul is covering all the bases by setting before the believers the Lord Jesus. Only their true view of Him will protect them from false teachers and false doctrine. It is the same for us today. 

It is easy to find yourself deluded by fancy preachers and people who exude confidence in themselves and live glamorous lives. Some people seem to have everything and others have very little. It seems that God helps people who are wily and smart and know how to get what they want, while those who make sacrifices for His sake, are left without. 

We keep our focus on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith and the only one who can bring us safely through the minefield, that is this Christian life, and bring us safe to God. 

Our minds must be grounded in the Word of God. We must know it for ourselves and not be relying on preachers to tell us what to think and believe. There are so many false prophets, teachers and the like, out there in the public domain that it is frightening. We live in dark days, perhaps the end days, when there will be great delusion and many so-called “believers” falling away from the faith. They fall away because they did not believe on the only Saviour, but just following an idea and a convenience for them. 

The media is so endearing. It looks so glamorous and draws us in with sight and sound. We hear the grandiose words and the fake promises that are really just “self-help” strategies and techniques. There is no living faith and no love for Christ at all. There are platitudes and a nodding ascent to some kind of belief in a vague Bible, but nothing living or breathing. There is no Holy Spirit of God in any of it, despite the vaunted efforts to invoke His presence. He is dishonoured in the end and that is a very serious matter.

Caution is the key. Read, study, meditate on the Scripture and guard your mind and heart from all that is evil out there, carried out in the name of Christianity. 

“Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

1 John 4:1

Paul is ensuring that the believers and all the church of God are in no doubt about sound doctrine and have a clear view of the person of Christ. Be persuaded of all the right things and shun every evil word. 

Treasures

“…In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Such a short phrase that summarises so much!

There is such treasure hidden in our Lord Jesus Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are bound up in Him, His mind and heart are full of all goodness and the love of God. If we want wisdom, we ask of Him and He will give us His wisdom. If we want knowledge, we ask of Him and He enlightens our mind to know the Scriptures and interpret them aright. The book of the Scripture are the very words of God and give us all the knowledge revealed about the holy God. As we read we can know Him. 

To know Christ is to know the fount of all knowledge and wisdom. What a privilege we possess as believers in that blessed name! We are tuned into the very wisdom that made our world and all the worlds, in fact, everything that exists. He knows the reasons for all things, and though He does not reveal everything to us, we can trust in Him because of who He is and who He has revealed Himself to be. He understands the end of the thing from the beginning though we do not, but we must not, for we live by faith and not by sight. Some knowledge is for God alone, for we are not able to bear it. 

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

We must rest on that superior knowledge and trust His eternal judgments that they are right and fair. We do not substitute our frail human sense of justice for His, for we are faulty and do not know all the circumstances. Whatever happens to us, we will trust in Him and rest on that amazing knowledge and that all-wise heart that loves us so much. 

The person of our Lord Jesus is precious to us, far above all our vaunted understanding and foolish ways. We worship Him because He is worthy of all we have and are, indeed we stand worthless before Him. Only His mighty love can accept us and change us and make us wise and able to know Him. As we know His person, we are made wise and full of knowledge, but only as we put away the sins that so easily entangle us and put on the righteousness that God gives us. As we draw so close, we become more and more like Him and worship Him more readily and more often. We appreciate His presence above the company of all others, and see the astounding treasure that is bound up in His person. 

Beloved, all knowledge and wisdom is bound up in Him, so let us follow increasingly closely and throw off everything that hinders us from drawing near…

Assurance

“that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,”

Paul is seeking to comfort the hearts of the people of God, so that they are bound together in love and devotion to each other, as well as the Lord. We cannot get very far without Christian fellowship and the bond of face-to-face filial love that we share for each other. It is very challenging to have to be alone, as the Apostle Paul is finding in his prison situation. 

As Christian people we seek and need the understanding about God, who He is and what His purposes are in this world and in the world to come. We need to know the assurance that we belong to Christ and that His word is the centre of our lives and our daily bread. We must know about the Father God and also the Lord Jesus Christ, who Paul is showing to the Christians in this letter. 

As we grow in grace and in the maturity of Christian assurance, our knowledge of God and our Saviour, Jesus also grows, and we will understand the Word of God more clearly and deeply. As we walk with the Lord, we rejoice to know Him and that His fellowship is with us in our lives. This is the way of the Christian’s assurance. As we grow in Him, our confidence also goes and we make progress in holiness. 

Struggle

“For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; “

This verse follows on from the end of the last chapter and extends the sentiment expressed there for the spiritual well-being of the Christians at Colosse and all who would read this letter, including us. Paul seems to realises that his words are not just his words, but will last the test of time. He speaks to us still, down through the Millenia and his voice, God’s voice, is not dulled. Paul wants them to know his love for them, even though he faces death, that they will listen and obey the voice of the Lord.

Paul has had many struggles and continues to have many struggles because of the ministry that God has called him to do. Paul has suffered beatings, shipwreck, violence, imprisonments, threats, called up before authorities, and personal loss. Paul works to keep himself and takes no funds from any church or organisation. He is dedicated to the development of the spiritual life of the church and is the example, for all time of sacrificial living and serving. 

He loves the Christians at Colosse and also Laodicea and also all of us, who he has never seen or known. He loves the body of Christ first and foremost and is seeking to build them up in holy faith and love for the Lord. Paul is building strong Christians so that the church will stand firm in the Lord and hold closely to the Apostle’s doctrine and teaching.

His expression is full of emotion. His passion and desire is for the people of God and his own life is forfeit for their sakes. He describes his life  as a “struggle” and so it is. He has given up all the comforts and success in this life, to have the prize in the life to come.

“Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

This is the pattern for every Christian. We cannot serve God and this world. We choose who we serve and what we give our time to. God will honour our choices for His glory and prosper our work in the Lord.