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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
Colossians 2:8-15
Hollow and Deceptive Philosophy
When I was around middle school/early high school age, I came across all of these self-help/personal-growth motivational speeches. And it was at a time in my life when I was really getting into tennis and wanted to be the best I could be, and so I started listening to them. They were mainly about how to set goals, being disciplined, and what you had to do to achieve great things. The message that I got was that I needed to take the initiative for my life, set high goals, and work really hard to be the best I could be. So I began to apply those things to that part of my life…
At the same time all of this was going on, I was also starting to get really involved in my youth group and reading the Bible some on my own. And so I started coming across verses like Phil. 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” And I was like, “Yes! That sounds kind of like the language I’m hearing in all of those personal growth messages.
So I began taking what I was learning through those self-help lessons and combining it with Jesus helping me achieve all of the goals that I was setting for my life. And as I was doing this, I remember hearing someone use the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves,” and I thought, “That’s it! That makes sense. God helps those who set goals and work hard to achieve them.”
So that was kind of the philosophy of life that I began living by…thinking God was going to help ME because I was working so hard to help myself.
But there was only one problem with my new philosophy of life...IT’S NOT ACTUALLY IN THE BIBLE.
Not only is that saying not in the Bible but my interpretation of Phil. 4:13 being that Christ would give me strength to accomplish what I set out to accomplish was not an accurate interpretation of that Scripture. What Paul says there is in the context of Him saying he was learning to be content in whatever situation God put him in. Christ was His strength to help him be content when things were good in his life and when things were bad in his life.
My point is...I had built up a philosophy of life that did not come from Jesus – it was a hollow philosophy. I was being deceived and was building my life on a lie...
And I wonder this morning how many of us in the church are being deceived by a false philosophy of life as well?
It’s easy to do…and that is why the apostle Paul was writing this letter to the church at Colossae.
As we’ve been saying since we started this series, the Colossians were being tempted by a “Jesus Plus” Gospel…
And so are many of us today which is why we need to pay really close attention to what Paul says in our opening verse today:
Colossians...2:8
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
“SEE TO IT”
Paul says “see to it,” which is actually stronger in the original Greek. What he says is “Look out!” “Beware!” “Watch out!” So… “Beware! Watch out for people who try to take you captive…”
“TAKES YOU CAPTIVE”
This is another strong word that Paul uses here. It means to take complete control of a person as one would a captive or a slave.
While we may not think of having our own philosophies about life being that big of a deal, Paul is trying to make sure that they and us see that when we fall for these kinds of philosophies, they can completely take over our lives and rob us of our freedom, life, and joy that we have in Christ.
So, we are to beware and watch out that we are not taken captive by these philosophies that are...
“HOLLOW AND DECEPTIVE”
These philosophies of life are “hollow.” They are empty. There’s no substance behind them.
You think they are going to bring you what you’ve been missing in life, but at some point you’ll just find yourself feeling empty again, needing more.
But Satan is really good at deceiving us into thinking they are true. He can use “fine-sounding arguments” (2:4) to convince us they are truth.
And we need to recognize that Satan is behind them and that this is happening in the unseen spiritual realm of things.
Some of you have read C.S. Lewis’ book, Screwtape Letters…
In the book, there is a demon named Screwtape who trains his protégé Wormwood in satanic strategies against Christians.
And one of the things that Screwtape teaches Wormwood is how to keep Christians in the state of mind called “Christianity AND.”
Screwtape tells the demon Wormwood that if he wants to distract Christians, if he wants to debilitate them, if he wants to keep them off course, powerless, ineffective, then simply make sure they never come to a place of believing that mere Christianity is enough.
In other words, make sure they never believe that Jesus Plus Nothing = Everything. Be sure to always deceive them with a “Jesus Plus” philosophy of life.
Guys, Satan carries the title, “The Deceiver.” He is really good at convincing us that these hollow philosophies are true, what we need…what we are missing in life.
And so, we must know the truth and be able to recognize his lies b/c these philosophies are hollow. And Paul mentions 2 reasons they are hollow (ways we can recognize them):
#1 – BASED ON HUMAN TRADITION
Thank goodness we never fall for that kind of thing today! Ha, yeah right…“But my grandpa said…” “That’s the way we’ve always done it in my family.” “That’s what my mom and dad told me.” “That is what we did and said in my church growing up.”
We’ve got to be careful and really look to see if we are basing our philosophy of life on real truth or based on human traditions.
#2 – BASED ON ELEMENTAL SPIRITUAL FORCES OF THIS WORLD
Guys, because of sin, Satan is the ruler of this world. And Scripture paints the picture that he is at work within this world and in our culture by creating this system of ideas, values, morals, practices, and social norms that get integrated into our society and even into the church.
So…take the “Jesus Plus” philosophy that we’ve been talking about. Where does that come from?
Well, Satan has integrated this philosophy of secular humanism into our culture…this idea that humans are fully capable of solving the world’s problems and fulfilling happiness from within ourselves. If we just get smart enough, set the right goals, and work hard enough, we’ll get there one day.
It’s partly what we call the American Dream. If we each pull ourselves up from our bootstraps with our own beliefs, choices, and work ethic then we can achieve whatever we want and when we get there we’ll be happy.
So, this gets integrated into society and then we in the church take Jesus and add that philosophy to it.
And Paul says it’s hollow. We’ve been deceived by Satan and his work through the elemental spiritual forces of this world and the traditions of men…
RATHER THAN ON CHRIST
Paul says the philosophy that is not based on the elemental spiritual forces of this world is Christ and what He brings you by grace.
That is everything opposite of the philosophies found in our world. The world says earn forgiveness by the way you treat others… You get what you deserve… You get rewarded for proving yourself.
Jesus says I give you mercy, forgiveness, and you get blessings as a gift. Jesus says, you don’t earn abundant life, you receive it through me.
That’s counter-cultural. It’s not Jesus Plus anything. It’s just Jesus.
And now Paul shows us why in the next several verses…
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
So the reason that you don’t need anything other than Jesus is because all of the fullness of God dwells in Him and in Christ, you’ve been brought to fullness.
You aren’t lacking anything in Christ and in Christ alone.
This verb translated “fullness” is in the perfect tense and passive voice in Greek...we talked about this last week...it refers to something that happened to you at a certain time in the past that has ongoing results.
The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were made complete in Him by God and will always be complete. You’ll never be lacking. You’ll always have fullness in Christ.
So don’t fall for the lies…the deception of a “Jesus plus” philosophy because you are already complete in Him.
TRANSITION: But now that Paul has said this, he wants to make sure the Colossians and us understand what happened to us to make us so complete.
Look at v. 11...
11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Ok so to show the Colossians their completeness in Christ, Paul uses 2 metaphors...circumcision and baptism. The circumcision Paul is talking about here is the spiritual operation of putting away or cutting away our hard hearts.
Jesus puts off or does away with our sinful nature
Paul explains this much more in depth in Romans 6, but the thing is...we all inherited a sinful nature.
We were born spiritually dead with a nature that was corrupt and sinful...BUT Jesus cut away this sinful nature within us at the moment of salvation when we were spiritually baptized into Jesus.
That’s why Paul says here that you were buried with him in baptism. Paul is not talking about water baptism. He’s talking about being immersed into Jesus…
To be buried means to die...well, you didn’t physically die when you accepted Christ, but what did die was the “old you.” The one with a sinful nature. And then Paul says you were raised to something new.
Paul summed it up in verse 13...
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
Paul is saying, “You want me to show you how complete you are in Christ? Well, look no further than the fact that you were dead – had a sinful nature – and Jesus made you alive...you are no longer dead...you are spiritually alive and you no longer have a sinful nature.
And of course, this is true of you too if you’ve put your faith in Jesus. The old you, the one with a sinful nature, is dead...in your innermost being where your spirit is united to Christ, the one where your real identity is found...never ever wants to sin...that’s how complete you are.
But Paul is not done...he has more to show you as to how complete you are in Christ...verse 13b...
He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Guys, you are also complete in Christ because of the full forgiveness that you experience in Him.
You were charged with a certificate of indebtedness to God because of your sin…
He is perfect and holy...demands righteousness, and because you were a sinner, you were forever indebted to him...and it was a debt you would never have been able to pay.
But because Jesus paid it for you through his work on the cross, God has written on your certificate, “PAID IN FULL.”
You are forgiven and made clean.....YOUR DEBT HAS BEEN PAID IN FULL through Christ alone.
You don’t need to earn anything else, do anything else…it’s just a gift that you received and will always have.
But human traditions and hollow and deceptive philosophies will try to deceive you and make you believe that you’ve got to do other things…confess each sin to God to be forgiven, settle accounts with Him.
Watch Out! Beware of the hollow and deceptive philosophy of Jesus plus or you’ll be taken captive and enslaved to human traditions, religion, and the elemental spiritual forces in this world…
But you don’t have to be…verse 15…
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Sin was Satan’s trump card in his battle against Jesus, but because Jesus defeated sin on the cross Satan was defeated. So Paul ends this section by pointing the Colossian believers back to the fact that Satan has no power over them.
Satan was using the Colossian opponents to try and disillusion them into thinking that the fullness they yearned for was unattainable through Jesus alone, and Paul counters that by reminding them that they have all the completeness they would ever need in Christ.
So before we leave today, let’s think about how this specifically applies to you. I don’t know what Satan likes to whisper in your ear about what it is that you need outside of Christ to complete you and give you real life, but you do.
Maybe it’s your looks, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s a relationship, or being Baptist, or a certain president in the Whitehouse, or a human tradition that has to be in place when we worship or get together as the Church.
I don’ know what it is for you...but one of Satan’s tactics is to try and take you captive or lure you away from clinging to Jesus...
So he whispers in your ear that you need more than just Jesus...that you aren’t really complete. That’s usually evidenced by the things in your life that you couldn’t do without.
So I want you this week as your homework to ask God to reveal to you the things that you’ve allowed Satan to convince you that you need...and then as He reveals them and you find yourself being tempted to look to those things to draw life from them that you’ll say to yourself, “BECAUSE I AM COMPLETE IN CHRIST, SATAN HAS NO POWER OVER ME.”
Guys, you are completely forgiven, your sinful nature is gone, you’ve been given a new heart, and Jesus is enough.”
Recognize the lies…the deceptive philosophy of Jesus plus, and renew your mind to the truth that you are complete in Christ.
And if you’ve been clinging to a philosophy of life completely outside of Jesus, I want to give you a chance to receive His salvation right now in this moment…