Engaging Scripture

How many rules do Christians need to follow? – Colossians 2:16-23, Part 1

*Photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash*

How many rules do Christians need to follow? I’ve heard the critique that Christianity is a religion with lots of rules. “You can’t do this, and you can’t do that, and Christianity is so antiquated with all its super-restrictive rules!” When Michelle and I were students in Bible college, the student handbook certainly had a lot of rules. Take music for example. We were told what kinds of music we were and were not allowed to listen to. I once got a “white-slip,” for listening to the band U2. A white-slip was a paper saying you broke a rule, and if you got enough of them, you’d have to pay a fine. We couldn’t go to the movie theater, although we were allowed to rent movies from Blockbuster (remember those days!?!?). We couldn’t wear jeans to class. I once wore a pair of colored jeans to class, and I was spotted by a Resident Assistant who told me to turn around, go back to my dorm room and change. On and on the rules went. Maybe you grew up in a Christian environment that had certain rules. Where I live in Lancaster County, if you have any connection to the Mennonite or Amish world, well, you know about rules better than me.

As we continue studying the letter to church in the ancient Roman town of Colosse, this week we’re going to hear about rules. Baseball season is just around the corner, and that’s a sport with rules. Rules make for an orderly game, for fairness, or at least they’re supposed to. We all know that rules can get weird, though, can’t they? Have you ever heard, “That is a stupid rule!” So they’ll make a new rule to try to deal with the stupid rule. Last night I was watching a game in the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament, and the rules were called into question. The play under review was that the basketball was touched by a member of one team, directing it through the legs of a member of the opposing team, and out of bounds. In the process, the ball appeared to graze the uniform of that opposing team member. The question was, “Who touched the ball last, before it went out of bounds?” Do you know the answer? I’ll give you the answer at the bottom of this post. While we’re used to rules in sports, what about Christianity or church? Do we need rules? Turn to Colossians 2:16-23 and let’s see what Paul has to say about rules.

Just a reminder that as we read Colossians we are playing the role of detective. What are we detectives trying to uncover? Something called The Colossian Heresy. A heresy is false teaching, and that false teaching is why Paul is writing this letter. He has heard that the false teaching, whatever it was, has made its way into the church, into the hearts and minds of the people there in the Roman city of Colosse. Paul is concerned!

What this means is that there were actual people who were promoting this false teaching, a teaching that did not line up with the heart of God and who Jesus was, but it was being promoted as if it did. Of course those false teachers wouldn’t have called themselves false teachers or heretics. They thought they were telling the truth. They might have called Paul the heretic and false teacher. So there is a battle of ideas taking place, and this was the case all over the early church, and as we will see, it is still the case today.

Because the people and Paul all clearly knew the identity of the false teachers as well as the content of their false teaching, Paul doesn’t come right out and clearly label or describe the heresy. Instead he refers to it in the normal way we refer to things in letters or conversations when everyone already knows what we’re talking about, vaguely, because we don’t have to get specific about it.

So for those of us 2000 years later reading this ancient mail, we have to play the role of detective to try to uncover the content of the Colossian Heresy. Last week in Colossians 2:8-15, we uncovered our first two clues.

The first clue is in verse 8, where Paul writes that the heresy was hollow, deceptive philosophy based on human tradition and the basic principles of the world, rather than on Christ. Then in verses 11 and following Paul gave us the second clue when he referred to the idea of circumcision, which was the identifying mark of the Jewish people. When you put those two clues together it is possible that Paul was saying that the heresy was taught by people who believed that when a person became a Christian, they also needed to convert to Judaism by being circumcised, as in physical surgery. Paul, as we saw in verses 11-15, says that Christians do not need to convert to Judaism because we are placing our faith in Christ and the victory that he won on the cross and through his resurrection. In other words, as he says back in verse 10, we have fullness in Christ, and we need nothing else!

Now Paul gives us more clues. Paul is not done talking about this heresy. So we continue our investigation today in Colossians 2:16-23. Go ahead and read the passage, and then come back to this post.

Get all that? Does Colossians 2:16-23 make sense? I found it to be confusing. Almost like Paul is writing in code, even though last week I said that he wasn’t writing in code! I still don’t think Paul is trying to be mysterious or lead us into confusion. If we were there in that house in the town of Colosse, with our Christian church family gathered around us, excited to hear the reading of this letter from Paul, I believe we would have pretty much understood what Paul was writing about. You and I 2000 years later have a big cultural, language and history gap to cross as we try to understand this. Our investigation, looking for more clues, will help us close that gap.

So check back in to the next post, as we take a look for more clues, verse by verse.

And here’s the answer to the basketball rule I mentioned above: the officials determined, after viewing the replay, that the basketball had indeed brushed the shorts of the player, and that counted as touch. Therefore, possession went to the other team.

Why we should look to Jesus to win us the victory – Colossians 2:8-15, Part 5

All week long in this five part series on Colossians 2:8-15, I have been seeking to understand the Apostle Paul’s answer to the question, “What is truth?” After hearing his concern that there are deceptive philosophies in the world that seek to captivate us, Paul focuses our attention on Jesus, saying that Jesus is the truth. But how? In the midst of our broken world, what does Jesus offer us that is truth?

Notice how Paul answers this in the end of verse 13. Forgiveness. He forgave all our sins. That is amazing to think about. We are forgiven. There is an astounding freedom to this. I know that I don’t always feel forgiven. Maybe you feel that too. When we screw up, when we hurt someone, when we ignore God, when we allow our eyes to wander or our mouths to spout off, we can feel guilt or shame, and we don’t feel forgiven. Yet into those unsettling feelings, Paul underscores the truth that we are people who are forgiven.

There is no sin that we could commit, and no amount of times that we commit it, that would necessitate Jesus to say, “You just crossed the line, buddy…that sin is not forgiven. That was one too many.” Or “That was too awful, too heinous, and you are not forgiven.” Even if you hurt someone badly in your life, and they can’t get over it, and they say, “You are not forgiven,” God still has forgiven you. That sin was dealt with on the cross.

Take a look at verse 14 to see how Paul paints this image for us. He gives us a picture of Jesus taking the written code and nailing it to the cross. You can almost see what Paul has in mind here. Jesus holding up scrolls containing the Mosaic Law, pulling out an ancient hammer and huge nail like they used in crucifixions and just pounding that scroll to the cross. Some scholars believe that what Paul imagines here is not the scrolls of the Mosaic Law, but a list of the sins we have committed. Either way, as he nails it to the cross, Jesus is in essence saying, “You are no longer condemned, you are forgiven, I love you.”

Here’s what is so amazing. At his actual crucifixion, there was a real hammer and nails, right? But Jesus wasn’t the one holding them. The soldiers were. And instead of a scroll, it was his body. The soldiers pounded the nails into his hands and feet. That’s how the forgiveness happened. That’s how you and I were freed from slavery to sin. That’s how every single person who ever lived has the opportunity to live a new life, by placing their faith in Jesus. This beating, this abuse, this murder was done to him, and still Jesus says, “You are no longer condemned, you are forgiven, I love you.” New life is possible to each and every one of us, to everyone in our community and around the world, because of this.

Let’s keep going to hear how Paul describes what happened through Jesus’ sacrifice. Read Colossians 2, verse 15.

Victory! Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities! He made a spectacle of them in public, Paul writes. Jesus triumphed over them by the cross. What appeared to be the means of his death turned out to be his victory!

In Jesus new life is possible for us because he won the victory over sin, over death, over the devil. There are many ways to understand what Jesus did through his death and resurrection, and this is an important one. Victory! Victory in Jesus!

In Christ we have a new life, a new outlook, and it is one of victory over sin, victory over the sinful powers in life that want to ensnare us. Therefore, we have victory over the ideas, the hollow and deceptive philosophies based on human tradition, that want to capture us. We are free in Christ, and this new life in Christ is what we base our lives on. Jesus is the truth.

In other words, we filter everything in our lives through him.

This truth of victory and new life in Jesus puts into perspective the empty, hollow philosophies that seek to captivate us. There is no political leader, no celebrity, no person or idea that we should allow to hold our focus and attention, except for Jesus. There is no hope for the world except for Jesus.

Have you allowed other ideas or people to captivate you?

If Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism are heresy, what is true? – Colossians 2:8-15, Part 4

This week we’ve been studying Colossians 2:8-15, starting here, and Paul has commanded the Christians not to be held captive by empty philosophy based on the traditions of humankind. I suggested in part 3 of this week’s series of posts that a couple of those empty philosophies impacting contemporary evangelical Christians in America are Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism. You can read that post here, a post in which I claim that Christians should place those ideologies in the category of heresy. Heresy is false teaching. It is by definition that which is not true. So what is the truth? Take a look at what Paul says next in Colossians 2, verses 9-15. Paul is writing the truth. Gospel truth.

First, in verse 9, Paul writes that Christ is head over all. Christ is supreme. In Christ all the fullness of deity lives, meaning that Paul is saying that Jesus was not just some guy. He is God. Fully God. But what is amazing is that we, too, have been given fullness in Christ. Our sustenance, our hope, our promise, our life, everything we are, is in Christ.

I will admit that in the daily busyness and business of life, it can be hard to know what to do with a statement like that. We can be so focused on the normal stuff of life that it can be hard to understand how we are in Christ. Or that we have fullness in Christ. Hold that thought, as Paul continues explaining this truth.

Look at verse 10 as he continues to describe what it means that we are in Christ. Get ready, because verse 10 is…weird. Paul says, “In him you were circumcised.” Circumcised? What in the world, Paul? What is he talking about here? Don’t you think that circumcision is really strange to mention? As if it is maybe the last thing you’d be thinking of? Actually, circumcision gets mentioned a lot in the Bible. I don’t know about you, but circumcision is not a common topic in my life. Paul mentions it, however, in a bunch of his letters.

Why? Because circumcision was the mark that set the Jewish people apart from the rest of the people groups around them, starting with their ancestor Abraham. Much of what Paul is doing in his letters is making the case that Christians do not need to follow the ethnic regulations of Jewish law. There were in Paul’s day Jewish Christians who believed that non-Jewish Christians DID need to follow the Jewish Law. In other words, those Jewish Christians believed that new Christians should not only become followers of Jesus, those new Christians should also convert to Judaism. How will they show that they have converted to Judaism? They would get circumcised. We’re talking about literal surgery here, in the flesh, as Paul puts it.

But Paul says, “No!” There is a different kind of circumcision that happens in Christians. It is a symbolic circumcision, and it is in Christ. Paul explains in verse 12 that in this symbolic circumcision there is a thematic connection to baptism, which is also figuratively related to the death and resurrection of Jesus. In baptism, we go under the water, which depicts to Jesus’ death and burial. When we rise up out of the water, we depict Jesus’ resurrection. Paul says that underlying all this is the act of placing our faith in God who raised Jesus from the dead.

See how Paul summarizes this in verse 13: we were dead in our sins, which he also calls the uncircumcision of our flesh, but God made us alive in Christ. From death to life. Dead in sin, alive in Christ. There is a death that takes place, and there is a new life.

Do you see how this is connected to circumcision? There is a cutting off of a fleshly part of us. By that, Paul is equating “flesh” with the idea of “sinful nature.” When we place our faith in Jesus, of course we are not dying in our actual physical bodies, like Jesus did. There is not an actual, physical surgery of circumcision that takes place. Instead, when we place our faith in Jesus, what is cut off, or cut out, of our lives, is an enslavement to the sinful nature, making us alive in Christ, free to pursue his nature, to become like him.

Check back in to the final post in this series on Colossians 2:8-15, as we’ll talk further about the ramifications of this truth for our lives.

Evangelicals need to move back from the heresies of Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism – Colossians 2:8-15, Part 3

What are contemporary heresies that might infect the church? I ask this question from time to time in my congregation, and you know the answer that people first respond with? Almost always, the first idea they bring up is about or related to homosexuality. That topic is an important one to discuss, and I have done so on the blog here. But I don’t have the sense that hardly anyone in my congregation is affected by it, and thus I believe there are other ideas that impact my congregation far more, ideas that people might not call heresy. Two that come to my mind are related: materialism and consumerism. Do we use our wealth and free will in a way that is consistent with the way of Jesus, or has our thinking and use of our wealth and free will been co-opted by our culture? Again, though, I talk about these ideas frequently, and while they are so pervasive in our culture, such that I don’t believe we should stop talking about them, I’m concerned that there are other heresies we need to discuss, heresies that I identify in the title of this post: Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism.

In the lead-up to the presidential election this past fall, some Christian leaders prophesied a Trump victory. One was named Jeremiah Johnson. He said that God had told him that Trump would win. What do we do with that? Not just the claim of a prophecy, but also the fact that it turned out to be false. Johnson has since apologized, shutting down his ministry, saying that it was time for humility. I respect that. But what has happened in the consciousness of the evangelical Christian subculture in America, so that over the years people who call themselves Christians have done horrible things, such as what I mentioned in the previous post? What ideas have many of us believed that have led us to act in such sinful ways? Are any of the ideas heresy?

One report I read said this: “…over a quarter of white evangelicals surveyed believe in QAnon and three in five do not believe Biden is the legitimate president. A separate study found that 36 percent of white evangelicals will either ‘definitely or probably’ not get the COVID-19 vaccine. These are far and away the highest numbers for any religious group in the U.S. A LifeWay study found that 45 percent of Protestant pastors say they’ve heard conspiracy theories from their congregations, which has prompted 1,400 pastors and faith leaders to sign a statement condemning White Christian Nationalism — the ideology many believe to be at the root of much of the conspiratorial rot.”

Those are some of the false ideas that have captivated us. Is it possible that some evangelicals have been taken captive by empty hollow philosophy based on the tradition of man? Let’s consider the two I mentioned. First, White Christian Nationalism is heresy. Second, there’s another similar word for that heresy: Trumpism.

Let me be clear. While I am mentioning an ideology based on the name of the former president, we could swap that out with the presidential flavor of the month. Currently, it is Bidenism. Previous to Trumpism, it could have been Obamaism, Bushism, etc. It is the placing of our worship, our hope, and our salvific expectation in a human leader.

Maybe you have heard the courageous words that Christian teacher Beth Moore shared against these heresies. Let me quote her:

“I do not believe these are days for mincing words,” she tweeted in January 2021. “I’m 63 1/2 years old and I have never seen anything in these United States of America I found more astonishingly seductive and dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism. This Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it.”

Move back from it. She is right in line with what Paul says in Colossians 2:8. We should see to it that no one takes us captive through an empty, hollow philosophy or ideas based on the tradition of men. When he says, “See to it,” Paul is using the imperative form in Greek. We don’t have that form in English. Imperative means “command,” and so therefore Paul is being very strong here: “I command you not to be taken captive by this false teaching.” We contemporary American Christians can apply that to Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism.

These two ideologies are intertwined, and they are heresy. But what are Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism? Check out The Jesus Creed review of the book Taking America Back for God to learn more. Or listen to this podcast episode in which the authors of the book are interviewed. In both Trumpism and White Christian Nationalism, the heresy is that we place our hope in ideas that are not consistent with the mission and Kingdom of God.

If Trumpism and White Christian nationalism are modern-day evangelical heresies that captivate us, what should we do?

What we should do instead is what Paul says next. Look at the second half of verse 8, “rather than Christ.” Essentially Paul is saying that the ideas of the world are based on human tradition not on Christ. We are to be people who allow our minds to be transformed by Christ. Fixate on Christ. We dwell on Christ, because he is the truth. Anything else…move back from it.

So what is the truth? Paul says it is based on Christ. What does he mean by that? Check back into the next post, as we’ll study Paul’s words further.

Evidence that heretical philosophy might have taken American Christians captive – Colossians 2:8-15, Part 2

How could one man like Adolf Hitler have such sway and influence in German society in the 1930s, to the point where millions of Jews ended up being slaughtered by Germans? To the point where there was major world war, and nearly the entire German populace supported it, including Christians! How? It boggles the mind. When I think about any genocides and wars, I can become very frustrated by how so many people, including Christians, get swept up in supporting them. How does this happen?

As we continue studying Colossians 2:8-15, the writer of this New Testament letter, the Apostle Paul, sayings in verse 8 that the Christians in the ancient Roman town of Colosse were not to become captivated by empty, hollow philosophy, based on the tradition of humankind. You can read the first post in this series here.

What is Paul talking about? Bible scholars call it The Colossian Heresy. Heresy is a word that means “false teaching.” A heresy is a teaching that goes against the truth. We don’t know precisely what the Colossian Heresy was. Paul doesn’t explain it in detail. But if you put together clues from his letter, you can get a fairly close idea of what this false teaching was.

By the way, it is highly unlikely that Paul is trying to be mysterious about the heresy, as if he left us a letter in code and he wanted us to figure it out. He didn’t have to spell it out because both he and the Colossians knew exactly what he was talking about. Remember that Paul is not writing for future readers, thinking to himself, “Ok…those people in in 2021 are going to be reading this 2,000 years in the future, and they will have no idea what the false teaching was, so I better explain it to them.”

We write the same way to our family and friends, which in this day and age are mostly email and text messages.

Imagine I am writing an email to my church’s Leadership Team, and I type, “You guys remember the conversation we had about the vaccine?” All the Leadership Team members were there at the meeting, which took place earlier that week, and therefore they can remember the conversation. I don’t have to go into detail about it, as it is common knowledge to them. I am not thinking, “Hmmm…our ancestors 2,000 years from now are going to be reading this, so I better make sure I fully explain the context of Covid-19, so they can understand more easily what we’re talking about.” I don’t need to do that because I am not writing with ancestors in mind; I am writing for the immediate audience. That is exactly what Paul is doing here. He doesn’t explain the false teaching because the Christians in Colosse were all aware of it.

So we have to play the role of a detective to try to uncover what the Colossian heresy might have been. We’re going to see how Paul sprinkles clues throughout his letter, and in verse 8 we get the first clue when he talks about philosophy.

As I mentioned above, Paul describes it as “hollow and deceptive” philosophy. Though we’re not sure what the false teaching was, Paul clearly puts it into the category of hollow or empty and deceptive, and that which is based on human tradition. Please notice, though, that Paul is not saying that philosophy, in and of itself, is wrong.

Sometimes philosophy gets a bad rap. I used to think that too, that philosophy was a waste of time. I mean, who wants to think theoretically about the world when you can go out and actually live in the world? But what I have come to realize is that philosophy matters. In fact philosophy has great power. Paul is clearly concerned about the power of philosophy. Philosophy is something, he says, that can take you captive. Ideas have power. Ideas can actually make a significance difference in the world. Paul knows this. He once was held captive by ideas that directed him to live a life in brutal opposition against the way of Jesus.

Now a few decades later, Paul is concerned that the same thing was happening to the Christian in Colosse. Have you heard the phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword”? That phrase is basically the same thing that Paul is talking about here. If you study the history of our world, you see this so clearly. I started this post mentioning one of the most egregious examples of how ideas led to devastation. Nazi Germany.

That was evil Nazi Germany, though, and that’s extreme, right? Well, let’s bring it home. How could Christians travel the ocean blue in 1492 and end up slaughtering, over the next couple centuries, nearly the entire indigenous population of Native Americans? How? Ideas.

How could Christians in 1619 steal men and women from their homes in Africa, ship them to the Americas, sell, enslave and beat them, because of their skin color? And then, how could Christians develop, over the next two hundred and fifty years, a massive slave trade affecting millions upon millions of Africans? Further still, how could it require a bloody Civil War, killing 600,000 soldiers, to stop it? Ideas.

How could Christians say that based on skin color people are “separate but equal” so that people of one color were not allowed to worship in the churches of the other color? How? Ideas.

How could Christians storm barricades, brutally attack police officers, and break into the Capitol building, chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”? How? What would lead these people, some of whom were carrying Christian flags or other Christian symbols, to commit such crime and violence, not only uttering threats to the Vice-President of the USA (a man who claims to be a Christian himself, and seems to try to live accordingly), but also building a gallows outside the capitol? How could this be? Ideas.

All of a sudden, Paul’s not referring to a Colossian heresy anymore. He’s talking straight to us. Ideas matter. Knowledge is power.

Check back in to the next post as we’ll talk about what ideas could have have led to these kinds of awful situations.

What is truth? Where do we find truth in a world of fake news? – Colossians 2:8-15, Part 1

Easter is just a few weeks away, and that means we once again celebrate Holy Week. Imagine with me the scene from the darkest day of Holy Week, Good Friday, when the Roman governor Pilate questions Jesus. Pilate is the most powerful man in the land, representing the authority and might of the Roman Emperor. Up until that day, it seemed that Jesus was also quite powerful. Crowds numbering in the tens of thousands swarmed around him, straining to hear his authoritative teaching and witness his astounding miracles. We Christians believe that Jesus was truly far more powerful than Pilate. In that moment at the Governor’s palace , though, Pilate wields the immense power of the Roman military, and Jesus seems to be a mere criminal about to be chewed up the system. Think about that power dynamic when you read the account of Jesus’ and Pilate’s conversation in John 18:28-19:16. In John 18:37, in the midst of their discussion about Jesus’ identity, Jesus says, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” This comment from Jesus is something we’d expect him to say, right? We’re used to Jesus talking about himself as truth. Pilate, though, seems confused or frustrated by Jesus’s statement. Look at Pilate’s response in verse 38: “What is truth?”

Have you ever asked that question? I have. It can be hard to know what the truth is or if the truth matters in a world where falsehood reigns. In the trial of Jesus, truth didn’t matter at all. Pilate, John tells us, believes that Jesus is innocent, but what did that matter? It didn’t. He allowed Jesus to be killed anyway.

Or maybe Pilate is asking, “How do we know what truth is?” If Pilate is asking this, he is joining a conversation that has been going on for millennia, from the minds of the great philosophers to the regular conversations of people like us who wonder if something is fake news. As we continue studying Colossians, we will find that Paul is deeply concerned about truth.

This past week I heard about a Pentecostal pastor that prophesied that Donald Trump will still become president of the USA. The self-proclaimed prophet said that God told him that this will take place in April, just a month away.

What do you think about that? It leaves me scratching my head asking the question, “What is truth?”

Truth has been embattled in recent years, especially as we consider the media. Where can we find truth? Of course, every media outlet claims to present the truth, the real news. In fact some media outlets have a tagline saying that their news is the truth, in response to the persistent claim that they are spreading fake news. So where do we find truth? Is it possible that we are being misled?

As we continue our study through Colossians, the Apostle Paul tells the Christians in the Roman town of Colosse that he is concerned that they are not following the truth. Turn to Colossians 2, and read 2:8-15. In verse 8, we can see the flow of thought from the verses our guest preacher Emerald Scaffe preached last week, verses 6-7. There in verses 6-7, Paul gave the Colossian Christians a vision of rootedness in their faith. Built up, strengthened.

Why does Paul want the Colossians to be rooted and built up and strengthened in their faith? Because he had heard some disconcerting news about a situation in the Colossians church. Now he has written this letter as a response. Look at how he addresses the situation in verse 8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.”

Bring verses 6-7 together with verse 8, and Paul is saying that he wants the people to have strong foundation in their faith so that they don’t get taken captive through whatever this hollow and deceptive philosophy is. What is he talking about?

Check back in to the next post, and we’ll see!

How to be a good friend to God- Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 10

In the previous post, I mentioned that I had to confess and repent, “Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit in me, I am sorry I haven’t been a good friend, I’m sorry I haven’t given much effort to get to know you.”

Of course, that is not totally true, as we can get to know God in his word, and I spend quite a lot of time studying the Bible. God speaks through his word, which that is very important. But as we have seen in the previous posts starting here, if Christ is me, and he is, and in him are the glorious riches of wisdom and knowledge and understanding, and yes, all that is in him, then we would do well to get to know him. So of course we can get to know God through our study of his word, but as we have seen in Colossians 1:24-2:5, which is all about the mystery that Christ in us, we can get to know the actual Christ in us, his Spirit.

Think about it, when Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians, the people didn’t have Bibles to read. Only the exceedingly wealthy person could own scrolls, and those scrolls did not comprise the whole Bible. Not to mention the fact that the New Testament was in the process of being written! When Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, there was no Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or Acts. Not a single one. So how did they get to know Jesus? It wasn’t by opening the Bible. They got to know Christ in you, the hope of Glory, in a real personal way.

They asked, “How are you doing, Jesus?” and they learned to listen for the voice of the Spirit.

And I get it. Hearing the voice of the Spirit is another mystery. Or at least it can feel like one. The Spirit moves in mysterious ways, the song goes. As a Spirit, there is an inherent mystery to his being, his voice, and to the idea that he lives in us. But we can get to know the Spirit, learn to hear his voice, and walk in step with the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to fill and control us.

To make progress in this, I urge you to give the Spirit your time, your energy. Yes, you can pray and talk, but also listen, in the Bible, in nature, from other people, and in that voice. Not sure about what you suspect the voice of the Spirit is saying to you. Check it according to Bible. It will always be in line with the word of God. Not sure still? Get a spiritual director. I mentioned in a previous post that a few weeks I met with a spiritual director for the first time during a retreat, and am continuing monthly with him. A spiritual director helps you discern the Spirit, Christ in you.

This all takes practice, time, commitment, just like any relationship. What will you do to deepen your relationship with the Spirit?

Are you the friend who won’t shut up? – Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 9

Do you have a friend to whom you say, “Hey, how are you doing?” when you see them, and it’s like you just opened a door for them to unload on you. They can go on and on, seemingly not needing to come up for air, as they divulge their life on you. Meanwhile you’re trying to stay with them, nodding your head, keeping eye contact, every now and then saying, “Uh-huh, yeah.” As they continue nonstop, though, at some point your thoughts wander off, and you think “Oh boy, were they able to tell that my eyes just glazed over, and I wasn’t paying attention?” You realize that you don’t know what their last couple sentences were because you started thinking about something else, even though you kept eye contact and said, “Uh-huh.”

You think to yourself, “I better ask them a clarifying question, so that they think I am interested and paying attention.” But then you think, “Man…I don’t really want to ask them a question because then they’ll keep talking, and what I really want is to get out of this conversation.” So you feel stuck. You know it would be dishonest to lead them along, to lead them to thinking that you are interested. You’re basically lying to them. You also feel guilty because you think, “I really should care about this conversation. What’s wrong with me?” But then you think, “Hold on…what’s wrong with them? Do they even realize they have been talking nonstop for 30 minutes, and they have not asked me one single question about how I’m doing?”

Have any friends like that?

One day it hit that I was that friend…to God.

Let me explain. In the previous post Paul revealed a grand mystery to us. He writes in Colossians 1:28 that the mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. But what does that mean, Christ in you? How is Christ in you?

Paul similarly wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you.” Christ is in you through his Spirit.

This is why Paul goes on in Colossians 1:4-2:5 to talk about wisdom and knowledge and understanding, and he hints at that reason in verse 4. He wants the Christians in Colosse to not be deceived by fine-sounding arguments. Paul wrote this letter for this very purpose. He has heard troubling news about this group of Christians, that they are being deceived by fine-sounding arguments. He wants them to be rooted in Christ, who is in them, in whom are found the glorious riches of wisdom and understanding and knowledge. Paul wants them to know how incredibly important it is that they are convinced of this truth. He wants them to be orderly and firm in their faith, as he says in verse 5. All of that goes back to a solid understanding and practice of Christ in you.

It is one thing to intellectually understand Christ living in us by his Holy Spirit, but how do we practice it? I am convinced that we must grow our relationship with Jesus, with his Spirit, very similarly to how we would cultivate any other relationship. Spending time with the Spirit, talking with the Spirit, listening to the Spirit.

A few years ago on my sabbatical, as I was praying one day, it hit me that I can be very one-sided in my relationship with Jesus.

Just like the friend I describe above, that’s what I do to God all the time in my prayer. I won’t shut up. I just talk, talk, talk endlessly rattling off my lists of requests. What kind of friend am I? Never once have I asked the Holy Spirit in me, “How are you doing?” Never once have I listened to him. Never once have I cared to get to know him. When that first hit me, it was super embarrassing and shameful. I had to confess and repent, “Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit in me, I am sorry I haven’t been a good friend, I’m sorry I haven’t given a bit of effort to get to know you.”

Do you need to confess something like this as well?

Check back in to the final post in this series, as I’ll talk about how we can take a different approach, a relational approach to Christ in us.

The ancient mystery is revealed! – Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 8

All week long we have been learning about a mystery, starting here! In Colossians 1, verse 27, Paul tells us that the mystery has glorious riches. Glory refers to the concept of splendor, of remarkable appearance. The second word, riches, refers to abundant riches. In fact, the particular word Paul uses for “riches” often has a negative connotation because of the sheer amount of the wealth associated with this kind of riches. We would call it filthy rich. So Paul is saying that this mystery whatever it is, is gloriously abundant. It so, so good. It is overflowing with goodness.

So what is the mystery? Are you ready for the revealing of the mystery? The mystery is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

This was hidden for a long, long time, Paul says. But now it is revealed. And it is gloriously rich. What is Christ in you, the hope of glory?

“Christ in you” is the teaching that somehow or another it is possible for Christ to be in us, and what comes with that is the hope of glory. Is Paul just saying that when we have Christ in us, we have the hope of eternal life? We often call heaven our home in Glory. Is that what Paul meant?

Yes, but it is not only that. It is more. Paul is saying that this glorious richness is that all people can know Christ now, experiencing Christ now, “in you,” in us, which means there is an astounding glorious richness that we can experience now, but it is more than that, because it also means a hope of future glory.

Christ in you now. The glorious richness in you now. And hope of future glory! This is precisely what Jesus described when he said that he came so that we can experience abundant life now and have the hope of eternal life in the future.

What a powerful thought.

But I have to admit it is a thought that can cause Christians some confusion or frustration. Why?

Well, let me ask you this: How much do we have a genuine sense of these glorious riches? How much do we experience Christ in us? Hope of future glory sure is nice, and can put our minds at ease, maybe for a time, but we live in the here and now. We face the struggles and pressures and anxieties of the here and now. It is nice to have hope of glory, but Paul is saying that’s not all there is. We should experience Christ in the now, Paul says. Why? Because Christ is in us.

How about you? Do you experience Christ now?

What does Paul intend for us to experience? Christ in you. Well, what does that mean? Are we supposed to feel something? Are we supposed to have Jesus’ thoughts running through our minds, like a voice in our head? If so, why do we so rarely or never hear that voice? Or is “Christ in you” something else?

The glorious riches of Christ in you, the hope of glory sounds super poetic and amazing, until we ask, “What does it feel like?” Or is just something that we are supposed to believe, but it really has no bearing on our lives? What do we do if we don’t have an experience of Jesus?

I’ve wrestled with this. In fact, last week I mentioned the retreat I went on: a Retreat in Daily Life, and it included daily times of prayer, Bible study, quiet meditation and then spiritual direction. I admitted to my spiritual director that so often I don’t have a feeling or present experience of Jesus. How about you?

Hold that thought for the next two posts in the series, because Paul mentions the mystery again. Skip ahead a few verses to chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, where he tells the Colossians that he struggles for them, so they can be encouraged in heart, united in love, experiencing the full riches of complete understanding in order to know the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There’s that word mystery again. And the word riches again too. This time, though, he says that the riches are “complete understanding, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

I’m starting to think that our mystery story has turned in a hidden treasure story. The mystery has been revealed, the treasure map has been deciphered. The treasures are all in Christ. And Christ is in you. So all the vast riches of understanding and wisdom and knowledge, are in Christ and Christ is in you.

By the way, the word “you” there is a plural. In the ancient Greek in which Paul wrote, there are different words for “you” to make it clear when the writer is referring to one you (the singular), or when the writer is referring to a group (the plural). Paul uses the group “you.” We might say in English, “you all.” But that doesn’t mean that there is no individual understanding here, as if Christ is in the church family, but not in each individual. It is both. Christ in you individually, and in the church collectively. That is where this passage is so important. Christ in you. How is Christ in you?

Check back in to the next post as we’ll learn more!

Who the grand mystery is revealed to – Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 7

Have you ever heard of the word, etymology? If you are the kind of person who likes to know where our English words came from, you are an etymologist at heart. Etymology is the study of the history of words. Therefore the etymology of a word is the origin and development of that word throughout history. In other words, etymologists are kind of like word detectives, trying to solve the mystery of where a word came from. What we learn through etymologists is that most of our English words came from other languages.

This week, starting with this post, we’re talking about a mystery. As we continue studying the grand mystery in Colossians 1:24-2:5, we’re going to learn the the etymology of the word “mystery,” so I guess you could call that the solution to the mystery of the word mystery. In the Greek Paul wrote in, he uses the word “musterion,” and you can hear how we get our word “mystery” from “musterion.” But the word has changed in meaning somewhat. When English speakers think of a “mystery,” we think of a problem or puzzle that has not been solved or explained. That is the definition of mystery, right? Once a mystery has been solved, it ceases to be a mystery. I suppose we could call it a former mystery, a problem that used to be unsolved, but now has an explanation. That is the angle that Paul is getting at here.

He clearly says in verse 26 that this mystery was unexplained for a long, long time, but now it is no longer a mystery. Why? Or How? Because what used to be a mystery has now been disclosed to the saints. And when Paul says that it has now been disclosed, he is using a word that refers to a very clear and detailed disclosure. It is not vague or foggy or partial. The disclosure is so thorough that there is no more mystery. Whatever this mystery is, he’s about to reveal it so there is no mistaking it. It will be a full disclosure.

We often use the phrase “in the interest of full disclosure” or “in the spirit of full disclosure” when we want people to know something that we think is pertinent to the discussion at hand. It is information that we are aware of, but the people we’re talking to are not aware of. And it is not fair that they don’t know. In fact we know that if they knew what we know, and they found out, they would be offended if we didn’t tell them what we knew. The same goes for this mystery. Paul is saying that God is making a full disclosure of the mystery so all can know.

If we backtrack to verse 25, Paul mentioned that God gave him the commission to present the word of God in its fullness. Paul wanted full disclosure of the word of God. That full disclosure was hidden for a long time, but now it has been revealed to the saints. Who are they? Who are these saints Paul is talking about? Members of a secret society who get to know the mystery? It is hard to become a saint in Roman Catholic teaching. One description I read said this: “[To become a saint], one must lead a heroically virtuous life, in the strictest accord with the teachings of the church, embracing charity, faith, hope and other virtues. One must also perform miracles during their life and either be martyred in the name of their religion, or be responsible for miracles after death.”[1] Not many people become saints! Is Paul saying that mystery is revealed only to this select group?

Thankfully that’s not what Paul is talking about. Though we translate it with our English word “saint,” Paul is referring to “holy ones.” Paul uses this word in 1:12, then again in 1:22, and now again in verse 26. If you scan ahead he uses it a fourth time in the letter in 3:12. It is interesting to me that he uses it three times in near the beginning of the book. Who are these holy ones? Paul calls the recipients of the letter, “Holy ones.” He wants the Colossians to know that he identifies them as part of that group of holy ones. In other words, true followers of Jesus are consider “holy ones.”

Actually as I was studying this, it jumped out at me in connection to what we talked about last week, the idea of Christian perfection. Whatever this mystery is, if we follow Paul’s train of thought, he is saying that he was commissioned by God to present it, to reveal the mystery to the saints, the holy ones, so that he can present everyone perfect in Christ. “Perfect” is a different word than holy ones, but you can see how the concepts are connected. In Christ we are considered holy in God’s eyes. That doesn’t mean we become holy like God is holy. But it means we are declared to be part of God’s family. In other words, Paul is saying that the mystery has been revealed to the Colossians, and to us as well.

What is the mystery? Check back in to the next post!

[1] https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/how-to-become-a-saint-mother-theresa/index.html