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No deception or legalism (Colossians 2:6-23)
Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, 9 August 2015
Part of the Colossians series, Sunday Morning service
This morning we are looking at one of THE great passages in all Scripture, as the Apostle Paul powerfully challenges the Gnostic cult that is threatening to derail the new church at Colossae in Ancient Greece. His message is incredibly important for us today in 2015 facing pressure to supplement our Christianity with extra stuff drafted in from other “Ways of Thinking”. Paul’s message is simple and powerful: Christ is all in all. You don’t need anyone else or anything else for your salvation. He has done what needed to be done to make you right with God. That’s it.
Colossians 2:6-23
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « Barnabas | None | “Clean clothes” » |
Colossians 2:6–23 (Listen)
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
(ESV)