Colossians Series: Familiar Heresy – Colossians 2

Summary

Explore the heresy of the first century through the lens of Paul’s letter to the Colossian church in Colossians 2.

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Podcast Transcript

Intro

Hi friend, I’m Brigette Henry. And you’re listening to the One Spiritual Journey podcast where I share stories from my spiritual journey and teach you how to walk closer with God on your spiritual journey. I’m so glad you’re here because that means you want a deeper relationship with God. In Colossians 1:28, Paul says,

“We proclaim Him warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

And that’s my goal for this ministry: to help present you mature in Christ. So, grab your coffee, or your tea if you’re a tea addict like me, and let’s dive into today’s topic.

Part Two of the Colossians Series

Welcome to Part Two of this four part series on Colossians. If you have not listened to Part One of the series yet, stop what you’re doing and go back and listen to the last podcast episode. There is a lot of important information in that episode about the themes and the context of Colossians. And you’re going to need it to understand what I’m talking about today.

Today, we’re going through Colossians 2. Now, I mentioned last time that my goal with this series is to teach you what Paul was teaching the church at Colossae. And that is: how to live a life where Christ comes first. So, keep that in mind as we go through the content today and we talk through Colossians 2. You’re going to see that theme come up again: how to live a life where Christ comes first.

Overview of Colossians 1

So, before we jump into Colossians 2, let me just do a quick review of Colossians 1.

We started with Paul greeting the church at Colossae. He gave thanks for them and for the gospel spreading. Then he prayed for their spiritual growth and he demonstrated how he prays for them. He includes a poem about Christ. And he explains three things in that poem: that Christ is God, everything is connected to Christ, and Christ is first. Then, he talks about what Christ has done for us and how He’s changed us and then he transitioned into talking about himself as a servant. And that’s where we pick up today. At the beginning of Colossians 2.

Colossians 2

As a reminder, I will be reading from the CSB (Christian Standard Bible). I don’t believe any version is superior, but that’s the one God currently has me in so that’s the one I’m going to be reading in. You can follow along with me if you have your Bible and if not, I will be reading the entire text for you. In pieces, but I will be reading the entire text because I want to make sure that you are learning from God’s word and not from me. And that will help you check the things I am saying to test whether or not they are true.

That’s something scripture tells us we should always be doing: testing the people who teach us to make sure what they say matches up with scripture. So I will be reading straight through the scripture so you will be able to do that in real time.

Colossians 2:1-3

Starting with verses 1-3 of Colossians 2 it says:

“For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Paul’s Struggle

So first, Paul says he is “struggling” for them. Meaning, the church. He’s struggling for the larger church. This is a spiritual struggle. He is praying for them. He is asking God to help them with all of the things they are struggling with right now. Paul says he wants them to be encouraged. He wants unity, that what he means when he says to be “joined together in love”. He’s talking about unity within the body of Christ. And he says all of this “so that they may have…complete understanding” and “knowledge” of Christ.

Wisdom and Knowledge

You’re going to notice as you go through the book of Colossians that there’s this emphasis on wisdom and knowledge. And the reason for that is simple. Some heretics claimed that they had special knowledge or wisdom available to those who joined them. So we’re going to see Paul refute this over and over and over again. And that’s why he says in verse 3, “in Him (meaning Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Paul is constantly talking about who  all the knowledge and wisdom we could have comes from Christ. Nothing needs to be added. True wisdom and knowledge come from Christ.

Laodicea

Now, before we move on, I want to point out that Paul mentioned Laodicea. And you might have recognized the name of that city because the church in Laodicea is one of the seven churches that receives a letter in the book of Revelation. It’s one of the churches that John addresses specifically.

I already talked about where Colossae was located. It’s about 100 miles east of Ephesus and it’s on a trade route. But there were actually three cities very close together in that area and that was Colossae, Laodicea and Hieropolis. All three of these cities would have been along that trade route.

So, we move to Revelation 3:14-22, and I’m not going to read the whole thing. But I just want you to get an idea of what is going on here. So, in Revelation 3:15-16 about the church of Laodicea it says,

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.”

Now, Paul said he wanted the churches to be encouraged, unified, and changed by the gospel. That’s what he means when he talks about having “the riches of complete understanding”. At the end of Colossians 1, he talked about how Christ changes us and that’s what he wants: for the churches to be encouraged, unified, and changed by the gospel. And you have to wonder if the things that Colossae and likely Laodicea were fight against made Laodicea lukewarm. Maybe they were too receptive to some of these heretical ideas. Just something to think about since Laodicea is specifically mentioned in this letter.

Colossians 2:4-7

So now, moving to verses 4-7 it says,

“I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ. So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.”

Do not be deceived

You might have noticed this, but Paul is getting ready to warn and accuse. He says, do not be deceived! In verse 3, Paul said, “in Him (meaning Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And right into verse 4 he says, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable.” There is more on this in verse 8, but the Colossians were facing philosophical arguments that sounded reasonable, and Paul is saying, “do not be fooled! All that you are seeking, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, are in Christ.”

I have this note in my Bible on verse 8. It’s a prayer that I wrote and it says, “God, help me not to be swayed by eloquent words or arguments.”

That’s what the church at Colossae was struggling with. They were facing arguments that sounded reasonable, eloquent words that sounded reasonable. And it’s so interesting to me because we also experience those same things: eloquent words and arguments that sound reasonable. But Paul says, do not be fooled!

Gratitude

Paul continues and encourages their faith. He says, I am encouraged by your faith. Stay rooted and grow in your faith. And then Paul ends this section talking about gratitude.

“Overflowing with gratitude.”

In Colossians, Paul mentions “gratitude” six times. And I think the reason why it’s mentioned six times in such a small letter is because Paul recognizes that there is something to gratitude that helps build us up and helps us grow in our faith.

That’s just a quick sidenote as we’re moving through Colossians 2 really quickly because I have a lot of theology to get through today.

Colossians 2:8-10

In verses 8-10 it says,

“Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

So Paul dives into his argument against this heresy. And, I’m just going to let you know, there’s a lot of theology coming up, but don’t panic! The goal here is not to understand everything, but just to ask questions about scripture and what it’s telling us and what Paul’s telling us. So don’t panic. You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to walk away from this podcast with all the answers. The goal here is for you to start questioning. To question the things you’re hearing outside of scripture and to start comparing them with scripture. And I’m hoping today that I can teach you some of the background, some of the theological background that will help you understand Colossians and other letters from Paul better.

Paul repeats that warning against deception. Then, in verses 9-10, he says, “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

Three things

Three things, and I want you to think back to chapter 1, hopefully you listened to that, but when Paul wrote that poem about Christ he mentioned three things.

Number one, Christ is God. Number two, everything is connected to Christ in some way and number three, Christ is first. So what we have here, listed in verses 9-10, is that Christ is God, YOU have Christ in you, which is how WE are connected to Christ, and number three, Christ is first. He repeats those again.

Paul is very thematic, and as you read his letters you can see how he repeats themes and how he uses themes in other things. It’s very interesting to see how Paul teaches through his letters.

Complete in Christ

Paul also mentions that we are “filled by Him”, it says, “you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” In some of my notes as I was studying through Colossians 2 for this podcast episode, it said that phrase, “filled by Him”, essentially means, “made complete”. We are made complete by Christ. And again, there’s that concept that all of the wisdom and knowledge that we could possibly want, all of it is in Christ. We are made complete through Christ.

Colossians 2:11-15

Now, verses 11-15. This is a big one. Are you ready?

“You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”

So there’s a lot going on here, but there are only three things you need to understand: circumcision, baptism and the gospel. Let’s start with circumcision.

Circumcision

I am not going to explain what that is because this is not that kind of podcast. But, you do need to understand the significance of circumcision to this crowd. Remember as we go into this, that this crowd is a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. So they would have had very different experiences with circumcision. The Gentiles did not practice circumcision. The Jews did.

In Genesis 17, God established the Abrahamic Covenant with Abraham. And he told Abraham to circumcise all Israelite males as a sign of their covenant with Him.

After Christ came, Gentiles got saved. And the argument was, do Gentiles have to be circumcised? Gentiles considered circumcision to be a mutilation of the flesh. Like, they were like, why on EARTH would we have to do this? Do we have to do this to prove that we love God and that we believe in Christ?

So, in Acts 15, the apostles got together and they determined, “no.” And this is what Peter said in verses Acts 15:9-11. It says,

“He (God) made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”

In other words, Peter recognized that the Jews could not earn their own salvation. Christ has come, He has fulfilled, and circumcision is not necessary for salvation. Peter is saying they should not force the Gentiles to become circumcised because that would be following the letter of the law rather than recognizing the power of Christ.

Circumcision of the Heart

The issue here and the reason why Paul is bringing up circumcision is that the Colossians were dealing with Judaizers. Judaizers were legalistic Jews who insisted that every letter of the Law be kept after Christ, even for Gentiles. So Paul says, “You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands” because their faith was like a “circumcision of the heart.” This is a concept that Paul describes in Romans 2:25-29. Essentially, “circumcision of the heart” is “pure faith”.

So, we’re going to go back through this passage in a second and that will make a little more sense. But let’s talk about baptism first.

Baptism

Paul would have been referring to baptism by immersion. Immersive baptism is symbolic of Christ’s death and resurrection. As you are immersed into the water, as you are dropped down into the water, it’s symbolic of death. And as you are brought back up, it’s a symbol of life. So baptism is a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection and also our own death and resurrection.

Verses 11-13

This is what Paul is saying in verses 11-13. I’m going to read that again:

“You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.”

In other words, Paul is saying 1) you have pure faith. 2) This is evidenced by your profession of that faith through baptism. And 3) just like baptism symbolizes, you were dead in your sin and had no faith, and then Christ made you alive and forgave your sin. That’s what those three verses are saying. You have pure faith, it’s evidenced by your profession of that faith through baptism, and just like baptism symbolizes, you were dead in your sin and had no faith, and then Christ made you alive and forgave your sin.

The Gospel

Now, let’s talk about that third thing: the gospel. In verses 14-15 it says,

“He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”

This is essentially just the gospel. He’s saying, we were lost in sin and we needed a Savior. “the certificate of debt, with its obligations…was against us and opposed to us.” In other words, we couldn’t pay that debt. There was no way for us to pay that debt. We needed a Savior. And Christ is that Savior. He died on the cross, clearing our debt caused by our sin. And in doing that, He took away the power of sin and death. That’s why it says that He, “disarmed the rulers and authorities.” Satan and his demons, the evil powers, were all stripped of all of their authority. Death and sin no longer have power over us.

Accepting Christ

All we have to do is accept Christ’s gift of salvation and His forgiveness of our sins. And that’s really easy to do if you’ve not done that before. Just, say a really quick prayer like,

God, I know I’ve sinned against You. Thank You for sending Your Son to die and take the penalty of my sin away. I give my life to You. Amen.

That’s it. You don’t have to say it exactly like that. But if you’re listening to this and you’ve never given your heart to God before, I encourage you to do that today. And then go and live your life with Him. Learn about Him. Let Him guide your decisions. Worship Him. Life with God is immeasurably better than life without Him. I promise you that.

Colossians 2:16-19

Now in verses 16-19 it says,

“Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.”

Verses 16-17

So at this point, Paul is starting to call people out. In verse 16 it says, “don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” Judaizers were emphasizing their own rules. They were emphasizing the old law, and they were emphasizing the law created by Pharisees that was technically not God’s law. They were emphasizing rules. And Paul is saying, don’t let those people judge you. Don’t let them judge you. In verse 17 he says, “These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.” We have grace. The law does not save us. It was symbolic of what was coming.

Verse 18

In verse 18 it says, “Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices.” So ascetic practices are basically trying to earn salvation by abstaining, usually from good things. We’ll talk about that more in a minute. In verse 18 he also talks about the “worship of angels” and “access to a visionary realm”. In the Enduring Word Commentary, there’s a quote from Curtis Vaughn’s The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, and it says:

“The heretics probably insisted their worship of angels rather than the supreme God was an expression of humility on their part.”

How bizarre is that? That you would think that you couldn’t worship God because He was too high above you. So you just had to worship angels. That is so bizarre. But there are a lot of people who believe that. And, the whole point of Christ coming down to Earth was so that we could have a closer, more intimate relationship with God. He paid the debt for our sins, but also, He opened the doors so that we could have a closer relationship with God. So, please don’t believe the lie that God is too high above you to be worshiped by you.

Now, as far as the “access to a visionary realm” goes, I got a lot of mixed results as I was researching that. But my understanding is that they were not seeking knowledge from God. They were seeking knowledge from other sources. And especially when we play around with wisdom and knowledge from other parts of the spiritual realm, really what we’re doing is playing with demonic influences. So we need to be very careful that we are pursuing wisdom and knowledge from Christ because again, that is where we get the fullness of knowledge and wisdom from.

Verse 19

In verse 19, it says, “They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.” Basically the unspiritual people don’t hold on to Christ. Christ is the head of the church. And the church is nourished and held together by the head. The head controls and protects and guides energy to the different parts of the body. So with Christ as our head, we should be holding on to Him. But unspiritual people don’t hold on to Christ. They hold on to other things. And because of that, they’re not going to grow with growth from God.

Colossians 2:20-23

Alright! We’re in our last four verses, are you ready? Verses 20-23 say,

“If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.”

Verse 20

Paul just sums all of this up here with a question: “If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?” This is such a great question. I have to ask myself this question every day. But why do we live as if we still belonged to the world if we have died with Christ? Such a good question.

Verse 21

Verse 21 says, “don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch.” This is a reference to ascetic practices. So I talked about how asceticism is abstaining from things in order to obtain salvation. And some of these things they were abstaining from for salvation were things like food, and drink, and sleep. Things that they considered to be worldly comforts. And I just want to take a moment to say here, dying to this world does not mean we abstain from everything this world offers. It means that Christ is first, and we don’t search for life and hope in worldly comforts. We search for life and hope in Christ. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot enjoy things that God has put here to enjoy. Some of these things, also, we desperately need. Like food, and water and sleep!

Verses 22-23

Paul finishes this section by saying, we don’t follow “human commands and doctrines”. He talks about a “reputation for wisdom”, but he says “they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.” I have a note in my Bible that says, “in some ways, these are actually a form of self-indulgence.” For example, when we tell ourselves that salvation comes by doing x,y, or z, we’re indulging in our own man-made religion. Following “human commands and doctrines” with a “reputation for wisdom” is “not of any value in curbing self-indulgence”, it actually is an indulgence of ourselves.

So as we come to the end of Colossians 2, the point is still the same: Christ is first. He is preeminent. I like this image, I was talking to my mentor about this last week, of Christ being the center of a wheel. Like the wheel is our life and Christ is at the center. And everything should revolve around Him. Everything should come from Him. It’s that idea that Christ is at the center.

Conclusion

So, Colossians 2 is a bit of a doozy theologically. I encourage you to dive into this more. I covered a lot of ground today. If you have any questions, especially about circumcision, or baptism, or the gospel, I blew through those kind of quickly. But I tried to cover at least enough information that you’d be able to do your own research. But if you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Wherever you’re listening to this, you should be able to look in the show notes and find my email address. I’m going to be back in two weeks with Colossians 3 and we’re going to dive into Christian Living and Life in Christ. I am so excited. I’ll see you then!

Outro 

Thanks for joining me today! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like, follow, and comment so I can help women become mature in Christ. A few things before I go:

First, I would love if you prayed for me, my ministry and the women I impact whenever you get a chance. And if you need some help, I have prayers on my website you can pray over each of those things.

You can find links to the resources I mentioned today in the show notes. If anything is missing, or if you have any questions, please email me at brigette@brigettehenry.com. My name is spelled differently, so you can also find that email link in the show notes.

If we haven’t connected yet, let’s connect! You can follow me on Instagram for encouragement and to see the behind-the-scenes of my spiritual journey. I also have a weekly email newsletter if you would like to get updates on new podcast episodes, access to my freebie library, and more! You can find links to all those things in the show notes.

Lastly, if you are located near Northeast Ohio, I’m working to establish myself as a speaker. If your church has any upcoming women’s events, I would love to be your speaker! You can contact me through the link in the show notes.

Thanks for listening to One Spiritual Journey. I hope to hear from you soon! Bye!

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Links

Things I Mentioned Today:

Enduring Word Commentary: https://enduringword.com/

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: https://shorturl.at/z7EyL

Connect With Me: 

Contact me: ⁠brigette@brigettehenry.com 

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/onespiritualjourney 

Join my mailing list: ⁠https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe⁠ 

Other Fun Links: 

Visit my website: https://brigettehenry.com 

Freebie Library: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

Subscribe for Access to the Freebie Library:  https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe 

Self-Care Worksheet: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

The RENEW Study: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

Notes: 

Music by AudioCoffee via Pixabay 

All scripture is CSB unless otherwise noted.

All Greek word definitions come from Strong’s Definitions. You can get access to this resource and more at blueletterbible.org. 

Find the transcript for this episode at: https://brigettehenry.com/colossians-series-familiar-heresy-colossians-2