In this introductory sermon for a new series studying the book of Colossians, Pastor Joe Babij explains the background of the book and the apostle Paul’s original purpose in writing. Pastor Babij breaks down Paul’s original purpose into a three-fold intention:
1. Establish a rapport with the Colossian believers and express to them a pastoral concern for their spiritual health and wellbeing
2. Counteract the clever false teaching that had arisen in the church and that was now confusing believers
3. Warn the believers about a wrongheaded approach to Christian living that is the result of false teaching
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Summary
We are reminded that the letter to the Colossians was written to counter a dangerous false teaching that was infiltrating the church—one that diminished Christ, distorted the gospel, and replaced spiritual power with human philosophy and empty religious ritual. The Colossian heresy, rooted in early Gnosticism, reinterpreted Christ through worldly categories, inserted angels as intermediaries between God and man, and reduced Christian living to asceticism and rule-keeping. We are called back to the true gospel: Christ alone, preeminent over all creation, the fullness of God in human form, and the only one who can bring us to the Father and make us complete.
Key Lessons:
- False teaching always attacks the person and preeminence of Christ—diminishing who he is leads to a distorted gospel and a powerless Christian life.
- The Colossian heresy used philosophy, mysticism, legalism, and asceticism to answer real spiritual questions, but without scriptural foundation it produced bondage, not freedom.
- The true gospel is clear, positive, and for everyone—it proclaims Christ crucified and risen, offered freely, requiring no chain of intermediaries or secret knowledge.
- A true and high Christology is the final answer to every heresy—what any teaching says about Christ reveals whether it is true or false.
Application: We are called to test every teaching by what it says about Christ, to reject the temptation to fit Christianity into cultural or philosophical categories, and to rest in the sufficiency of Christ alone for salvation, sanctification, and fullness of life.
Discussion Questions:
- In what ways are we tempted today to fit Christianity into cultural philosophies or old categories rather than letting Christ redefine us?
- How does a low or incomplete view of Christ lead to a powerless Christian life, and what does Colossians 1:15–18 say that corrects that?
- What does it mean practically that Christ in you is the hope of glory, and how should that truth shape your daily life?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 1:15–18 establishes Christ as the image of the invisible God, creator and sustainer of all things, and head of the church. Colossians 2:8, 18, and 20–23 expose the false teaching’s legalism, mysticism, and asceticism. Colossians 1:27–28 presents the true gospel: Christ in you, the hope of glory, proclaimed to every person so they may be made complete in Christ.
Outline
- Introduction
- The Power of the True Gospel
- New Wine in Old Wineskins
- The Colossian Heresy: Background and Origins
- Why Paul Wrote to the Colossians
- The Gnostic Worldview Examined
- Features of the False Teaching
- Paul’s Third Intention: Warning the Believers
- The True Gospel Proclaimed
- Christ: The Final Answer to Every Heresy
Introduction
Okay, good morning. Let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Colossians, the letter we’ll be looking at. I want to direct your attention to Colossians 1:15-18. I just want to read that before I start.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body of the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.
Let’s pray. Father, this morning, as we look at your word and as we get into this new epistle, I pray, Lord, that you would bring out the truths in it to us for this very purpose: that we would have a higher view of God in Christ than we ever had before.
Help us to know, Lord, that the great attacks of all cults and of all false teaching is to diminish Christ. I pray, Lord, that would not be something we would tolerate in our own lives. I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.
The Power of the True Gospel
Two of the most powerful words in advertising, I have read about, are “new” and “free.” I tend to believe it because every day I get emails advertising something, some new product. And if you purchase a product in the next 10 minutes, you get something free.
When you think to yourself, that sounds like a pretty good deal, you think you’ll check it out. And sometimes you end up purchasing the new product, maybe more than you often do, maybe more than you really want to.
When we come to the gospel message that echoed across the first century world, both these elements were emphasized. Ephesians 2 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.” That means it’s free.
And then also in Ephesians it says, “So that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.” Suddenly all the old categories people used to define themselves in, all the old ways they attempted to understand the world and their relationships to the divine, were shattered.
And why is that? Because something new had come. The gospel had come into the world and changed everything.
“Something new had come. The gospel had come into the world and changed everything.”
In fact, if you look at chapter 3 verse 11, it reads, “A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all.”
This was a new way to think. This was a new way to look at things. It was a man named Ralph Martin who observed that in the society of Christians a new type of humanity is being formed, that Christ’s life flows out of his people and is reproduced in their midst.
One proof of the new life was seen in the canceling of restrictions and the inhibitions which made the ancient world socially stratified and class conscious. Paul has shown how in the church, barriers of race, social distinctions, and sex are being broken down as Christians act upon their baptismal profession of initiation into the body.
Some of these things are pretty much alive in our day—keeping race and the division of races, keeping class distinctions. This all divides people. But if you think about the church, what happens in the church? People get saved from all tribes and nations and colors of skins and backgrounds, and they come in and they’re unified, and all those distinctions should drop away.
Why? Because we are all one in Christ. Christ is our answer. He’s the one who brings unity.
“We are all one in Christ. Christ is our answer. He’s the one who brings unity.”
New Wine in Old Wineskins
But many in the ancient world struggled against the idea of this new thinking. They were attracted to the church, but they adjusted Christ to their old categories. They tried to define Christianity in terms of human philosophy rather than letting Christ define them in this new humanity.
We have the same problem. For example, two characteristic marks of the church are, first, it is a living organism in which everyone is to be interacting and involved with one another. And yet often we treat the church as a business, or as a democracy, or we treat the church according to social taboos and norms.
And yet often when we do this, we really are denying that the church is a living organism that should be functioning together, with people’s spiritual gifts and everybody interacting and using those gifts to build up this body, where all these distinctions have dropped away.
A second characteristic of the church is it should be, at least, dynamic holiness, which is to mark the character of believers and the believing community. And yet we persist in trying to define our righteousness by the things we do and the things we don’t. If I keep this list I’ll be a good Christian, if I do these things and check these boxes I should grow, and I should be a good member of the community.
We are tempted. Even they were tempted, and we are tempted to put new wine in old wineskins. And what happens when that takes place? It ruptures.
“We are tempted to put new wine in old wineskins. And what happens when that takes place? It ruptures.”
The Colossian Heresy: Background and Origins
The church at Colossae was being emptied of its power by a teacher who claimed advanced knowledge, the Greek word gnosis. They were attempting to fit Christianity into an old and empty philosophical system. It was an early form of gnosticism.
Gnosticism didn’t fully develop until the second century, but Satan doesn’t care about that. He’ll implement anything he wants in the thinking he wants, wherever he wants it, if he’s going to divide people.
When we were studying through 2 Peter and Jude, it became apparent very soon that false teachers had become a problem in the church. Now we come to Colossians, and the problem being addressed is false teaching that undermined the true gospel.
The difference between 2 Peter, Jude, and Colossians is that the false teaching influencing the believers is not coming from a plurality of teachers, at least initially, but from a singular false teacher. The Colossian heresy rested on the authority of a singular false teacher, meaning that one person could cause a lot of damage in the church if they have the wrong truth and the wrong doctrine.
John Kitchen in his commentary said it’s like a spiritual guide claiming superior insight into the spiritual realm and insisting on certain rights and taboos and practices as means of protection from evil spirits and for deliverance from afflictions and calamities.
Paul used the singular form to identify this person. If you look at Colossians 2:8, notice what it says: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit.” That “no one” is in the singular.
Then look at Colossians 2:18. It says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, and then taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.”
There was some singular teacher that was having a great influence upon the Colossians and this church. This false teacher totally misunderstood the gospel of grace, the person of Christ, and Holy Spirit sanctification. But they were concerned about issues explored by people of all ages.
Questions like this, and we’ve all had these questions: What is God like, and what is his relationship to the world? Or how does a human being gain access to God’s true presence? Or how does the human being gain fullness of life?
This false teacher attempted to answer these questions not from any scriptural foundation, but from the particular philosophical way Colossians thought. Just like in America we all have an American philosophy of life and thought, we’re influenced by the culture, just like they were influenced. They tried to take the gospel and shove it into the old philosophical system, and that’s what came out of Colossians.
The heresy of Colossians was grounded in gnosis, that is, advanced knowledge not gained from scripture, but came from worldly wisdom or unknowable wisdom that came from somewhere else, and that was also wrapped up in mystery.
In Colossians 2:8, the Apostle Paul defines it as, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
This means that they use their own terms to define things and therefore redefine Christ and redefine the gospel in their own terms. This is classic religion. This is classic cults. This is what they all do. Matter of fact, this is a great model for them to follow, and they have followed it in different ways.
The two greatest failures of the teaching in Colossae were that it disparaged Christ and therefore distorted Christian living. If the teaching that is being taught dethrones Christ, it not only robs him of his rightful place of preeminence, but it also distorts all the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith.
“If the teaching that is being taught dethrones Christ, it distorts all the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith.”
The Christian life becomes a set of man-made rules and regulations, with no spiritual power and no ability to deal with the nature of sin and to put sins to death. There’s no power for that, and that’s what all religions do. There’s no power to live a holy life or a godly life.
The falsehood this teacher espoused is exposed by Paul. However, Paul did not make a frontal assault on this false teaching like he did in 2 Peter and Jude. His approach this time to this falsehood in Colossae was a positive setting forth the truth of Christ from the scriptures in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Why Paul Wrote to the Colossians
What was the reason for the writing of Colossians? It looks like Epaphras. Look at Colossians 1:7: “Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf.”
Then in Colossians 4:12, he says, “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”
So Epaphras was a lead elder, or possibly the lead pastor, of this church at Colossi. He reported to Paul about the troubling circumstances at the church, like the false ideas and teachings that were being dispersed among the believers at Colossi.
Epaphras most likely sensed that an apostle needed to confront this teacher and his teachings. Epaphras most likely felt unprepared to do it himself, so he had to call in an apostle.
The apostle responds to his request and writes this epistle to the Colossians. In this epistle, he has a three-fold intention. Three things are going on in the mind of Paul as he writes this letter.
Paul’s First Intention: Pastoral Concern
And the first intention was this: to establish a rapport with the Colossian believers and express to them his pastoral concern for their spiritual health and well-being.
Now why did he need to do that? Because Paul never visited Colossi, neither did he have part in founding it. Epaphras was his main connection to the church.
Paul was also concerned to strengthen the church and to confirm their adherence to the gospel which they already received. And that’s what happens many times: somebody gets saved, the church gets planted, and soon after that happens, Satan comes in.
Instead of a person staying in one place to be established in the faith, he pulls them out and sends them somewhere else, and they never get back into the church. He always wants to rob that seed. He wants to rob something from us.
And so right here we see that one of the things that Epaphras was telling Paul about the church. Look at verse 4, chapter 1: “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.” And in verse 8 of chapter 1, he also informed us of your love in the spirit.
And then in Colossians 2:1, Paul says, “I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not yet personally seen my face.”
Now Paul never visited there. Nobody knew about Paul except a few people. So he was trying to establish himself with them and his concern with them, and just say to them, listen, I am interested in you guys, and I’m interested that you stay firm in the gospel and don’t move from there.
And I’m interested that the true gospel will prosper among you and keep planting seeds and developing fruit. That was his first intention.
“Paul was concerned to strengthen the church and confirm their adherence to the gospel which they already received.”
“I am interested that you stay firm in the gospel and that the true gospel will prosper among you.”
Paul’s Second Intention: Counteracting False Teaching
His second intention was to counteract the clever false teaching that had arisen in the church and was now confusing believers. The false teacher, or they—because eventually his teaching trickled into other people and they ended up being teachers also—were claiming for themselves an unusual degree of knowledge, learning, and insight that did not come from scripture.
The Gnostic Worldview Examined
What are their attempts in this clever teaching to answer these fundamental questions? Like, what is God like? Well, the Colossians’ philosophical mindset was that they saw all things in terms of two contrasting principles. One principle was that on one side there was good, which was associated with the spiritual and immaterial world. And then on the other side there was evil, which was associated with the material universe, and never shall those two meet.
So they thought God himself was perfectly good, spiritual, and totally disassociated from the material world. In fact, they thought God did not create the material universe. He would not pollute himself with such conduct. And for them, the idea that God would become a man was unthinkable, because God becoming material, becoming flesh, was unthinkable to them.
The biblical teaching found in Colossians 1:27, a very familiar verse and I believe one of the key verses in Colossians, did not fit the Gnostic philosophical categories: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It just didn’t fit anywhere, because God can’t have anything to do with the material universe directly. It had to be indirectly.
Colossians 1:27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Gnostics, people with advanced knowledge, saw the human being as trapped, a spark of the divine held captive in human form. So salvation meant release from bondage to all that was material, including one’s own body. So resurrection was a horrible thought to them. To come back and live in a body in this world again was horrible to them, because the material cannot have part with the spiritual.
Angel Worship and Access to God
So that leads to the next question they tried to answer: how does a human being gain access to God? Well, the Colossian philosophical mindset was that they saw God as remote and inaccessible. God may be approached through a long chain of intermediaries that stretched between him and matter. Jesus Christ may be one of these intermediaries, but low in rank, because Jesus had contact with the world.
Just think of it like this: it was a long chain, and on one side of the chain was the material world, and on the other side of the chain was God. But you couldn’t go directly to him. You had to go from one link in the chain to the next link in the chain, to the next link in the chain, to the next link in the chain, and finally you would get to God.
And who was part of those links in the chain? Angels. Angels would be the beings who formed the chain between man and God. These powerful angels were worshiped because human destiny lay in their hands.
Look at Colossians 2:18. It says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels.”
The worship of angels was definitely in the mindset of these false teachers. Because God was pure and remote from man, and because man was evil and material was evil, you had to go through these angels to get to God.
“Angels were worshiped because human destiny lay in their hands—but scripture says Christ alone brings us to God.”
So if that’s the case, then how does a human being gain fullness of life in this religious system? Well, the Colossians should practice the way of life laid out by their teachers who have this special knowledge.
Their way of life stressed asceticism. It stressed rigid regulations. It stressed abstinence. It stressed self-punishment. The liberation from the evil, fleshly body was a good thing to them, and angels that go in between were honored by rituals and self-discipline.
This is the way to have fullness in this world, if you do these things. The old idea of spirituality drastically distorted the biblical doctrines of the Christian faith and the Christian way of life. In other words, conversion and sanctification—those are both things we need to understand as Christians. Right now this is completely distorted, because they’re going to put up several things that you have to do to have fullness of life.
This was the essence of their teaching, and they were confusing believers at Colossi with their novel ideas and their false gospel. Yet these teachers sounded so amazing. They sounded knowledgeable, they sounded contemporary, they were so up to date. Now I can get a handle on this.
Features of the False Teaching
And yet this false teaching had certain features to it that Paul addresses in this epistle. Look at the first one in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 2.
False Legalism
In other words, it held, first of all, a false legalism. It says, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink, or in respect to festival or new moon or a Sabbath day.” That means this probably has some kind of Jewish roots to it. Jews were involved with this teaching.
If they want to believe the Christian faith, then they’re going to have to reinterpret things. So it was ritualistic. It insisted that the Colossian Christians should observe religious days and seasons. That was part of what was going on.
“The false teaching insisted that Colossian Christians observe religious days and seasons—classic legalism with no spiritual power.”
False Mysticism
And then secondly, it was also mystical. Look at Colossians 2:18-19.
There was a false spirituality to it. It says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.”
In other words, it was a mystical cult of angel worship, indulged in praises of visions only understood by certain people after a long period of thought. Only this person could understand this and interpret it and tell you what to do. There was a false mystical spirituality, and there is always mysticism in cults and religions.
Try to define things in certain religions or ask them what they really believe. Sometimes it’s very hard to do. Even when I grew up as a Catholic, I would ask my father all these questions. Why do we go in and give flowers at the May procession of Mary? No answers. He couldn’t answer. He would get so frustrated that I would ask these things.
But why? Because everything—the unbloody sacrifice of the mass—is all very mysterious. As long as it’s mysterious, people get to the point where they think, “I don’t need to know what it is. I just feel like I’m part of something spiritual. I feel good when I go to church, and I come out of church.”
But you never really learned anything. It doesn’t do anything in your life. You just go back to the old way of life you lived before, and then you go to church the next day or whatever you do.
“There is always mysticism in cults and religions—mystery that keeps people feeling spiritual without ever learning anything.”
That’s what usually happens in religions. Or there’s all this regulation on what to do and how to look and how to dress and how to act. All those things are observed by others, and if you step out of line, then you get called out for it.
False Asceticism
Sometimes there was also a feature of false asceticism. Look at Colossians 2:20-23. It says here, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.”
And then it says, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
So here we see that this worldly philosophy that is reinterpreting Christianity becomes a religious system. It always makes for a good religious system to do these things, but there’s no power. It says there’s no value against fleshly indulgence. There’s no power at all.
“These things have the appearance of wisdom, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. There’s no power at all.”
In contrast to all that, when you get to other things, the Apostle Paul was always talking about the cross and about the death of Christ and about his resurrection. Yet this was and is the only real message.
So then we and the Colossians always have to be brought back to the essence of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We always have to be brought back to that. And why do we have to be brought back to that? Because it’s always the true gospel that Satan, the god of this world system, will relentlessly attack. He will come against it. He is coming against it now.
Martin Lloyd Jones says, “The Christian faith is not what I think it is, it is not what you think it is, it is not what anybody else thinks it is, it is what is plainly taught in scripture.” The gospel is really clear. The Christian church is firmly established upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ being the chief cornerstone.
Paul’s Third Intention: Warning the Believers
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a very clear and simple method. The third intention Paul had for writing was to warn the believers in Colossae about the wrong-headed approaches to the Christian life and ministry that were resulting from false teaching.
In Colossians 2:8, Paul writes: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deception.” In verse 16: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge.” In verse 18: “Let no one be defrauding you.” And in verse 23: “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom, but just self-made religion, the harsh treatment of the body, and has no value for sanctification.” You cannot be sanctified like this.
“We always have to be brought back to the true gospel—because it is always what Satan will relentlessly attack.”
The description of the true gospel message is found in Colossians 1:28. It says: “We proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Once someone hears the message proclaimed, they get into the teaching. The teaching matures them and sanctifies them until they become mature in Jesus Christ.
The word “admonishing” in verse 28 means to admonish, to warn, to instruct. It refers to instruction in regard to belief and behavior both. It often refers to someone who offers counsel and instruction for avoidance or cessation of inappropriate thinking and conduct, using the word of truth to establish their objective—to get somebody to see that what they’re thinking and what they’re doing is not in line with the Christian faith.
That means they may need to hear the gospel, because they think they’re saved but they’re not saved.
The True Gospel Proclaimed
If you notice in verse 28, the message that we have in the gospel is to be proclaimed. That means it is a message that we declare. We have something to say. It’s an announcement from on high, from God to people, and it should be solemnly announced because it’s a message most glorious and most wonderful.
Be a good person and you get to heaven—that’s not good news. But Christ crucified, risen from the dead, offering to you a free gift because he has done everything for you—that’s good news. That is a message that needs to be proclaimed.
It’s also a message that is proclaimed, which means we are definitely proclaiming him, Christ. And believe me, if you’re going to get a clear picture of Christ, it’s going to be right here in Colossians. It has the highest Christology in all of the Bible, and we’re going to see that as the weeks go on.
But it is a message that is very clear and stated positively. The clarity of Scripture refers to its accessibility. The knowledge of God contained in the Bible has been revealed in such a way that it can be sufficiently understood in and of itself by those who seek it.
On the negative side, the Bible is not a collection of mysterious writings that requires the assistance of some other knowledge to render it understandable. Scripture is so clear that it judges and illuminates everything, even the thoughts and intents of the heart.
“The Bible is not mysterious writings requiring outside knowledge. Scripture is so clear it illuminates even the thoughts of the heart.”
Also, the message that we have is for everybody. If you notice in verse 28, notice what it says: “We proclaim him, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Now this is different. This is no class warfare here. This is not racism here. This is everyone. No matter where you came from, this message is for you. That means we take the message of the gospel and we take it to everyone, not just the educated, not just the religious elite, not just some special group with super knowledge.
We bring it to everyone. It doesn’t matter who they are.
And it is a message that has purposeful substance. In verse 28 it says, at the end of the verse, “so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” The teaching in the word of God is always heading somewhere. It’s always doing something. It’s always intended to accomplish the will of God.
In this passage, the will of God is that you and I would be made complete in Christ. And we cannot do that on our own. We can’t implement our will to put off sin. We need spiritual power, the Spirit of God living in us, to put sin to death in our life.
“The will of God is that you and I would be made complete in Christ—and we cannot do that on our own.”
This word of God, as we search out Scripture, admonishes us to live wisely. Like it says in Psalm 119:130, “The unfolding of your words give light. It gives understanding to the simple.” It gives us the ability to have skill for living.
In Colossians it teaches about a specific person. It says in verse 27, “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
That’s something we ought to have on our walls. Soon as we wake up, that’s what we should see: Christ in you, the hope of glory. That’s it. Christianity is Christ. He is at the center of it all, and your attitude and my attitude and relationship to this person is of significant importance.
You don’t need an endless list of angels you have to go through between God and man. No, Christ can bring you to God because he’s God. What does it say in 2 Corinthians 4:5? “For we do not preach ourselves, we preach Jesus Christ, not ourselves as bond servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
God has visited his redeemed people to accomplish redemption. God loved and gave himself for his people, as it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” It’s all about Jesus, the person, and the facts concerning him.
In Colossians 2:3, “In him are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In Colossians 2:9, “In him dwells the fullness of God.”
So the Apostle Paul is saying these things about Jesus that goes far beyond what people say today about Jesus—that he’s a good teacher, that he’s a good example, that he is a good man to follow. Usually they go no further.
You see, this is why you and I need the book of Colossians. Because if we didn’t have it, we would all conclude that Jesus was just an exceptional human being, and that is about as far as we would go, and we would go no further.
“Without Colossians, we would all conclude that Jesus was just an exceptional human being, and go no further.”
Christ: The Final Answer to Every Heresy
And yet when we read this epistle, what do we see? We see that Jesus Christ, in verses 15 through 18, which I started with and which I will end with, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created, both in heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body of the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and he himself will come to have first place in everything. That is our Lord. That is what should be on our mind.
A true Christology is the final answer to every heresy and every false teaching that ever has been or will be. You hear something false, you hear some new thing happening, test out what they say about Christ, and pretty soon you’ll find out that they’re wrong and the scripture is right. Amen.
“A true Christology is the final answer to every heresy and every false teaching that ever has been or will be.”
Those are just some of the foundational things that lay out what’s going to be happening in the book of Colossians this morning. Let’s pray.
Lord, this morning I pray that as we get into this epistle, we would see not only how false teaching could be very attractive to people and very enticing to them, but that it ultimately becomes slavery and bondage. They remained in bondage, they remained in being dead in their sin, and they have no life to overcome the troubles of their life and the very sin nature that pulls them down and causes them to live for themselves.
Enable us today to grasp these things as we move through this epistle, so we would be firmly established in the truth that Christ Jesus is the preeminent one, and there is no other. I ask this in Christ’s name, amen.