In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 2:8-10 and explains how believers are to walk faithfully based on whom they have received. Pastor Babij walks through the passage using three headings:
1. The Command (2:8a)
2. The Warning (2:8b)
3. The Completeness (2:9-10)
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Summary
We are reminded that all religious systems, when examined against Scripture, prove hollow and deceptive—offering complexity and bondage where Christ offers completeness and freedom. Colossians 2:8–10 calls us to walk faithfully in Christ while staying vigilant against the spiritual forces and false teachers that seek to lead us captive.
Key Lessons:
- Every believer carries a responsibility to actively watch and resist false teaching—the two imperatives of discipleship are to walk in Christ and to see that no one misleads us.
- False teaching always diminishes Christ by adding human tradition, secret knowledge, or man-made regulations to the finished work of the cross—yet Christ’s sacrifice accomplished everything needed for salvation.
- Satan uses philosophy, empty deception, and the power of tradition as tools to keep people spiritually captive, but believers are no longer under his dominion—greater is He who is in us.
- In Christ, believers have been made completely full—possessing all the fullness of life because Christ himself is fully God and fully man, the head over all rule and authority.
Application: We are called to hold firmly to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, refusing to let cultural traditions, religious systems, or complex man-made rules replace the straightforward gospel: Christ alone saves, justification is by faith alone, and we are complete in him.
Discussion Questions:
- What traditions—religious, cultural, or personal—might subtly be competing with or diluting your devotion to Christ in your own life?
- How does understanding that you are “complete in Christ” change the way you respond to religious systems or teachings that claim something more is needed for salvation?
- In what practical ways can you apply the two imperatives of discipleship—walking in Christ and watching for deception—in your daily life this week?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 2:8–10 is the central passage, teaching that false philosophy, human tradition, and worldly principles stand in contrast to the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ bodily, and that believers are made complete in him who is head over all authority. Supporting passages include Matthew 19:21, Matthew 24:4–5, Mark 7:2–13, 2 Corinthians 2:11, 2 Corinthians 11:3, and 2 Corinthians 1:12.
Outline
- Introduction
- The Emptiness of Religion vs. Completeness in Christ
- Armed for Spiritual Conflict
- The Two Imperatives of Discipleship
- Walking and Watching: Commands for Every Believer
- The Warning: Being Taken Captive
- Satan’s Strategy and His Limits
- The Tool of Human Tradition
- The Elementary Principles of the World
- False Teaching vs. the Simplicity of the Gospel
- Three Reasons to Resist False Teachers
Introduction
Okay, let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Colossians 2.
We’ll be looking at verses 8 through 10 of Colossians 2.
Let’s pray first. Lord, this morning as we meet together around your word in a time of worship, a time of thinking of the great salvation you bestowed upon us, I pray Lord that would always be on our mind.
I pray Lord that you would remove from our mind the thoughts of the work of the week and what we’re anticipating for next week. I pray Lord that we would rest in this moment, focus our full attention upon your word and what it has for us today.
I pray that as we do that, Lord, you may make us disciples of Christ who know exactly what we ought to do and how we ought to live. I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.
The Emptiness of Religion vs. Completeness in Christ
King Colossians 2. As I’ve been going through Colossians, we need to consider that all modern religious counterparts contrasted with true biblical Christianity are really hollow and deceptive, and yet they appeal to many people.
I remember when I was growing up, I was pretty religious. My father and I were always involved somehow with the church, and at the same time as I was growing up, there was always this gnawing emptiness inside of me.
I was always wondering and had these questions that I didn’t seem to be getting answered. I felt like I was always wrestling inside of myself. I wasn’t necessarily looking for God, because I thought I was all right, I thought everything was fine, well and dandy, and I wasn’t really looking.
Then the Lord had to take me out of the state into another country, and all the distractions that I had were gone. At that point the Lord began to deal with me in a very specific way.
But I was still wrestling, I still felt empty. When I heard the gospel and I believed the gospel, one of the things I recognized going on inside me for the first time is that my wrestling stopped, my emptiness was gone, I felt complete, and I never felt that way before.
It just continued. The more I understood and studied the word of God and followed the Lord, the more settled I was in my heart than I ever have been in my life until this day.
I think that happens to all believers. We have this sense that we’re settled, we’re resting in Christ, and that is a good place to be. But when it comes to religious systems, they don’t offer that.
When religions are examined more closely, the common result of investigation will always be they hold too low a view of Christ. They can mention Christ, they can talk about Jesus, but somehow it’s Jesus plus something else.
Somehow Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross did not accomplish everything. There were some things still undone that we had to try to figure out and help God do.
Anything that deludes the promotion of the person of Christ—should it be called philosophical piracy? Because they’re trying to rob something. Once the Christian understands the wealth and riches they have in Christ, they are unwilling to exchange Christ for any other would-be man-made substitute.
“Once the Christian understands the wealth and riches they have in Christ, they are unwilling to exchange Christ for any other would-be man-made substitute.”
We cannot let anyone persuade us to believe that Jesus is anything less than the totality and comprehensively the perfect God-man. There is only one image of the invisible God: Jesus Christ the Lord, the only unique one.
We ought then to keep believing in him, to keep growing in your knowledge of him, to keep understanding him, and keep on holding to Christ, and keep on obeying him. As we love him, we learn to obey him.
Armed for Spiritual Conflict
Now, we all have already been armed in the scripture in Colossians for the conflict that we’re in, because we’re holding on to truth. We’re holding out the truth by our unifying love, that’s a weapon that we have, victory in warfare.
We’re keeping the treasure of truth about Christ, that’s a sharp weapon. We’re keeping firm on our faith in Christ, that’s another weapon for victory.
We’re thinking and we’re keeping, like last time, thankful. We have thankfulness, an overflowing thankfulness in the end of verse 7, because of what we understand we have in Christ, and we’re not willing at that point to let go of anything, any of our treasure.
Again, when we understand what has been done in Christ and how much God has done on our behalf, along with a validation of the transformational results of life carried out in Christ, that he’s making us new, we’re dropping off the old, we’re putting on the new. All one can do is overflow with thankfulness once they understand that.
“When we understand what has been done in Christ and how much God has done on our behalf, all one can do is overflow with thankfulness.”
What’s next after that? Well, in verse 6, if you notice in chapter 2, it says therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. This is what’s next: we’re called to a faithful Christian walk.
Jesus, through the transformation of truth, has made us new, so now we are to continue to walk in that truth. While we walk, there are commands to heed, there are warnings in order to avoid going the wrong way or listening to the wrong people, and there’s also more understanding of our complete salvation as we grow.
The Two Imperatives of Discipleship
So I want you to notice first of all this morning the command that is given in verse eight. It says this: “See to it that no one takes you captive.” Stop right there, that’s the command.
Now, the first imperative was found in verse seven, and the command is “walk in him.” That means to conduct one’s daily life in a behavior and a lifestyle that honors God, and this leads a Christian to a continued walk in the faith, the body of truth, doctrines that have been given to us in the Christian faith.
As we Christians walk this way, transformational changes happen in our life. It happens to our character, it happens in our obedience, it happens in our love, it happens in our maturity, it happens in our stability, and it becomes evident in our everyday life and the sphere in which the Christian life is carried out.
Walk in him, and this includes obedient cooperation with the truth of God’s word and a constant dependence on God. That’s where we walk as Christians.
“Walking in Christ includes obedient cooperation with the truth of God’s word and a constant dependence on God.”
The believers are to conduct their lives in accord with the apostles’ doctrine, not in accord with the enticing words of false teachers. Christians are to continue in the truth as it is in Jesus, and not be turned aside to novelties or any kind of things, moving from teaching this way or that way into falsehoods and by false teachers. We’re to watch out for that.
As we walk in Christ, that’s the first imperative, that’s the first command. But the second command goes with it in verse eight: “See to it.”
The imperatives put responsibility in the lap of those who have received the truth. We just don’t sit back on our laurels and do nothing. God says no, you’re responsible now. You are to cooperate with the spirit of God in your Christian walk. You are responsible.
The first imperative goes along with the second imperative to see, and that is to see that no one misleads you. Now these two imperatives have been called the imperatives of discipleship.
We find in the gospels a similar pattern. Just take your Bibles and turn over to Matthew 19.
Matthew 19 is when Jesus was dealing with the rich young ruler. I want you to notice what Jesus says to him here after he has this discussion with the rich young ruler.
The rich young ruler pretty much says, “I have kept these commandments.” And Jesus says to him in Matthew 19:21.
Jesus says to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.” So to walk in Christ is also the command to follow Christ, same thing.
Yet this rich young ruler was not complete, Jesus said, because his real treasure was on earth in his great possessions. That’s where his heart was, that’s what he loved. He did not love God, so his treasure was not in heaven.
He didn’t follow Christ. It’s a real genuine believers follow Christ whatever the cost. This rich young ruler was deceived by the earthly riches.
Do earthly riches have power to deceive you? Better believe they do, and they’re still very much on the top of the list of deceiving people. Because the rich ruler never followed Christ, he never saw the danger around him.
Now if you turn over to Matthew 24:4 and 5, Jesus also says something that is similar to Colossians. These are prophetic passages about living in the end time.
And Jesus said to them in verse 4 of Matthew 24: “See to it that no one misleads you.” That’s exactly the same thing as it says in Colossians.
And verse 5: “For many will come in my name saying I am the Christ, and will mislead many.” So this atmosphere in which people live, and even in the religious world, there is a great potential not to follow Christ and be deceived, and there’s also a potential not to see, and so therefore you get misled.
Walking and Watching: Commands for Every Believer
For the believer, walking and following is to be continuous, so is the seeing and the watching. No Christian is exempt from these two commands. We’re always doing this. This is a daily pattern that we have.
Every day we are walking in Christ and we are watching that we don’t get misled. Now why is that? Because we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death where there are many enemies.
“No Christian is exempt from these two commands. Every day we are walking in Christ and watching that we don’t get misled.”
We Christians are urged to walk in Christ and keep our eyes open so that we will not have a black hood pulled over our heads and pushed through into an unmarked van by hoodlums and whisked away to a dark unclosed location by the evil motives of our captors.
The Warning: Being Taken Captive
See that first, these first two imperatives, this command is to be lived out. But it leads to the warning, and I want you to notice in verse 8 there is a warning that goes along with those commands.
And if you notice it says see to it that no one takes you captive. Now as you read that, you find that the word captive means for somebody to carry you off, or it also can mean to carry off the spoils or captives off from a conflict in battle.
That when somebody went into a country and they won the battle, what do they do? They take the spoils and take them back home, right? Well, this is the picture here, that someone is coming into your life that will victimize you, to brainwash you into some kind of religious error, and then to take control of you and lead you astray.
In other words, they prey on you. Some have used this term in a sense of to kidnap someone away from the truth into error.
Now that doesn’t look like the enemy has good motives for us, so that’s why we have to be watching. We have to be watching.
“Someone is coming into your life that will kidnap you away from the truth into error—that’s why we have to be watching.”
As we stand and learn truth, it is like pirates who unsuspectingly move in on a friendly vessel in order to board and loot the treasure that is on board. See, treasure attracts pirates like honey attracts flies.
A Christian’s treasure is Christ, and when someone knows Christ, the enemy wants to diminish Christ in their lives and steal what they have.
The Tool of Empty Philosophy
Now how do these enemies actually try to capture its victims? Well, notice in verse eight of Colossians 2:8.
It says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy.” That is really the search and love for wisdom, but this is not philosophy proper or good philosophy. This is philosophy that’s mixed with current human thought and pagan religious practices.
For the Colossians, there was this philosophical mindset that saw things in two contrasting principles. Because of these false teachers, on one side things were good, which was associated with the spiritual and the immaterial. But on the other side, things were evil, which was also always associated with the material universe.
In other words, matter was evil, your body was evil, anything you could touch was evil, and anything spiritual was good. They thought that God himself was perfectly good spiritually and totally disassociated from the material world.
So again, they had a wrong view of God. Because of that, they believed God did not create the material universe. He would not pollute himself by any such contact with material things, because material things were evil.
For them, the idea that God would become a man, God in human flesh, was unthinkable. That was heresy for them.
But the biblical teaching is still true in Colossians: Christ in you the hope of glory. That did not ring good with these philosophers.
These Gnostic philosophers saw the human being as trapped but having a spark of divine. For them, salvation meant release from bondage to all that was material, including one’s own body. So bodily resurrection would be a horrible thought to them, not at all desirable.
Colossians 1:27: “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
But all of that flies right into the true theology, right into biblical theology. So that’s what they did.
The Tool of Empty Deception
But then notice in verse 8, there’s another thing that actually goes along with that, and that is empty deception. The noun actually expands on the meaning of the first to mean hollow and deceptive philosophy. In other words, a philosophy that amounts to empty foolishness with no spiritually sound purpose.
One can light as many candles as they want to light. They can go into the church building as much as they want, the mosque, the temple, every day throughout their lives, and go through all the steps of belonging to a particular religious group. And all they do to earn favor with God amounts to nothing, no matter how sincere they are in carrying out their religious workout.
They cannot make themselves complete, they cannot wipe away their own sin, they cannot make themselves right with God, no matter how much they believe that they are able to do so. See, they are captives to a philosophical system that is battling for the mind of a person, because when all this is examined with biblical truth, they’re all found to be hollow and deceptive.
“They cannot make themselves complete, they cannot wipe away their own sin, they cannot make themselves right with God.”
Actually, this wisdom is demonic wisdom. It’s earthly, like James says, it’s earthly. But I want you to notice this is empty deception.
Notice the device that the false teacher uses. The device the false teacher uses in order to take advantage of someone is the device of deceit, empty deception.
If we search through scriptures, we get an eyeful and an earful of the evil nature of deceit. For example, in Psalm 119:118, it says you have rejected all those who wander from your statutes, for their deceitfulness is useless.
Where does deceitfulness come out? What’s the instrument of the deceitfulness? The instrument of deceitfulness is the tongue, it has to be. That’s why these false teachers are very skilled with language, they’re very skilled at getting to people.
What does it say in Romans 3:13? “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips.”
This deceit comes from the heart. In Mark 7, it says from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murderers, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit.
How does God look at these things in scripture? He abhors it. Psalm 5:6 says you destroy those who speak falsehood, the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
Now again, look back to Second Corinthians for a moment, and you see that false teachers are workers of deceit. In Second Corinthians 11:13, the Bible records this: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as the apostles of Christ.”
You see that this tool in their toolbox is very, very effective, and they don’t come out and say well I’m being deceitful right now. We who have to decide and understand when we hear deceit.
Because in the end, like Second John tells us, who is going to be the main characteristic of the deceiver? It’s going to be the antichrist. Listen what it says: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
So now we see who is behind the twisted doctrine of Christ. It’s Satan himself. Ephesians brings it out more clearly.
Paul is dealing with these false teachers, and he’s turning what they believe on its head. After Paul gets done with them, they really don’t know what to do, because the beliefs—we have to say well we can’t believe that anymore.
See, deceit seduces with promises of great reward but leads to hollow disappointments. That’s what the deceiver always does.
“Deceit seduces with promises of great reward but leads to hollow disappointments.”
The Colossian heresy taught that for salvation one needed to combine faith in Christ with secret knowledge and man-made regulations concerning such physical and external practices as circumcision, eating and drinking rules, harsh treatment of the body, and strict observance of the religious festivals.
These are some of the ways people are taken captive and held in spiritual bondage today. Religious systems are a manual, they are manufactured by the enemy himself to keep people in bondage, and they all do it sincerely. They all think they’re doing the right thing, but they’re actually being kept captive, and they’re kept there by deceit.
Satan’s Strategy and His Limits
But they don’t see the deceit. Don’t you get the sense that there is someone using these false teachers, whether they know it or not? Their strings are being pulled by the enemy, which is Satan himself.
What is Satan’s mission anyway? His goal is to destroy us because we bear the image of God. His goal is to overthrow the kingdom of God, to regain control of what he still possesses, and regain his lost territory in those that came to Christ.
His travelers and strategies are to entice us to sin, to hinder our spiritual disciplines, to misrepresent God and truth, and to keep us away from it. He’s also in opposition to our sanctification. He doesn’t want to see that we’re growing in Christ.
So he’s always reminding us of our past sin. “You filthy dirty rotten person, you’re not changed, you’re all the same corrupt person you’ve always been.”
You ever hear him speaking like that to you? For a moment you believe it, and then you have to run back to the cross. And you say, “You’re right, I am that, but I have Jesus Christ who died in my place.”
His devices use the same strategy but different particular tools in his toolbox. The Bible tells us in Second Corinthians 2:11, “So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
That is the key: not to be ignorant of what he’s doing, of the thoughts and actions involved in deceiving someone. The church has to really know its enemy and not be ignorant of the unseen spiritual realm.
Remember, Satan is not all-knowing. He cannot be present anywhere. Satan is stronger than we are and is a formidable enemy, but he is not God, nor is he equivalent with God.
He is a created being over which God has full authority. God has him on a long leash. Scripture tells us, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
Satan, in looking upon his various plans to carry out his dominion in the world, has his sights on anything and anyone who gets in his way. He targets anyone who honors God the most and is serious about serving him. Satan will struggle very unsympathetically with that person.
In other words, Satan views God’s people as hindrances in his reign. He contrives methods by which he may remove them out of his way or get them to work on his behalf.
He and his whole host of inferior spirits under his control are trying to get the faithful to fail. Therefore, all the servants of God will more or less come under the direct or indirect assaults of the enemy sometime in their Christian walk.
So what are Christians to do? According to First Peter, we are to resist him in the truth, in the body of truth that’s been given to us. We ought to be growing in that truth and becoming more skillful to use the sword of the spirit to resist his attempts to get you and me to doubt God’s word.
Don’t ever forget: believers are no longer under the dominion of Satan. He has no authority over us at all whatsoever. We are in Christ. You can’t touch us.
“Believers are no longer under the dominion of Satan. He has no authority over us at all whatsoever. We are in Christ.”
He hates that. He wants his treasure back, but he can’t have it because God has us. But the battle is still going on, and that’s the point of Colossians.
The Tool of Human Tradition
Here is another method that he uses to capture us. In Colossians 2:8, not only was the first one that of you and I being deceived by empty philosophy, but here a second one would be the false teacher’s manipulation according to the traditions of men.
As I came to this passage of scripture, I asked myself, how powerful is tradition? Family traditions, cultural traditions, what about religious traditions?
They are probably one of the most enslaving things that we could ever have going on in our life. Because when I became a Christian, I was the first Christian in my family on my mother’s side and my father’s side. My whole family exploded against me.
And for what reason? You’re leaving the tradition of our religion. That was the main reason, and they were furious. I endured that for many, many years.
I found back then that tradition is very powerful, and it is definitely a tool in Satan’s toolbox. I thought to myself, is there any place in scripture that talks about tradition? Yes, there is. I’d like you to turn there, Mark 7:2-13.
Jesus Confronts Tradition in Mark 7
Here’s a controversy that surrounded the disciples of Christ when confronted by the scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes and the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day, and they were very steeped in tradition.
The religious leaders brought a charge against Jesus’ disciples. This delegation of religious leaders came to accuse Jesus. We’re going to look at verse two of chapter seven in a minute, and it didn’t take very long for them to find something.
The first cause of confronting Jesus is a very serious violation of the traditions of the elders. They caught certain of Jesus’ disciples eating with common hands that were unwashed.
However, they were not interested at all in hygiene and hygienic purity. They were actually interested in ceremonial cleanliness. Notice in Mark 7:2, it says, “And had seen some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is unwashed.”
“For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders.” In verse 4, “And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves, and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as washings of cups and pitchers and copper pots.”
Now there was a sense in the minds of the people that unless you are clean you cannot be in the presence of a perfect and holy God. What they did not grasp, though, was the source of the defilement and uncleanness.
It wasn’t washing their hands. The source of the defilement, as we read further on in Matthew 7, was their own heart. That’s what was polluted.
Notice in verse three again, just to highlight this. It says, “For the Pharisees and for all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders.” Jesus and his disciples did not perform this ritual.
Keep in mind that the Pharisees and scribes believed not to do this was considered to be unclean in the sight of God. The Pharisees and the scribes were so adamant about this that they personally held Jesus responsible for not teaching his disciples the tradition of the elders or the ancients.
If you look at their impassioned question in Mark 7:5, it says, “The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”
They were actually accusing Jesus’ disciples of being defiled because of unwashed hands, and therefore unclean in the sight of God. Now there’s one important thing that escaped the Pharisees and scribes’ attention.
The levitical law required no such washing. This is the tradition of men. They were spending so much time trying to build a fence around Scripture so they would not break it, it actually moved them farther away from the word of God, which in turn led them into the sin of hypocrisy and false worship.
“Building a fence around Scripture to avoid breaking it actually moved them farther from God’s word, leading to hypocrisy and false worship.”
Jesus quickly assessed and identified the real spiritual state of these legalistic-minded Pharisees and scribes. Jesus turned the tables on this delegation and responded to their question by saying this to them in Mark 7:6.
“Hey, Isaiah the prophet spoke about you guys. This is what he said.” He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you,” citing Isaiah 29:13.
“Because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they removed their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote.”
Did he put his finger on the problem? Isaiah the prophet was describing the shallow religious lives of the eighth century Jewish people, and they were just going through the motions by rote. That’s what the deception is about—tradition.
It is rote. It’s passed on from one family to the next family, whether it’s religious or not. The families depend on you to keep the traditions.
Lip Service Without Heart
What does Jesus do? He counter charges them, and he says you guys are wrong on two occasions. He says in verse 6, you give me lip service without heart. That’s hypocrisy.
Their lips give the external impression of devotion, but their hearts and lives are a great distance from God. In other words, the basic meaning of the hypocrite is someone who answers to a set conversation, an actor, a stage person, somebody who has a script.
It’s great to say stuff when you’re watching a movie and they said, “Man, that guy really was a good saying,” but it’s all scripted, right? They wrote it out before and you just said it.
Well, life’s not scripted. It’s not scripted. So they have lip service without heart. That’s religion.
See, the moment the heart keeps far from God, it also does something else. It leaves God’s word. And if you notice in Mark 7:7-8, Jesus accuses them secondly of worship without the word of God.
Notice what it says in verse 7: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
So tradition is a very powerful thing that Satan uses to keep people captive. I got rescued from it, many of you got rescued from it. We cannot go back to it. We cannot go back that way.
“Tradition is a very powerful thing that Satan uses to keep people captive. We got rescued from it—we cannot go back.”
When somebody gets rescued, the whole book of Hebrews is about rescuing Jews from Judaism and coming all the way over to Christ. And once they get there, don’t go back, don’t look back, don’t trample underfoot the Son of God, because judgment is next. Don’t do that.
So I can’t go back to what I did before. They were substituting men’s rules, human ingenuity, for God’s laws. In the end, they are not listening to God or accepting his word or following his voice.
Tradition Invalidates God’s Word
Notice verse 13 of Mark 7. Jesus exposes the damage done by such self-invented human tradition. A particular term is used in verse 13, and notice what it says: “thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that.”
The Greek word for invalidating really means to make null, to cancel. Actually, it means to leave without authority. Jesus is saying you guys have abolished the authority of not only the fifth commandment—and the fifth commandment is to obey your parents because of the context before that—but you abandon the authority of the word of God by your traditions.
You invalidate the word of God. True religion can never be the product of man’s mind. True religion should not be mistaken for mere outward observance and religious acts, as if that is what God wants in our life.
“True religion can never be the product of man’s mind. The real deception is making man-made rules appear to be teaching from God’s word.”
The real deception is making man-made rules appear to be teaching from God’s word. That’s the deception of tradition.
Does Satan still use that today? You better believe he uses it. He’s behind and works in most religious systems—I would say in all of them.
Not the aberrant ones, the ones that everybody will say, “Oh, that’s a cult, that’s a given.” I’m talking about the ones who are saying they believe these things, but they do not really believe these things because it’s replaced by a bunch of men’s stuff.
The Elementary Principles of the World
And then go back to Colossians, and I want you to notice there is in this false manipulation by the false teachers, there’s another thing that is used. The first one is according to man’s traditions in verse eight.
But also in the latter part of verse eight, it says according to the elementary principles of the world. I believe these elementary principles really are connected to these false teachers’ use of the worship of angels.
That most likely this is spiritual forces that have significant influence over the affairs of day-to-day experiences and existence of people. Demons are very much active in that way.
In other words, the false teachers are saying to them, listen, you should practice the way of life laid out by these teachers which have special knowledge. And what ways were there?
The way of a life stress that stress asceticism and rigid regulations and abstinence and self-punishment, and liberation from evil and fleshly, the fleshly body by whatever you want to do with it. And then angelic intermediaries were honored by ritual and worship.
This was the way that they said to live, but it is the way of not only empty deception, but it is the way of the elementary principles of the world, just ritualistic. It insisted that the Colossians should observe religious days and seasons.
It was also worldly philosophy, and in the sense it was mystical. The cult of angel worship indulged the praise of visions only understood by a prolonged thought process by the false teachers, they had this super knowledge. And it was also ascetic, rigid regulations of abstinence and self-punishment.
So the problem, what tradition and what Satan uses with the elementary principles of the world, trying to control people, is this: that it cannot control the most basic desires we have. In other words, it cannot stop people from sinning.
If you notice in Colossians 2:23, it says this: 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 they are of no value against fleshly indulgences.
Colossians 2:23: “They are of no value against fleshly indulgences.”
So in other words, when somebody came to Christ, one of the things they noticed is they were having victory over their sin. They were dropping off their sins, their thoughts were changing to become more holy and godly, and they were realizing their sins more and they were leaving them and following Christ.
But these false teachers, there was just sin multiplying within these people, because they had no power at all whatsoever over the flesh.
See, we should always be warned against things like astrology, which is on the rise in the United States, or horoscopes, which is also on the rise, tarot cards, Ouija boards, spiritual spear tests, psychic readers, and even yoga that has been introduced to a large portion of Christianity.
That has been something that is subtle and no big deal, but all those yoga moves are worshiping gods, and people don’t realize that. We can’t have any of that.
Exercising is one thing, but when you’re connected with something that has a history of things that are connected to false worship, we have to stay away from stuff like that.
So whether if a person is religious in practice, religious in attitude, religious in speech, religious in precept, religious in ceremony, they can be all those things, and they can all give an appearance of, wow, that person is religious and that person is wise. But the problem is, they’re alien from the grace of God.
False Teaching vs. the Simplicity of the Gospel
Only a Christian knows the grace of God. False teachers spiritually and drastically distort true biblical doctrine and the Christian way of living. Specifically, it was rooted in the doctrine that robbed Jesus of his central place.
What is the gross error of false teachers? Waltz mentioned back in 2 Corinthians 2:8. Notice what it says at the end of the verse: it says they do all these things rather than according to Christ. There it is.
They carry out their teachings according to humanly engineered traditions and the basic worldly, man-made principles of the world. Here’s the huge mistake: rather than according to Christ.
Many religious systems and cultic systems are very complicated. Try asking somebody to give you in a nutshell what the main premise of their religion is—they can’t do it. Why? It is so complicated.
These systems are always very complicated. When you put them alongside the gospel, I can tell somebody in just a minute why I believe what I believe.
There’s much more that goes into it, but here’s why: I can’t save myself. Christ saved me. Christ granted me faith and repentance to believe in him. I am saved and forgiven because of what he did, not what I’ve done.
He’s given me eternal life and he’s made me right with him. That’s it. That’s the premise that we have. That’s what we stand upon.
The old message of the gospel has never changed and will never change. The only way to be saved and forgiven is to believe the message, to believe on the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Justification is by faith only. Our works will never save us. All our good deeds are not enough to save us. They never will be enough.
We must be saved and we must live our life as it says in our text, according to Christ. False teaching is complex and often morphs and changes.
We believe that last year, we don’t believe that this year. Why? Because the culture is dictating what they believe in many cases.
True sound biblical teaching does not change. When learned and followed, it leads to simplicity, godliness, godly sincerity, and devotion in Christ. That’s what it leads to. That’s how you’re following the truth.
“True sound biblical teaching does not change—when learned and followed it leads to simplicity, godliness, and devotion in Christ.”
Are there any scriptures that back that up? Yes, there are two, and I’d like to turn there: 2 Corinthians 1:12.
In Corinthians here, we see that Paul is saying to them in 2 Corinthians 1:12: “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially towards you.” So holiness and godly sincerity in that passage.
And then 2 Corinthians 11:3, he says this: “But I am afraid, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
See, that’s what Satan is trying to do. He’s trying to pull you away from the end results of walking with Christ, and that’s simply simplicity. It’s a simple Christian life. God wants us to live a simple life with sincerity and devotion to Christ, and that’s where it all leads.
Three Reasons to Resist False Teachers
That’s what real doctrine leads to. We must beware of these false teachers and their teaching for three reasons, and then we’re done this morning.
Reason 1: The Fullness of Deity in Christ
Look back at Colossians 2:9. This shows us it leads to the commands, leads to walking properly in Christ, leads to the warning, which leads to us understanding more of the completeness not only of Christ but of our life.
Notice what it says in verse nine: “For in him all the fullness of deity dwells. And notice, in bodily form.”
Why do you think he put that there? Because he’s rubbing it right in the face of the false teachers, saying no, Christ, God came in bodily form in the flesh, so you’re wrong.
Colossians 2:9: “In him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.”
Jesus shares fully in the divine essence along with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one true God. That’s what the scriptures teach us.
In fact, what’s the proof of Jesus’ humanity? Jesus began life as a baby, he grew up and developed. Jesus had emotions, a normal appetite, grew tired and weary, he looked like a Jewish man.
Jesus suffered and died, he rose from the dead in his human glorified body. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in his glorified body, and he is coming again in his glorified body.
His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives, and he is going to come to this earth and rule and reign. So his humanity was not just a covering for his deity; he was fully man, but he’s also full of God.
The Old Testament tells us that he’s the Messiah in his divine personage. Christ has the attributes of deity: he has eternality, he has omniscience, he has omnipresence, he has omnipotence, he has immutability.
Christ has the office of deity: he’s the creator and he’s the upholder of that creation. That’s Colossians 1. And Christ has the prerogatives of deity: he is able to forgive sins and to raise the dead and to execute judgment.
You remember what happened in the New Testament when Jesus forgave sins? What do they want to do to him? Stone him to death. Why? Because they knew that was a claim to deity.
He has and is absolute and perfect God. So what is the first reason that we’re to be aware of the false teachers? Because of what is true in Christ: that he is the God-man.
Reason 2: The Believer’s Completeness in Christ
Secondly, because of what is true of the followers of Christ, that means the completeness, the Christian’s completeness in Christ. If you notice back to Colossians 2:10, it says something very important for you and me.
It says, “In him you have been made complete.” You have been made complete.
So it follows logically that if Christ has all the fullness of deity and Christians have Christ in them, then they possess fullness of life. Because believers have been filled in him, they have full salvific acceptance that goes with all the benefits that come afterwards.
“You have been made complete. If Christ has all the fullness of deity and Christians have Christ in them, they possess fullness of life.”
Reason 3: The Supreme Authority of Christ
Being a Christian, we’re really privileged to be believers, we really are. And then one last thing, a third reason not to believe these false teachers.
It’s verse number 10. It says because of the comprehensive, comprehensive authority of Christ. He is the head over all rule and authority.
In other words, if you just made a mistake and think Jesus was just a man, and you didn’t get that he was man and God, and somehow mixed that up, no, let me just remind you that he is the head over all rule and authority. That’s in all the universe, that’s who he is, and make no mistake, he’s our God.
So you realize that Satan has no hold on us. We have nothing to fear, nothing else needs to be done. Christ has done it all. We are complete in Christ, and if that doesn’t give you assurance as a believer, I can’t help you, but it sure does to me, and I thank the Lord for it, amen.
“Satan has no hold on us, we have nothing to fear, nothing else needs to be done. Christ has done it all. We are complete in Christ.”
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you this morning for your word. It again solidifies our faith, gives us confidence in the work that you have accomplished, helps us to follow you more definitely, helps us to be watchful of all the things that are flying around us that have to do with spiritual things and religious things.
Lord, you give us the ability to stand on the truth of God’s word, firm, fully armed, knowing that you are complete in yourself, and because we’re in you we are complete. Nobody, no one, no power, no demon can take that from us. I thank you for it, and I pray in Christ’s name, amen.
Let’s stand together.