COLOSSIANS: STABILITY BY CHRIST'S ALL-SUFFICIENCY AND SUPREMACY

Part IX: The Believer's Comprehensive Doctrinal Stability In The Truth About Christ

(Colossians 2:1-10)

I. Introduction

A. Today's unsettling, insecure world has led many believers to become unsettled and insecure, so in contrast to today's world, we believers need to focus on the stability and security we have in our Lord.

B. Colossians presents Christ's all-sufficiency and supremacy in ways that settle and provide security, and one way it does so is by teaching us of the believer's comprehensive doctrinal stability in the truth about Christ.

C. Colossians 2:1-10 teaches this provision, and we view it for our insight and doctrinal stability (as follows):

II. The Believer's Comprehensive Doctrinal Stability In The Truth About Christ, Colossians 2:1-10.

A. Paul wrote of the great struggling (agona) he had for not only his readers at Colossae, but also for those in Laodicea and believers elsewhere who had not personally met him, Col. 2:1; Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 676.

B. To clarify why he thus struggled for all of these believers, Paul added that he wanted to encourage them in heart and unite them in love with one another in having the full riches of complete understanding about the truth of God and Jesus Christ, Colossians 2:2.

C. The reason for Paul's concern that believers fully understand the truth about God and Christ was that all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ in contrast to what false teachers promoted, Col. 2:3. Since knowledge is the "apprehension of truth" and "wisdom is its application to life" (Ibid.), all the facts the believer needed and all the practical application of those facts to life were wrapped up in Christ so that believers can combat fine-sounding arguments by false teachers that his readers might face, arguments that deceptively promote errors that depart from Christ's all-sufficiency, Colossians 2:4-5.

D. Accordingly, Paul urged his readers to continue to live rooted and built up in Christ in Whom they had initially trusted for salvation, strengthened in the faith as they had been taught and thereby overflowing with thanksgiving to the Lord, Colossians 2:6-7.

E. In doing so, Paul also urged his readers to watch that no one took them captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy of men, what depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ, Colossians 2:8.

F. In clarifying the importance of being Christo-centric and Christ-based in theology, Paul then made one of the clearest and strongest statements about Christ's deity and Incarnation, writing that in Christ, all the fullness of Deity (theotetos) lives in bodily form (the Incarnation), Colossians 2:9; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 677. [The importance of this statement is seen in how it addresses and counters a vast array of false cults we have in our era: Gary L. Wall's article, "A catalogue of cults: Where they stand on the deity of Christ" (Moody Monthly, July-August, 1979) named 77 cults that deny Christ's full deity and/or incarnation, among the better known ones being Christian Scientists, Freemasonry, Hare Krishna, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Satanism, Scientology, Spiritualists, Witness Lee's The Local Church, Sun Myung Moon's The Unification Church, The Way (Paul Wierwille), Transcendental Meditation, Unitarians, Witchcraft, Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and Zen Buddhism.

G. In addition, Paul noted that the believer in Christ has been positionally given spiritual fullness in Christ, Who is the head over every power and authority in the universe, be it in the spirit world or in the material universe surrounding the believer, Colossians 1:10. The believer thus needs to focus on the complete deity as well as the complete humanity of Jesus Christ in Who are hidden all the riches of wisdom and knowledge that counter false doctrines and philosophies that can mislead the naive into error.

Lesson: Paul greatly struggled to communicate to all believers, especially to those who had not personally met him, that all the knowledge and practical wisdom of applying that knowledge to life is wrapped up in their All-Sufficient Savior, Jesus Christ, in Whom dwells all the fullness of full Deity as well as complete humanity in His Incarnation. Paul wanted every believer to realize this truth that he might combat deceptive arguments to the contrary by false teachers who gave fine-sounding arguments so that believers might be stabilized in the truth, encouraged in the full riches of complete understanding in the Lord.

Application: (1) May we realize that our Lord Jesus Christ is both completely, fully God and completely, fully man, or God Incarnate, and that in Him reside all we need for fullness in knowledge and wisdom that counters false doctrines. (2) May we then FOCUS on the CENTRALITY and ALL-SUFFICIENCY of Christ to COMBAT error!