PAUL REITERATES HIS GREAT CONCERN FOR GOD'S PEOPLE AND REMINDS THEM WHERE TRUE WISDOM LIES (COLOSSIANS 2:1) ‘For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be strengthened, they being knit... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I say this so that no one may (or ‘let no one') delude you with persuasive speech, for though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, full of joy and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.' His purpose in showing them the supremacy of Jesus Christ, an... [ Continue Reading ]
‘As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith (or ‘your faith'), even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.' Paul's usual term for Jesus Christ in Colossians is ‘Christ'. In Colossians 1:1 he opened by calling Him... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Watch carefully lest there shall be anyone who carries you off captive through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head... [ Continue Reading ]
‘In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been 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.' In Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And you being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.' Paul now makes the significance of it all crystal clear. We were dead through our trespasses (compare Ephesians 2:1), dead to th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Having blotted out the written bond in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.' The debts we owed... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he made a show of the openly, triumphing over them in it.' This action clearly refers to Jesus directly. Whether we take the ‘He' of the previous verses as God or Jesus Christ matters little. It was God's action in Christ. In Him dwelt... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Therefore let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day, which are a shadow of the things to come. But the body is of Christ.' Paul now stresses that because of the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross all ritual requirement has been done away... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility or worshipping of the supernatural messengers, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and band... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.' Because these people concentrate on intermediaries and visions they fail to hold fast to the One Who is Head over all. They fail to hold fast t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘If you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to ordinances, “handle not, nor taste, nor touch”, (all which things are to perish with the using) after the precepts and doctrines of men?'. Which things have indeed a show of wisdo... [ Continue Reading ]