SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/10/2016 5:35 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 Intro to Colossians (Correspondence)
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Colossians 1:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the
will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in
Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”
In this SD
we want to get a general outline of what we will find in this letter, a letter
that was written close to the time that Ephesians was written so there will be
some similar things found in these letters.
The letter to the Ephesians emphasizes on the body of Christ, the
church, but Colossians is about Christ who is the Head of the body, and that is
the difference.
Paul uses
terms that the false teachers, the Gnostics used like fullness, perfect and
complete in his letter, but Paul gives the proper meaning to these terms unlike
the Gnostics teachers did. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Over thirty times Paul used the little word all. He also wrote about wisdom which was a key term in the Gnostic
vocabulary; he had a great deal to say about angels and spirit powers too.”
Let us now
look at a couple verses which show us the theme of this letter which is the permanence of Jesus Christ. “18 He is also head of the body, the church;
and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will
come to have first place in everything (1:18).”
“11 a renewal in which there is
no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all (3:18).”
Nothing
needs to be added to what Jesus Christ did for us as far as salvation and how
the Holy Spirit uses His Word to cause us to grow as we are complete in
Christ. You either have Him or you don’t. There is no need of angelic mediators or
spiritual emanations.
Paul did
not begin this letter by attacking the false teachers and their false
doctrines, he began by exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. This is kind of like what a bank teller
learns when they begin their job, and that is to understand everything about
true currency so that when a false one comes their way they will realize it is
false.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes that as he begins to exalt Jesus Christ he does it in five areas: “The
Gospel message, redemption, Creation, the church, and Paul’s own ministry. The people to whom Paul was writing had
become Christians because of the Gospel message brought to them by
Epaphras. If this message was wrong,
then they were not saved at all!”
After
exalting Jesus Christ he then begins to attack the heretics on their own
ground. This begins in chapter two where
Paul exposed the false origin of their teachings and showed how their teachings
contradicted everything that Paul taught about Jesus Christ. Dr. Wiersbe tells us “That the believer who
masters this chapter is not likely to be led astray by some alluring and
enticing ‘new-and-improved brand of Christianity.”
We next see
that after this task is finished Paul had some important things for the church
as seen in chapters 3-4. Paul explains
here that the greatest antidote to a false teaching—a godly life. What we
believe determines how we behave or how we live. Dr. Wiersbe explains “IF we believe that matter
is evil, we will use our bodies one way; but if we believe that our bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit, we will live accordingly.
“If Christ
is truly preeminent in our lives, then we will glorify Him by keeping pure, by
enjoying fellowship with other saints, by living each other at home and being
faithful at work, and by seeking to witness for Christ and serve Him
effectively. Unless doctrine leads to
duty, it is no use to us.”
He
concludes his introduction by writing “As we study this exciting letter, we
must heed Paul’s warnings: ‘Lest any man
should beguile you’ (Col. 2:4), ‘Lest any man spoil you’ (Col. 2:8), ‘Let no
man therefore judge you!’ (Col. 2:16).”
12/10/2016 6:08 PM
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