Walk In Full Truth | Colossians 2:6–15

I think I’ve told you before that I am a big history buff. I find Revolutionary War history particularly interesting. Part of that history is the decision of the 13 colonies to gather together and discuss and eventually sign a declaration of independence. In that document is one of the most famous sentences in U.S. History, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I believe this statement written by Thomas Jefferson to be true. These truths are self-evident. But the idea of what is true has changed in our culture. There’s a phrase that we hear sometime that is contradictory on its face. The idea of “my truth” or “your truth.” By very definition of the word truth there has to be one truth. There is also an idea that a lot of what has been believed for thousands of years or what is found in religious texts is not true, but what is true is what is felt and experienced within one’s self. So where is truth found and what it true? This question is important because what we believe to be true is what we will focus our life around. I believe that logic and world history shows us that truth is found in scripture. In fact, I propose to you tonight this idea: The truth of who Jesus is calls us to live according to him and not the ways of the world. We will see this in Paul’s focus on the true teaching of the gospel and in the work of Christ. As always, please stand with me as we honor the reading of God’s Word.

The True Teaching of Christ (6-10)

Exposition: Paul starts the passage by saying, Col 2:6 “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,”

Explanation: When Paul says that “as you have received Christ” he is not using it as we do when we say someone has received Christ. When we use that language today, we mean that somebody has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That is not what Paul was saying. The terminology Paul used refers to the transmission and reception of traditions and teachings. So when Paul says this he is basically saying, “as you have received the gospel.” Or another way to think about it is, “as you have been given the scriptures that tell of the coming messiah, the testimony telling who Jesus is, why he came and what he did and the teachings of Christ’s apostles and that you have accepted them as being true, walk in them.

Application: A modern day translation for us would be that since we have been given the story of the Bible that speaks of who Jesus is, we should walk in Christ. Remember, when we see scripture use this terminology of walking, it is referring to one’s way of life. So if we have heard and accepted the things of Christ, scripture, and accepted it as true, we should walk as if we believe what it says about Christ and the commands it gives us are true. Once again, Paul is saying we cannot say we believe in Jesus, but not God’s Word. We must take all of it.

Exposition: We see this by what Paul goes on to say in verse 7. Col 2:7 “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Paul is saying that our manner of life should be rooted, built up and established just as we have been taught. There are three illustrations Paul is using here to demonstrate his point. He is using the terminology of a tree rooted in the ground, a building with a strong foundation and a legal terminology.

Illustration: The first terminology Paul uses is that of a tree. When I was in 8th grade there were several tornadoes that tore through the Middle Georgia area early in the morning on mothers day. There was a family in my church that had a tree fall through their house. It wasn’t just any tree that fell. It was a huge Pine Tree. I remember going by there a few days after the storm and looking into the hole where the tree had stood before the storm. I was shocked by how deep the tree roots went into the ground. Paul is saying that if we accept the truth of Jesus, we should be rooted in Christ like a tree roots deep into the ground. We should be able to withstand life because we are rooted in the ground. The other terminology is that like a building. This right away makes me think of the illustration Jesus uses at the end of the sermon on the mount. Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-27 ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”” Remember when you look at a building, you do not see the foundation that is built upon which the building stands. For the building to stand it must have a strong foundation. Part of the reason the buildings in New York City can be built so tall is that there is bedrock throughout the land in the city. The foundations are built into that bedrock making them even more solid. If we have accepted the message of Jesus, he should be our foundation. The way we do this is by hearing his word and acting obediently upon it. Our manner of life should show somebody that has built the foundation of life upon Christ. Lastly, he says established. It means that something is confirmed. There should be confirmation in our manner of life that we are in Christ. Can people tell by the way you live that you are in Christ. Can they tell that you are walking with Him? If we have accepted Christ to be true, then the people we are around on a daily basis should be able to tell that we have accepted the message of Christ.

Exposition: He then says abounding in thanksgiving. If we believe the message of the gospel to be true, then we should naturally be in a place of thanksgiving. If we believe that Jesus died on a cross for our sins then we should be abounding in thanksgiving.

Application: Let me ask you, how often do you thank Jesus for what he did on the cross? How often do you express gratitude for what Jesus has done? It should be a natural part of our lives as believers.

Exposition: Paul goes on to say in verse 8 Col 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” There may not be any more applicable verse to people in your context of being young people in America right now than this verse. When Paul uses the terminology of being taken captive, he is communicating the seriousness of the situation. He tells them not to be taken captive. When speaks of philosophy he does not mean all philosophy. Remember, he was speaking in a time when philosophy was a huge deal. He is speaking to a certain factional teaching that is being taught at Colossae. He even refers to this philosophy as empty deceit and according to human tradition which is according to elemental spirits, meaning evil spirits in the world.

Application: This reason this is so applicable to your age group is because you are being bombarded with the very things that Paul is talking about every day. A great example right now is the transgender movement. For thousands of years, every society has known that if one is born with male anatomy, he is a male. If one is born with female anatomy, she is a female. Until recently, this isn’t something that has ever been debated. Now, our culture is being inundated with the message that you can identify as a separate gender than that which you were born and there is more than one. In fact, it’s so bad that you can be called a bigot for holding to the belief that you are the gender that is consistent with your biological sex and there is no changing that. We know that this is passed down from humans because the number of people that identify as transgender is skyrocketing and this is mostly in areas where it is accepted. You don’t see this happening outside of Europe or North America. In fact, Brown University published a study that found that peer pressure and online pressure was influential in one identifying as transgender and was pressured to take it down. And if you are someone who struggles with the idea of gender identity this is not to seem unsympathetic. I encourage you to seek help in regards to this. But this is not of Christ. It is empty deceit from human tradition. In fact, most studies show that those that undergo the gender transition process do not have feelings of depression relieved. But this is why we know that as Paul speaks of this is the elemental spirits at work. There are people, some people as young as you, who are taking hormones that are doing permanent damage to their bodies. There are people having healthy body parts cut off. This is a work of evil and we must not be taken captive by it. I could preach a whole sermon on this verse alone. But it’s in other areas. In Sexuality young people are encouraged to act on every urge. It is seen as evil or at best antiquated to believe that sex was designed for a man and a woman in the confines of marriage. And since the 1960s in America we have seen premarital sex and homosexual relationships skyrocket. There are even people that do not believe in monogamous relationships. And when you look at the state of relationships and families in our country does it seem like this is making the world better like it’s claimed it would? That’s because it’s not actually suppose to. It’s because these things are an act of the enemy that preys on our own insecurities and/or selfishness.

Exposition: Contrast these teachings that say that one’s inner desires or feelings are the source of all truth with who Christ is. Verse 9 says Col 2:9-10 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” While these teachings are empty, Christ is the fullness of God. Remember, even when he was first born, he never stopped being God. We see that in all the things he did while he was walking on earth. But we also saw that in the body we read about after his resurrection which was different, it was still the fullness of God in a human body. The message of the gospel is that God himself came to us. That because things were not right, God did not give us a new way of life or a new way to indulge a feeling. No, instead he gave us himself. In fact, he did not just come to us, he has now filled us with his Spirit. And God is over all these things. These spirits that we can see disrupt culture and so many things in the world are no match for the creator of the universe. So by our belief in him, we have power over these things. These struggles that run rampant in our culture do not have to dominate us. Anyone that struggles with gender identity does not have to be ruled by that. Anybody that feels same-sex attraction does not have to be ruled by that. Anyone that feels pressured to participate in any of the sexual immorality in our culture does not have to be ruled by that. Instead, we can conquer it through the authority of Christ. It does not mean it will always be easy, but God is capable of much more than we are.

Transition: We see Paul telling us to walk in Christ because of what we have received in Christ through the handing down to us of the gospel. But why is the gospel greater than what is passed down from humans. That is because of the work of God.

Exposition: Paul writes in verse 11 Col 2:11 “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,”

Explanation: I’m not sure if the topic of sexuality in our culture made you uncomfortable, but we are about to be uncomfortable again for a little while. Circumcision was a crucial part of being Jewish. If you don’t know what circumcision is, ask your parent or guardian when you they pick you up tonight. Whatever you do, do not google it. But circumcision was the identification of being Jewish. In fact, one of the big debates in the early church that we read about in the Book of Acts as well as in Paul’s letters, is whether non-Jewish men needed to be circumcised in order to be obedient Christians. Time and time again we read that it was not required. And we see why with what Paul is saying here. The circumcision these gentiles received was the circumcision of Christ. Not the circumcision that occurred on the 8th day of his birth. The process of circumcision involves flesh being cut and taken away from the body. So when Paul says they have been circumcised in Christ’s circumcision, he is referring to his death on the cross where Christ’s body was damaged and broken for our sake.

Exposition: This is echoed by what Paul says in verse 12 Col 2:12 “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Instead of circumcision, we have seen the process of our old sinful selves being buried with Christ and the new person being raised to walk Christ in his baptism.. This is what happens when we come to know Christ. The old person who was cursed by sin and headed for hell dies, and the new person who has a promise is raised to walk with Christ. This is why we are baptized. It is a public proclamation of an inner transformation.

Exposition: Paul goes on to explain how this plays out in the lives of those in the Colossian church. He writes in verses 13 and 14 how exactly this is possible. Paul writes, Col 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” First, Paul says that they were dead in their trespasses. Remember, the wages of sin is death. In the garden of eden, death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned. The reason we see death in the world is because sin has made the world other than how it was originally meant to be.

Application: And when we are not in Christ, we feel like we are not alive. We are all born with a God sized hole in our lives and the only one that can fill that hole is God. But so many times we try to fill it with other things. And those things never satisfy. They leave us without the hope that can only come from Christ.

Exposition: Paul not only says they were spiritually dead. He says they were dead in the uncircumcision of their flesh. Remember, Circumcision was how the Jewish people, God’s chosen people, identified as being Jewish. By very nature of not being a part of the people that participated in circumcision they were spiritually dead. Just like us, we are not Jewish. We should be separate from God. So how could there be any hope if this is our natural condition. In a paradoxical way, we are born dead and have to die to be made alive. There is hope because God has made us alive through the resurrection of Christ. How has God made us alive because he has forgiven our sins. We are all guilty of sin and all deserving of that spiritual death, but God has forgiven our trespasses. But how, how did God just make our sin problem go away?

Explanation: Paul uses a legal metaphor in verse 14. The record of debt was a written note that stated what one person owed another. Because of sin, we owed God with our blood. But Paul says God set this aside by nailing it to the cross. Jesus died on a cross so that the debt owed by our sin could be paid. God forgave our debt because God also paid it. I

Application: It is only through the death of Jesus that we have life. There’s a lot of other places we can look. We can look in our own deeds but they will come short. We can look at other religions, but they stress our deeds, proving they are false. We can look at popularity but it will fade. We can look at wealth, but it vanishes. No matter where we look, only Christ can bring us the life we are looking for.

Exposition: Paul ends this passage by referring once again to those spiritual forces that are present in the world. He says in verse 15, Col 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Explanation: The terminology Paul uses there invokes imagery of the Roman military. When the Romans won a decisive military victory, they would take the captive solders from the army they defeated and in a parade showing their triumph, march them through the streets of Rome. You can imagine how humiliating this was for those solders who had lost a war, who were now being taken away from their homeland, and then being marched through the streets of Rome. Paul is saying that this is the kind of victory Christ won over those forces in our world. He has given them a final defeat, and he has brought them shame. In John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The forces of the world want us to experience death. They want us to experience the physical and spiritual death. They want to take us further from God. But God has defeated them on the cross and by rising from the tomb. Instead of death being the final destination of this world, he has brought life to those that believe in him. The battle has already been won for those that place their faith in him.

Conclusion: As we close tonight, I want to ask you who you are going to believe. Are you going to believe the world and its ever changing standards? Are you going to believe subjective feelings that come and go? Or are you going to believe the gospel? Are you going to believe that which has stood the test of time for over 2,000 years? Chose to believe that which is real. Chose to believe that which you know is probably understand is true, but you sometimes fear the consequences of being in a culture that treats it as if it is not truth. The truth of Jesus demands a response, what will your response be?