By Bringing Light

Fullness In Christ Is More Than Enough

1.18.26 [Colossians 2:6-15] River of Life (2nd Sunday after Epiphany)

Last week, we celebrated the miraculous power of Baptism. We journeyed down to the Jordan River and found Jesus standing in line with sinners and being baptized alongside them. Naaman, the Syrian general who came to Elisha to be cleansed of his leprosy, dismissed these same waters because he thought they were inferior to the rivers back home. Yet, Jesus, who created every body of water on earth, chose to be washed in the Jordan. Not because it was special, but because it was ordinary. Through these ordinary waters, he united himself with sinners of all ages and stripes. Last week, we compared that moment with a wedding. In his Baptism, Jesus was publicly uniting himself with his bride, the Church. 

If last week was the wedding day, today, the honeymoon is over. Today, in our New Testament reading, Paul is confronting the phenomenon we might call the spiritual seven-year itch. 

He reminds the Christians at Colossae that they have already received Christ Jesus as Lord, meaning that they have learned Jn. 20:31 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit has worked faith in their hearts and minds to believe that he is their Savior, and so they have life in his name. They are believers. They know the truth. They have been baptized, connected with Christ by grace through faith. 

Yet, just as the wedding day is the starting blocks rather than the finish line, the same can be said of Baptism. Really, that is what Paul says: Col. 2:6 Continue to live your lives in Christ Jesus as your Lord. Then, he warns of a persistent threat.    

Col. 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. His language is forceful because the matter is serious. 

Paul does not say: see to it that you don’t get confused. He does not say: see to it that you don’t grow careless. Paul says: watch out! There are people out there who are trying to spiritually kidnap you.

Then he explains how. They will look to spiritually manipulate you Col. 2:8 through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions about worldly matters, rather than on Christ. 

Paul was sounding the alarm because he had heard rumblings of some of the false teachings that were bubbling up in Colossae. If you were to read on in this chapter, you’d see Paul’s character sketch of these spiritual kidnappers. 

Some Jewish spiritual leaders were telling the Colossians that they needed Christ and Moses. They needed to be baptized and circumcised. They needed to pick up their cross and follow Jesus and also count their steps on the Sabbath. They needed to wash each other's feet as Jesus did and also wash their hands when they returned from the pagan marketplace. They needed to partake of the Lord’s Supper and also be careful not to touch any food or drink that had ever been set aside for an idol. They needed to worship the One about whom the angels sang in Bethlehem and also worship the angels. 

Paul, by the divine power of the Holy Spirit, offers a devastating evaluation of all these “ands”. Col. 2:23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. 

They have an appearance of wisdom, but they are nothing but rank foolishness. They have an appearance of worshipping God in spirit and in truth, but they are self-imposed forms of worship that separate us from God’s means of grace. They have an appearance of humility, but they are arrogant and defiant. They have an appearance of self-discipline, but they are worthless, only inflaming worldly passions. They are hollow, deceptive ways of living. 

We face similar modern traps. We must recognize what these kidnappers are after. Your heart and mind. So they will press upon whatever troubles your heart and whatever occupies your mind. Maybe it’s your physical, mental, or financial health. Perhaps it's political. When you’re unwell, it’s hard to trust God still loves you. It’s easy to think you’ve got to dig yourself out of whatever mess you’re in. Jesus saved your soul, but the rest is up to you. 

So we begin to accept morally dubious means. We follow advice from people who deny we even have a soul. We expend all our energy chasing after relief and solutions and never once contemplate that maybe these physical chains serve to advance the Gospel. That maybe this mental cross keeps us close to Jesus. Maybe these financial challenges have brought you near people who know nothing about Christ Jesus as their Lord or Savior. Maybe what feels bad now is really eternally good. 

Sometimes, we get led astray by the siren call of hollow spirituality. 

This has happened for a significant chunk of people in our country. Many have been taken captive by the hollow and deceptive philosophy that public worship is for personal consumption rather than spiritual formation. This time is about God coming to me, in his truth and purity. This time is not about my likes or dislikes in music or preachers. God sets the agenda. He doesn’t follow mine. The sermon is not a TED talk where I am entertained and inspired to do what I can to develop a better version of me. The sermon is when God exposes the uncomfortable truth that I’m worse off than I would ever have imagined and nothing less than God’s Son dying in my place could heal me. The mission of the church is not to make me feel welcome and accepted, but to lead me to repentance Acts 3:19 so that my sins might be wiped out and I might enjoy times of refreshing from the Lord. Human eyes and minds cannot measure the growth that God is most interested in. 

Another hollow spirituality is the one that sets aside the clear Word of God for the fuzzy concept of the heart of Jesus. Immorality is always excusable and rebuking sin and sinners is always despicable. The worst sin a person can commit is being judgmental. They appear to be kind and compassionate, but they tell those whom God says will not inherit his kingdom that they ought to live their truth. They forget that when Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them he also publicly acknowledged that they were the sick who needed a doctor. They have the appearance of humility but are puffed up—sinful pride in drag.

Each of us is susceptible to hollow and deceptive philosophies. We all want to be saved, but we also want to be smart, successful, comfortable, respected, in control, and in the know. So what do we do when we experience the “and” spiritual seven-year itch? 

Paul tells us: Col. 2:6-7 continue to live your life in Christ Jesus as Lord. Continue to be rooted in him. Continue to be built up in him. Continue to be strengthened by him. Continue to overflow with gratitude. What does Paul mean by these mixed metaphors? Trees aren’t built. Buildings don’t have roots. But Jesus used both illustrations. Jesus is Mt. 21:42 the Cornerstone, 1 Pt. 2:4 the Living Stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him. 

Why was Jesus rejected by humans? Because he drew near to sinners and forgave sins. The hollow and deceptive spiritual leaders of Israel were irate whenever Jesus ate with sinners. They seethed whenever they heard Jesus say: Your sins are forgiven. Mk. 2:10 They refused to believe that he had the authority to forgive sins. 

But Jesus had that authority to forgive sins for the same reason he had Jn. 10:18 the authority to lay down his life and take it up again. He is God. Col. 2:9 The fullness of the Deity in bodily form. Christ came that he might give his life as a ransom for many. Christ came that he might take away the debts of our sins, Col. 2:14 by nailing it to the cross. Christ came that we might receive the full forgiveness of sins. Christ came that he might triumph over the wicked powers of sin, death, and the devil. Christ came that Col. 2:13 he might make us alive in him. 

That is the One in whom we are rooted. In John 15, Jesus tells us: I am the Vine. You are the branches. Jn. 15:4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Apart from me you can do nothing. This is why we must watch out for hollow and deceptive worldviews that do not depend on Christ. But Jesus adds to this picture a powerful promise. Jn. 15:5,16 Remain in me, and you will bear much fruit—fruit that will last. 

As we remain in his Word, Christ strengthens us in the faith we were taught. In this world, many people are struggling with the idea of enough. They think they need one more thing: one more practice, one more accomplishment, one more round of applause to have enough. Or they are desperate to have someone tell them on their own, they are already enough. Good enough. Smart enough. Strong enough. None of us are enough. And nothing we do can make us enough. 

Jesus is enough. He assures us of his supremacy over all earthly powers and authorities. He assures that his Word is eternal truth—living and active. He assures us of his presence and his faithfulness. He is always with us, now and to the very end of the age. He assures us that he has brought us everything we need and brought us to fullness, too. He is our Lord and our Savior. Amen.