Walk by Faith
Intro:
Several years ago my wife and I, along with our friends Peter and Anita Deyneka, visited the ancient city of Krakow, Poland. Krakow’s magnificent square is bordered on one side by the massive spires of St. Mary’s Church. From the great steeple of St. Mary’s, a bugle has been sounded every day for the last 700 years. The last note on the bugle is always muted and broken, as if some disaster had befallen the bugler. This 700-year commemoration is in memory of a heroic trumpeter who one night summoned the people to defend their city against the hordes of the invading Tartars. As he was sounding the last blast on his trumpet, an arrow from one of the Tartars struck and killed him. So there is always the muffled note at the end. The Krakovians have never forgotten this heroic warning.
“Walk” (KJV, NASB) or “live” (NIV) was a regular term for behaving according to God’s laws (see comment on Gal 5:16), and “receive” was often used for Jewish teachers of the law passing traditions on to their students. Paul thus exhorts the Colossians to continue in what (and whom) they were taught, not according to mere human traditions (2:8).
Christians are not subject to any forms of legalism, nor does legalism do them any good spiritually. Jesus Christ alone is sufficient for our every spiritual need, for all of God’s fullness is in Him. The believers’ covenant relation (2:11), their life (2:12–13), their freedom (2:14), and their victory (2:15) are all in Him.
2:6 walk in Him.“Walk” is the familiar NT term denoting the believer’s daily conduct (1:10; 4:5; Rom. 6:4; 8:1, 4; 13:13; 1 Cor. 7:17; 2 Cor. 5:7; 10:3; 12:18; Gal. 5:16, 25; 6:16; Eph. 2:10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15; Phil. 3:16–18; 1 Thess. 2:12; 4:1, 12; 2 Thess. 3:11; 1 John 1:6, 7; 2:6; 2 John 6; 3 John 3, 4). To walk in Christ is to live a life patterned after His.
The Christian life continues as it commenced: just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him. Paul gave the same kind of exhortation to others (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 1:6). Since their faith initially laid hold decisively on the apostolic gospel, Paul exhorted them not to forsake its divine authority for any human sophistry. For with these divine roots (rooted … in Him) that began in the past they can be continually built up (edified) and strengthened in the faith. If they did so they would not be blown to and fro with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). As believers are “built up” in Christ, they become more grateful and are overflowing with thankfulness (cf. Col. 1:12).
The pilgrim (v. 6). The Christian life is compared to a pilgrimage, and believers must learn to walk. Paul had already encouraged his readers to “walk worthy of the Lord” (Col. 1:10), and later he used this image again (Col. 3:7; 4:5). In the Ephesian epistle, the companion letter to the Colossian epistle, Paul used the image at least seven times (Eph. 2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15).
We are to walk in Christ the same way we originally received Christ—by faith. The gnostic teachers wanted to introduce some “new truths” for Christian maturity, but Paul denounced them. “You started with Christ and you must continue with Christ,” Paul wrote. “You started with faith and you must continue with faith. This is the only way to make spiritual progress.”
What a wonderful position and provision we have in Christ! Are we living up to it by faith?
All this points to the probability that by ‘receiving Christ Jesus as Lord’ Paul here refers to the Colossian Christians’ acceptance of the proclamation of Jesus the Lord, to their consequent confession of faith, and to their new status as members of Christ’s body (see 2:19). All of these became theirs when (greatly daring in their pagan context) they took their stand of faith and submitted to Christian initiation.
The new sort of behaviour has become a possibility for those who, having received Christ Jesus as Lord, are rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. How many of these metaphors were still ‘live’ for Paul it is hard to say. Even he must have had difficulty imagining Christians ‘walking’ in Christ by being well rooted like a tree, solidly built like a house, confirmed and settled like a legal document, and overflowing like a jug full of wine. Each of the images, nevertheless, has its own point to make. It is particularly worth noting that, whereas ‘rooted’ is an aorist, indicating a once-for-all planting of the Christian ‘in’ Christ, ‘built up’ is in the present, suggesting continual growth—an important theme in this letter to a very young church.
Paul attests that what believers have been taught (see 1:7) has effectively “rooted” them in the faith. The image in this word recalls Jeremiah’s blessing on the one who trusts in the Lord and whose confidence is in him (Jer. 17:8):
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
The next characteristic mixes metaphors, moving from a plant being rooted to a building being constructed in him. The root as a plant’s foundation perhaps inspired the merging of the two images (see 1 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 3:17). “Being built” implies that believers are still under construction and not yet a finished product.
The Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, etc., say, like the Gnostics, that they believe in Christ—but what kind of Christ? Certainly not the Christ of the Scriptures. This is also true of virulent forms of legalism and some of the extreme forms of the “prosperity gospel” which eat away at the fringes of evangelicalism. The safeguard against this is a perpetual bowing before Christ Jesus, the Lord, in line with our initial awareness that we are Christ’s and our sins are forgiven.
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17–19)
The familiar term walk refers to daily conduct. In this context it means primarily to continue believing the truth about Christ, not allowing their Christology to waver.
In broader terms, however, walking in Christ means living in union with Him. It means to maintain a lifestyle patterned after His. “The one who says he abides in Him,” the apostle John writes, “ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
The last of the four participles in verse 7, perisseuontes (overflowing), is the only one in the active voice. It is a response to the other three. Believers who are firmly rooted in Christ, being built up in Him, and established in their faith, will overflow with gratitude to God. “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:15). A grateful heart for all God has given us in Christ will further strengthen our grip on the truth.
The terms used to define this movement are all closely connected. In Greek, one article connects the terms “hollow and deceptive philosophy” or more literally “the philosophy and empty deceit.” Both the article and the connection between the terms are important. The article points to a specific philosophy, rather than philosophy in general. Although Paul probably had little to say about the positive aspects of philosophy, no evidence in this verse indicates that he opposed the discipline.
A classic example is Gordon Hall, the Nautilus sports equipment tycoon, of whom The Arizona Republic reports:
He is worth more than $100 million, he says, because it was his goal to be worth more than $100 million before the age of 33. (Others say it is closer to $60 million.) There are other goals. By the time he is 38, he will be a billionaire. By the time his earthly body expires—and he is convinced he can live to be 120 years old—he will assume what he believes to be his just heavenly reward: Gordon Hall will be a god. “We have always existed as intelligences, as spirits,” he says. “We are down here to gain a body. As man is now God once was. And as God is now, man can become. If you believe it, then your genetic makeup is to be a god. And I believe it. That is why I believe I can do anything. My genetic makeup is to be a god. My God in heaven creates worlds and universes. I believe I can do anything, too.”
The phrase, “take you captive” means to carry off, as prisoners were led away by victorious armies. Cultic teaching asserts a death-like grip on its followers, and few come out of it. Paul is saying, stay away from false teaching if you value your life. “See to it that no one takes you captive.” How is it possible for one not to be sucked in by a philosophy which is subtly deceitful in its language, logically compelling within its system of reason, and enticingly moral? The only answer is the fullness of Christ.
In 2:1–7, Paul exhorts the Colossians to maintain their allegiance to both the deity and complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He reminds them that, in contrast to the claims of the false teachers, in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). That statement is a profound summation of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus. That positive teaching is counterbalanced with a negative treatment in 2:8–23, where Paul tells them what to avoid. In so doing, he fully refutes the claims of the Colossian errorists. Against their claim to a secret, superior knowledge, he has already pointed out that there is no hidden knowledge apart from Christ (2:3). Against their teaching that a series of lesser beings emanated from God, Paul emphasizes that “all the fullness of Deity dwells” in Christ (2:9). They worshiped those emanations, which Paul describes in 2:15 as demonic beings, whom Christ has already conquered. He speaks against the falsity of ceremonial, ritualistic legalism and mysticism in 2:16–19. Finally, in 2:20–23 Paul rejects their asceticism, since it is “of no value against fleshly indulgence” (2:23).
Paul is concerned that those who have been transferred from Satan’s domain to Christ’s kingdom not become enslaved again. He voiced a similar concern in Galatians 5:1: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
the present tense imperative form of blepō (see to it) indicates. The church constantly faces the danger of false teachers. Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In Matthew 16:6 he warns, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The apostles also warned the church against false teachers. Paul cautioned the Ephesian elders that “after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert” (Acts 20:29–31). To the Philippians he wrote, “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision” (Phil. 3:2). Peter also warns of the danger of false teachers. He writes in 2 Peter 3:17, “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness.”
Takes you captive is from sulagōgeō, a rare word used only here in the New Testament and not at all found in extrabiblical Greek until long after Paul’s time. Sulagōgeō is a compound word, made up of sulē, “booty,” and agō, “to carry off.” It literally means “to kidnap,” or “to carry off as booty, or spoil of war.”
Paul describes the means the false teachers would use to kidnap the Colossians as philosophy and empty deception. Philosophia (philosophy) appears only here in the New Testament. As already noted, it means “to love wisdom.” It is used here in a much broader sense than the academic discipline, since “philosophy is not reducible to the Judeo-Gnostic speculations about which Paul warned the Colossian Christians”
To maintain, as the Colossian errorists did, that those who were made complete in Christ still lacked anything is absurd. Those who are “partakers of the divine nature” have, through “His divine power,” been “granted … everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). All true believers are complete in Christ and do not need the teachings of any cult or false teacher.
2:6–7. These two verses conclude the argument begun in 1:15. Paul’s point may be summarized thus: Divine exaltation belongs to Christ (1:15–20); in Him are found (a) reconciliation to God (1:21–23), (b) the revelation of the mystery of Christ (1:24–27), (c) believers’ perfection (1:28–29), and (d) education (wisdom) (2:1–5). Therefore believers should continue to live in Him (vv. 6–7).
Whatever precise sense Paul means by “fullness,” he clearly means that access to all that God is and does is available only through Christ, a function ancient Judaism often attributed to divine Wisdom.
Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but if one loves wisdom that is not Christ (the Sum of all wisdom, Col. 2:3), he loves an empty idol. Such a one will be “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). This kind of philosophy is based on the world’s basic principles (stoicheia, “elementary principles” or “elemental spirits” [RSV]; cf. Col. 2:20; Gal. 4:3, 9). This may refer to the evil spirits who inspire such heresy and over whom Christ triumphed (cf. 2 Cor. 4:3–4; Eph. 6:11–12). Such a philosophy is demonic and worldly, not godly or Christlike. Unless believers are careful, such philosophy may ensnare them, taking them “captive.”
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives. Hence only in Christ can one have fullness. Apart from Him is emptiness. As philosopher Jean Paul Sartre put it, “Life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness” (cf. Ecc. 1:14–18)
2:10. Not only is all the “fullness” (plērōma) of God in Christ (v. 9), but also believers have been given fullness in Christ. Their fullness of life comes from Christ’s fullness. They partake of the divine nature through Christ (2 Peter 1:4), for “from the fullness of his grace we have all received” (John 1:16). This, of course, does not mean believers become God but simply share in Him. They have or share in the goodness of the nature which He is. They share in the body of Him who is the Head (cf. Col. 1:18) over every power (archēs, “ruler”) and authority (exousias, “ruling power”) (cf. 1:16; 2:15), including those who would talk the Colossians into living according to the world instead of according to Christ.
The words putting off are from the noun apekdysei (“total breaking away from”), which occurs only here in the New Testament. This putting off of the old life occurs at the moment of salvation, when a believer is buried with Christ in baptism by the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13) and is raised with Him to new life. This co-burial and co-resurrection is pictured in baptism. In water baptism, immersion portrays burial with Christ, and coming out of the water depicts the resurrection by the power of God to “live a new life” (Rom. 6:4).
But now God made you alive with Christ (cf. Eph. 2:1–6). The same “power” (energeias; cf. “energy” in Col. 1:29) that raised Christ from the dead (2:12) resurrects believing sinners to spiritual life (v. 13).
The need for progress (v. 4). Satan is deceptive. He wants to lead believers astray, and to do this, he uses deceptive words. The Greek term used here describes the persuasive arguments of a lawyer. Satan is a liar (John 8:44) and by his lies he leads believers into the wrong path. It is important that we exercise spiritual discernment, and that we continue to grow in our knowledge of spiritual truth.
The army (v. 5). The words order and steadfastness are military terms. They describe an army that is solidly united against the enemy. Order describes the arrangement of the army in ranks, with each soldier in his proper place. Not everybody can be a five-star general, but the general could never fight the battle alone. Steadfastness pictures the soldiers in battle formation, presenting a solid front to the enemy. Christians ought to make progress in discipline and obedience, just as soldiers on the battlefield.
The false teachers did not go out and win the lost, no more than the cultists do today. They “kidnapped” converts from churches! Most of the people I have talked with who are members of antichristian cults were at one time associated with a Christian church of one denomination or another.
How is it possible for false teachers to capture people? The answer is simple: These “captives” are ignorant of the truths of the Word of God. They become fascinated by the philosophy and empty delusion of the false teachers. (This is not to say that all philosophy is wrong, because there is a Christian philosophy of life. The word simply means “to love wisdom.”) When a person does not know the doctrines of the Christian faith, he can easily be captured by false religions.
Paul first warns against being taken captive through a false philosophy. “See to it” alerts the readers to the danger. NEB has “Be on your guard.” The singular “no one” leads some interpreters to conclude that Paul had in mind a particular person, perhaps the leader, among the heretical teachers. The words translated “that no one takes you captive” (mē tis hymas estai sylagōgōn) use an indicative verb and point to a real, not merely a supposable, danger. The word translated “takes captive” (sylagōgōn), which was regularly used of taking captives in war and leading them away as booty, depicts the false teachers as “men-stealers” wishing to entrap the Colossians and drag them away into spiritual enslavement.
This statement crowns Paul’s argument. Because Christ is fully God and really man, believers, in union with him, “are made full” (ASV), that is, share in his fullness. “In Christ” (lit., “in him”), a phrase denoting vital union with the Savior, is by its position in Greek emphatic.
“ ‘Ye are made full,’ ” writes Calvin, “does not mean that the perfection of Christ is transfused into us, but that there are in him resources from which we may be filled, that nothing be wanting in us” (p. 183). Thus, in union with Christ our every spiritual need is fully met. Possessing him, we possess all. There was no need, therefore, for the Colossians to turn to the “philosophy” of the errorists, the ritual of the Mosaic law, or to the spirit-beings worshiped by the pagan world. All they needed was in Jesus Christ. As Charles Wesley put it, “Thou, O Christ, art all I want, / More than all in Thee I find.”
The verb here translated ‘take captive’ (sylagōgein) is a very rare one. I suggest that Paul uses it because it makes a contemptuous pun with the word synagogue: see to it that no-one snatches you as a prey (see RSV) from the flock of Christ, to lock you up instead within Judaism. The means by which young Christians might be snatched away is characterized as through
But this ‘love of wisdom’, like the facade of a grand house which remains standing when the insides have been demolished, promises much and gives nothing.
We may begin by looking at (a) and (b) together. There are basically three options for understanding cheirographon (a word that occurs only rarely in literature of this time). (i) The first is taken by NIV, which, translating it as ‘the written code’, and linking it to ‘with its regulations’ (tois dogmasin) (cf. 2:20), sees it as referring to the Mosaic law. This can claim a parallel in Ephesians 2:15, the only other Pauline use of the root dogma. (ii) The more traditional interpretation was to understand cheirographon as a bond of debt, an IOU, signed by the debtor, referring in this case metaphorically to the debt of sin. This can be coupled with a view of ‘its regulations’ which takes it with one of the two phrases indicating that this bond was ‘against us’ (‘against us’ because of its regulations: there is no word for ‘with’ in the Greek, and the dative case here employed could be interpreted like this). There are grammatical difficulties with this, though, as indeed there appear to be in doing almost anything with the phrase except, like Chrysostom and one fourteenth-century manuscript, omitting it altogether. (iii) A recent interpretation draws on the use of cheirographon in a first-century Jewish apocalyptic work to refer to a book, kept by an angel, in which all one’s evil deeds were recorded, and couples this with the suggestion that Paul sees Christ himself as taking on the identity of this bond, nailed to the cross, in representing his sinful people.
Paul’s also uses graphic and colorful imagery in this section to convey the truth of what Christ’s death and resurrection meant. He speaks of kidnapping, of Christ’s death as a circumcision, of a stripping off of the flesh, of baptism as burial, of canceling an IOU, of nailing charges to a cross, and of leading defeated captives in a triumphal parade. This imagery, which was so fresh and compelling in a first-century context, may frustrate the modern interpreter since the passage of time has blurred its transparency. But the compelling power of such imagery in its original context provides a model for us when we communicate this truth today. We should always be attuned to metaphors that will both grip our contemporaries and convey faithfully what Christ’s death and resurrection means so that the gospel message speaks afresh in every generation and culture.
He rather picked up the generic use of the term to state that, just as Jesus was fully God, believers are fully complete in him. Nothing lacks in salvation. The understanding of salvation may grow, and the appropriation of the blessings of salvation may increase; but in Christ, they had all there was, the “fullness” of salvation.
Legalism is any philosophy or movement that assumes God’s blessing comes from keeping the law, whether Jewish Law or human law. It assumes a contractual relationship whereby in one’s thoughts God can be bought by human effort. Legalism is an ever-present danger for Christians. Both Christians and non-Christians confuse it with real religion. Some of Paul’s most instructive teaching against Christian legalism occurs here. Yet, it should be noted the term law (nomos) does not occur in this book.
Having stated the truth that Christians are complete in Christ in 2:10, Paul gives three aspects of that completeness in 2:11–15. In Christ we have complete salvation, complete forgiveness, and complete victory.
Paul taught that there is a strong spiritual connection between Christ and believers. What Jesus did in providing redemption, believers did with him in God’s mind. They are in Christ, and he is in them. This relationship brings many spiritual benefits. Paul emphasized the importance of this relationship by employing the “in him” phrase or a similar expression frequently in vv. 9–15.
These may be the prepositional phrases “in him” and “with him” or the verb compounds with some preposition.
Death. Normally, circumcision does not refer to death, but rather to the common rite of circumcising males on the eighth day by cutting away a small portion of flesh. But here it provides a gruesome metaphor for the Crucifixion. His circumcision on the Cross involved not the stripping away of a small piece of flesh, but the violent removal of his entire body in death. The Colossians, now “in him” as believers, spiritually shared in this circumcision, this death. Their “sinful nature” was cut away; they died to their former way of life.
Burial. Paul’s emphasis here was that the Colossians really did spiritually participate in Christ’s death. He reinforced his point by alluding to their baptism—i.e., their burial with Christ: “having been buried with him in baptism” (v.12a). Peter O’Brien says:
As the burial of Christ (l Corinthians 15:4) set the seal upon his death, so the Colossians’ burial with him in baptism shows that they were truly involved in his death and laid in his grave. It is not as though they simply died like Jesus died, or were buried as he was laid in the tomb.… The burial proves that a real death has occurred and the old life is now a thing of the past.
The practical implications are immense. When Christ’s body was circumcised from him in his death on the Cross, we were circumcised, we died. Paul said in Galatians 2:20 that he was “crucified with Christ.” Since we died with him, we do not have to serve sin. Romans 6:6, 7 gives the rationale:
… our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8–11, emphasis mine)
The word “count” means “to set to our account, to compute.” We are to reflect on our position in Christ and then to set two things to our account: we are “dead to sin,” and we are “alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The Colossians possessed a fullness which was created and maintained by the fact that they actually participated in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The practical application for us is this: we are to daily reckon to our account that we died with Christ, that we were buried with him, and that we were resurrected with him. This ought to come into our minds again and again, so that it dominates our being.
On “rulers and authorities” (NASB, NRSV) see comment on 1:16 and 2:10. In 2:8 Paul used a word that could mean “take as a prisoner of war”; here the cosmic powers themselves are shown off as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession, an image familiar to Romans and presumably known to others throughout the Empire (see comment on 2 Cor 2:14). In Roman triumphs, the general dressed as the chief god Jupiter and led behind him humiliated captives, stripped of their possessions; prominent captives were the most impressive. Here Christ displays his triumph over the most prominent captives possible.
circumcision … baptism. Paul uses these vivid metaphors from Jewish initiation rites to underscore what Christ’s death and resurrection achieved for believers. Christian conversion requires more than spiritual cosmetic surgery. flesh. Human nature that sin has corrupted and enslaved; a power sphere opposed to the Spirit (Gal 5:17). circumcised by Christ. Pictures a major spiritual “operation” in which Christ cuts off “the body ruled by sin” (Rom 6:6) and our solidarity with the old Adam (Rom 5:12–14; 1 Cor 15:22). Christ cuts off believers’ sinful compulsions when they submit to him.
baptism. More than simply a rite marking the believer’s entry into the church, it is the watery grave for the flesh that is dead in its trespasses (Rom 6:4) and the birthplace of the new creation in Christ. It symbolically reenacts Christ’s death and resurrection and represents the whole experience of conversion. It marks the Christian’s death to sin, total surrender to God, and solidarity with Christ by being buried and raised with him. faith in the working of God. Trust that God indeed raised Christ from the dead and inaugurated the new age that dismantles the reign of sin and death.
disarmed. In the crucifixion God paradoxically did to the powers what they did to Christ when they dragged him through Jerusalem, stripped him naked, treated him with contempt, and nailed the charges against him on the cross. God stripped the “powers and authorities” of their power and exposed their weakness. Christ’s victory on the cross brings freedom from the tyranny of these alien forces. triumphing over them by the cross. Roman generals celebrated their victories by marching through the streets of Rome exhibiting the spoils of war and parading their captives. Paul’s metaphor of the victory parade (2 Cor 2:14; Eph 4:8) imagines the cross as the chariot in which Christ rode as a triumphant general. Paul may envision Christ’s vanquished foes trailing behind him in humiliating defeat.
A “shadow” (skia) is only an image cast by an object which represents its form. Once one finds Christ, he no longer needs to follow the old shadow.
Circumcised in Him (v. 11). Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with the Jewish people (Gen. 17:9–14). Though it was a physical operation, it had a spiritual significance. The trouble was that the Jewish people depended on the physical and not the spiritual. A mere physical operation could never convey spiritual grace (Rom. 2:25–29). Often in the Old Testament, God warned His people to turn from their sins and experience a spiritual circumcision of the heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 6:10; Ezek. 44:7). People make the same mistake today when they depend on some religious ritual to save them—such as baptism or the Lord’s Supper.
It is not necessary for the believer to submit to circumcision, because he has already experienced a spiritual circumcision through his identification with Jesus Christ. But there is a contrast here between Jewish circumcision and the believer’s spiritual circumcision in Christ:
Jews
Believers
external surgery
internal—the heart
only part of the body
the whole “body of sins”
done by hands
done without hands
no spiritual help in conquering sin
enables them to overcome sin
In union with Christ, believers have true circumcision, that is, they have found in him the reality symbolized by Mosaic circumcision. The Christian’s “circumcision” is defined as “the putting off” of one’s “sinful nature” (lit., “the body of the flesh”). The Greek word for “putting off” (apekdusei), a double compound, denotes both stripping off and casting away. The imagery is that of discarding—or being divested of—a piece of filthy clothing. “The body of the flesh” has been variously explained, but of the many explanations proposed only two seem worthy of consideration. One understands “body” to be a reference to the physical body, “flesh” to be a descriptive genitive marking the body as conditioned by our fallen nature. Compare TEV: “freed from the power of this sinful body.” The other takes “body” to denote something like “mass” or sum total, “flesh” to denote evil nature. Calvin, a proponent of this view, interprets the phrase to mean “accumulation of corruptions” (p. 184).
When God looked at his creation, made in and for Christ (1:15–17), he knew it to be very good. As it stood it did not need ‘reconciling’. The intervention of sin produced a triple estrangement—between God and humanity, humanity and the world (including estrangements between individuals and races), and (consequently) God and the world (see Rom. 8:19ff.). God’s response to this situation was one of sovereign love. Wanting the very best for his world, he determined to rid it entirely of the evil which has corrupted it at its very heart. The cross is therefore, at the same time, both the affirmation of God’s hatred of sin and its foul consequences (especially the defacing of his image in his human creatures) and the affirmation of his steadfast determination to save humanity and the world. The ambiguity between the ‘defeat’ of 2:15 and the ‘reconciliation’ of 1:19 is therefore analogous to the similar double truth of God’s attitude towards sinful human beings. As sinners, they need to die to sin; as human beings made in God’s image, they need to have their true humanity reaffirmed and recreated in the resurrection. This is what Paul will work out in 2:20–3:4.
34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
From Paul’s radical perspective, circumcision in the flesh had become little more than a tribal brand. In Romans 2:25–29, he argues that circumcision, the ground of Jewish confidence, is a meaningless sign unless it signifies a cleansed heart; and he goes on to argue that the cleansed heart can only come from Christ. True circumcision (Phil. 3:2) has nothing to do with the slicing off a piece of flesh from the body; it is something related to Christ and wrought by God’s Spirit.
The NIV translation of 2:11, “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,” is misleading. (1) By translating the Greek phrase “the stripping off the body of flesh” as “the putting off of the sinful nature,” the NIV interprets the “body of flesh” as something immoral, “sinful nature.”33 The term flesh (sarx) does not always have a sinful implication in Paul’s usage.
His sacrificial death supersedes all temple sacrifices by canceling forever the charges that placed us on death row. Davis writes:
The cross is the point chosen in time where all the evil in time and space, all the defiance against God can be concentrated into one visible decisive action against him. The cross is the wisdom of God to choose this point to make this attempt manifest and to defeat it. The cross is the power of God to absorb the ignorant blind rage of humanity into himself and avert its deadly consequences.
Braaten quotes Bishop Bergrav of Norway who said, “In baptism we take the old man and put him under. But the old man can sure swim.” Yet the death sentence for the “old man” has been pronounced, and the seeds for our transformation have taken root. Jones reminds us that
baptism provides the initiation into God’s story of forgiving and reconciling love, definitively embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In response, people are called to embody the forgiveness by unlearning patterns of sin and struggling for reconciliation wherever there is brokenness.
Christian faith has two dimensions. First, it is an identification with Christ, specifically with his death. This occurs at the time of conversion, of baptism into Christ. Second, it is an expectation of resurrection to new life because of the power of God based on the resurrection of Jesus. In this text Paul stressed two aspects of our spiritual experience which correspond to the two basic truths of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1ff.). Believers participate in the death and burial of Christ in a personal spiritual way.
Two metaphors express the heart of what Christ did for believers: the handwriting of ordinances being removed (“the written code”) and nailing the accusations to the cross (“nailing it to the cross”). The first is the more complicated to interpret. Literally, the handwriting is a certificate of indebtedness written in one’s own hand. Taken this way, this means that there is a pronouncement that the personal note which testifies against us is canceled. Twice the word occurs in Tobit (5:3; 9:3–5, LXX) in a request for payment of a loan. The word and the idea it expresses must be interpreted in connection with its modifier, “in regulations.”
Fourth, it has been understood as a certificate of debt from humans to God—an I.O.U. Many point to Phlm 19 as an example of the kind of situation envisioned.
The second metaphor is “nailing it to his cross.” Interpreters differ as to the exact meaning Paul had in mind. Most likely it referred to the indictment hung over the prisoner’s head when he was crucified. By such action, the criminal’s debt to society was canceled since he paid for the crime. The New Testament evidences this use in Matt 27:37 and John 19:19, where the Jews placed the charge against Jesus above his head. Perhaps Paul used this terminology because the gospel story contained it and he found it a useful way to describe the spiritual aspects of the vicarious suffering of Jesus. This interpretation most effectively captures the spirit of the context, but some see the metaphor as an act of triumph. They say that the symbolism refers to an act of defiance or triumph. Some support may be garnered from the fact that this approach anticipates v. 15.
Similarly, the verb most likely means “he stripped them” rather than “he divested himself.” Another question related to the meaning of the verb is whether it should be applied to the military setting, thus meaning “disarming,” or to the political realm, meaning “disgracing.” The NIV prefers the military, but the political fits better in light of the discussion of lordship.204 The text means that God disgraced the powers.
In Hebrews 8:12 the Lord says, “I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Sixth, God’s forgiveness is motivating. Ephesians 4:32 commands us to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” God has forgiven us the huge, unpayable debt we owed Him. How can we do any less than forgive others the trivial debts they owe us (cf. Matt. 18:23–35)? That verse is further confirmation of God’s complete forgiveness. How could He command us to forgive others if He has not forgiven us?
Paul then illustrates God’s forgiveness. When God forgave us, He canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Certificate of debt translates cheirographos, which literally means “something written with the hand,” or “an autograph.” It was used to refer to a certificate of indebtedness handwritten by the debtor in acknowledgment of his debt. Paul describes that certificate as consisting of decrees against us. Dogmasin (decrees) refers to the Mosaic law (cf. Eph. 2:15). All peoples (including Gentiles, cf. Rom. 2:14–15) owe God a debt because they have violated His law. The certificate was hostile to us, that is, it was enough to condemn us to judgment and hell, because “cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them” (Gal. 3:10). Exaleiphō (canceled out) means “to wipe off,” like erasing a blackboard.
Exaleiphō (canceled out) means “to wipe off,” like erasing a blackboard. Ancient documents were commonly written either on papyrus, a paper-like material made from the bulrush plant, or vellum, which was made from an animal’s hide. The ink used then had no acid in it and did not soak into the writing material. Since the ink remained on the surface, it could be wiped off if the scribe wanted to reuse the material. Paul says here that God has wiped off our certificate of debt, having nailed it to the cross. Not a trace of it remains to be held against us. Our forgiveness is complete.
Having disarmed Satan (literally “stripping him”) and the rulers and authorities (fallen angels), He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. The imagery here is like that of a triumphant Roman general, parading his defeated captives through the streets of Rome. Christ’s victory on the cross halted the demons in their attempts to stop His redemptive work and stripped Satan of his powers. Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Christ is sufficient (2:6–15); ascetic additions to the gospel would only detract from faith in it.
The spiritual life has its dangers and its warnings. Paul warned the church against those who would make the Christian life just a set of rules. The basis for resisting legalism (2:16–23) involves focusing on the believer’s relationship with Christ (3:1–4). Believers no longer are captive to religious tradition or human bondage. Instead, they are captive to Christ. In view of this privileged identification with Christ (3:1), the church must realize its great responsibility: “Set your minds on things above” (3:2).
The life in Christ is a profound reality (see Gal 2:20). It is a life that draws its existence from the very center of all reality, Jesus Christ Himself. The admonitions that follow are controlled by the thought of the full life that belongs to all who are in Christ (see Rom 6:4–5).
Some heretics who turn believers away from faithful service have a false humility, which is only “a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5) that is in Christ (Rom. 8:3–4). This artificial godliness of legalists was connected with the worship of angels which Scripture forbids (Ex. 20:3–4; cf. Rev. 22:8–9). In fact, legalism is a teaching inspired by fallen angels (1 Tim. 4:1) who as “elemental spirits” (Gal. 4:3, RSV) would bring men into slavery by their mystical meditations. These legalistic mystics dwell on what they have seen (in visions), which Paul called idle notions (eikē, “vain, to no avail”; cf. Gal. 3:4). This phrase may have occasioned the variant (but less preferable) translation “which he hath not seen” (KJV). Far from being humble, such a person’s unspiritual mind (lit., “the mind of the flesh”; cf., lit., “the body of the flesh,” v. 19) is puffed with pride in his visions.
Without a vital connection to its Head, the body of Christ cannot grow. Using a parallel image, Jesus said, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
2:20–21. A concomitant of legalism and mysticism is asceticism. It is the pseudo-spiritual position that revels in rules of physical self-denial. Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch! These prohibitions increase from not handling to not even touching. This same legalism was manifest in Eve’s carnal exaggeration, “You must not touch it, or you will die” (Gen. 3:3; cf. Gen. 2:16–17). Asceticism arises out of guilt. But Christ has taken away all human guilt by His death (Col. 2:13–14).
Jesus had three great victories on the cross. First, He “disarmed the powers and authorities” (Col. 2:15, NIV), stripping Satan and his army of whatever weapons they held. Satan cannot harm the believer who will not harm himself. It is when we cease to watch and pray (as did Peter) that Satan can use his weapons against us.
Second, Jesus “made a public spectacle” (Col. 2:15, NIV) of the enemy, exposing Satan’s deceit and vileness. In His death, resurrection, and ascension, Christ vindicated God and vanquished the devil.
His third victory is found in the word triumph. Whenever a Roman general won a great victory on foreign soil, took many captives and much loot, and gained new territory for Rome, he was honored by an official parade known as “the Roman triumph.” Paul alluded to this practice in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (see 2 Cor. 2:14). Jesus Christ won a complete victory, and He returned to glory in a great triumphal procession (Eph. 4:8ff). In this, He disgraced and defeated Satan.
From the flashing red signals at a railroad crossing to the skull and crossbones on a bottle of rubbing alcohol, warnings are a part of daily life. Children must be taught to heed warnings, and adults must be reminded not to get too accustomed to them. Warnings are a matter of life or death.
The spiritual life also has its dangers and its warnings. Moses warned the Israelites to beware of forgetting the Lord once they got settled in the Promised Land (Deut. 6:12). The Lord Jesus often used the word beware (Matt. 7:15; Mark 12:38; Luke 12:15).
Paul had already warned about the false teachers (Col. 2:8). In this section of his letter, Paul gave three warnings for us to heed if we are to enjoy our fullness in Jesus Christ.
“Let No One Judge You” (Col. 2:16–17)
This warning exposes the danger of the legalism of the gnostic teachers in Colossae.
The basis for our freedom (v. 16a). It is found in the word therefore, which relates this discussion to the previous verses. The basis for our freedom is the person and work of Jesus Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Him (Col. 2:9). On the cross, He canceled the debt and the dominion of the Law (Col. 2:14). As believers, we are under grace as a rule of life and not under Law (Rom. 6:14ff).
The bondage of legalism (v. 16). Let no one tell you otherwise: legalism is bondage! Peter called it a “yoke upon the neck” (Acts 15:10). Paul used the same image when he warned the Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
“Let No Man Beguile You of Your Reward” (Col. 2:18–19)
The word translated beguile in the King James Version means “to declare unworthy of a prize.” It is an athletic term: the umpire disqualifies the contestant because he has not obeyed the rules. The contestant does not cease to be a citizen of the land, but he forfeits the honor of winning a prize. A Christian who fails to obey God’s directions does not lose his salvation. But he does lose the approval of the Lord and the rewards He has promised to those who are faithful (1 Cor. 3:8).
Paul condemned legalism and mysticism; next he attacked and condemned asceticism. An ascetic practices rigorous self-denial and even self-mortification in order to become more spiritual. Ascetic practices were popular during the Middle Ages: wearing hair shirts next to the skin, sleeping on hard beds, whipping oneself, not speaking for days (maybe years), going without food or sleep, etc.
Is Christ preeminent in your life? Are you drawing on His spiritual power, or depending on some man-made “religious” substitute?
The Greek expression for “disqualify you” (hymas katabrabeuetō) has been rendered in many different ways: KJV, “beguile you of your reward”; Knox, “cheat you”; ASV, “rob you of your prize”; BV, “defraud you of salvation’s prize,” etc. The literal meaning of the clause is “let no one act as umpire against you,” that is, give an adverse decision against you. Perhaps it is only a stronger and more picturesque way of saying, “Let no one judge you” (cf. v. 16). The essential meaning is, “Let no one deny your claim to be Christians.”
The person attempting to make such judgment is described as one “who delights in false humility and the worship of angels.” The context suggests that he seeks to impose these things on the Colossians and that this is the means by which he attempts to disqualify them for their prize. “Delights in” translates a Hebraism not uncommon in LXX, but found nowhere else in the NT. “False humility,” translated “self-abasement” in RSV, is thought by some to be a technical term for fasting, since in the OT this was the usual way for one to humble himself before God.
Do not let anyone … disqualify you for the prize. This metaphor restates Paul’s basic appeal: you are already members of the body of Christ, and nobody must be allowed to rule you out of court. This time the potential objection is based, not on non-observance of Jewish diet or festivals, but on their failure to share in a particular style of ‘spiritual’ life or mystical experience. The adverse ruling might come from one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels. The word translated ‘false humility’ carries a bad connotation only by its place in the argument (here and in v. 23): in 3:12 the same word is part of the description of Christian character. It may be that it should be linked more closely with the following phrase: compare JB, ‘people who like grovelling to angels and worshipping them’. The word is used in some Jewish writings almost as a synonym for the fasting which in some disciplines was believed to induce heavenly visions
WE MAY NOT be absolutely certain about what “philosophy” Paul was attacking in the letter to the Colossians, but the text does provide warnings against any “religious” or secular phenomena with similar features that may resurface in our setting. Of the ten characteristics of the “philosophy” identified in the previous section, we will discuss five as having particular contemporary significance. We should be on our guard against any religious practice or worldview that promotes any or all of the following things:
• anything that judges and disqualifies others according to arbitrary human measures
• anything that substitutes sham battles with asceticism for the real struggle with sin (3:5–11), which Christ has already won for us
• anything that makes subjective feelings or mystic states the norm over the historical event of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection
• anything that places more importance on divine intermediaries, such as angels, than on the divine reality in Christ
• anything that cuts people off from Christ, the Head, or Christ’s people, the body
When we are joined to Christ as part of his body, we are also joined to other members. The New Testament also affirms that our experience of God and salvation does not reach us independently from the church. We cannot grow on our own without Christ; we cannot grow on our own without other Christians. Therefore, we only fool ourselves if we think we can find our meaning, purpose, and significance for God through an isolated contemplation of religious truths. That comes only in a community of believers bound to Christ and to one another. Jones points out that if we are to break the habits of sin, we need supportive friendships in the church and teachings that help us to unlearn destructive habits and to cultivate holy ones.
If these persons are members of a church group, they may regard it “in individualistic terms” as a place in which to discover their own private understanding of the faith. The church becomes little different from a health club, where one goes to work out to fulfill some individual body-building or weight-loss goals.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, who were offended by his liberated eating habits: “‘Are you so dull? … Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him “unclean”? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.’ (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean’” (Mark 7:18–20; cf. Matthew 15:1–20). Peter’s vision settled it for him, as he saw a sheet lowered from Heaven, crawling with clean and forbidden animals. Peter was scandalized! “Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ ‘Surely not, Lord!’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.’ The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven” (Acts 10:13–16).
Some textual variants make this statement negative, but they do not have serious attestation. Taken that way, the text reads, “entering what they have not seen.” This interpretation makes easy what is an otherwise more difficult statement. Therefore, the negative is unlikely, following the textual principle that the more difficult is to be preferred. They did not attempt to “enter what they have not seen.” This interpretation suggests that they were seeking to gain spiritual experiences which they did not know firsthand. They were always seeking new insights and experiences beyond what they knew to be reality. This reading came from an attempt to discredit visions and other ecstatic experiences, but such experiences were commonly induced. The best explanation is that the false teachers were inducing spiritual experiences and hoping to make them the norm for worship. Such a “spiritual orientation” is a treadmill. The seeker of these experiences can never be satisfied, and the experience becomes the hermeneutic and the authority behind spiritual life. So-called spiritual experience is everything.
Too often, Christians let the practical issues of the world become reference points for their spiritual development. This may happen in two radically different ways. Christians may become preoccupied with this world by indulging in its activities. Lives of luxury, licentiousness, and lust destroy spiritual insight and growth. Christians also easily become preoccupied with this world by measuring their Christian growth in terms of this world and its reference points. Thus they look to their separation from the world as evidence of their Christian maturity.
Paul first exposed this system as enslaving. He asked why the believers “submit to its rules.” The Greek has one word which would better be translated why “are you coming under the dominion of this dogma” (dogmatizesthe). The word “dogma” was used then in much the same way as it is today. It represented an essential part of a particular teaching. “Being dogmatized” meant to come under the rule of this particular dogma. Since the dogma was non-Christian, it was particularly devastating to Christian growth.
Do not sacrifice your freedom in Christ for a set of man-made rules. Inasmuch as “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4), to become entangled again in a legalistic system is pointless and harmful.
The Bible strictly forbids the worship of angels. “It is written,” Jesus told Satan, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’ ” (Matt. 4:10).
When John tried to worship an angel, he was rebuked for doing so: “I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God’ ” (Rev. 19:10; cf. Rev. 22:9).
Spiritual growth comes from union with Christ. Jesus says in John 15:4–5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”