Colossians 2:6-15

Talking about maturity, but this time talking about maturity through our union with Christ.

Think about a tree:

What if I had decided that I was going to plant a tree in my backyard, went to the tree nursery, picked out what type of tree I wanted, asked what kind of soil to plant it in, figured out how much sun it needs, how often I should water it, how long it takes to mature, all of that.

Then, following all of the advice I got, I went home and planted the tree. It sprouted and began to grow according to schedule, but in my impatience I went online to figure out if there were better methods for getting the tree to grow.

One article tells me that trees actually grow better in sand, so I rip up the tree and plant it in some sand. It doesn’t work, but I read another article that tells me I should try clay. It doesn’t work either, and a third article tells me that I should really just submerge it in water.

None of these work, and in fact the tree has stopped growing altogether, and it even starting to wither and die.

Where did I go wrong?

When I became impatient and got away from the proven method of growing trees and starting wandering off into controversial theories of tree growing.

Well, if we can think of ourselves as Christians as being trees, Paul is going to encourage us to remain in the proven soil so that we can grow up and mature; and avoid wandering off into other theories of personal growth.

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Death in the World

That is followed soon by a quick warning:

Colossians 2:8 ESV

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.

Philosophy and empty deceit- we live in a very scientific world right now, but true science has become hard to recognize nowadays. I want to be clear: true science is not evil or bad, and it shouldn’t be treated like it is. Real science is actually a very godly thing; it is observing and learning about the creation God has made. Where science begins to overstep and become dangerous is when we make those observations and then go beyond them, coming up with opinions and myths that aren’t proven but are set forth as fact. This is dangerous and has lured a very many people away from their life in Christ, but it is empty deceit.

Human tradition- We live in a somewhat anti-establishment culture right now so I don’t know if we are as much at risk of this one, but there are still elements of our lives where we cave into “doing things just because this is how they were always done.” We are a sinful people, and so we shouldn’t be surprised when our traditions and ways of doing things are tainted by sin. It’s important to remember this, because I think this one can be the most subliminal of any type of deceit. This one hits on ways that we refuse Christ unknowingly, just because we do things without thinking about them. Here Paul is reminding us that we can’t take things for granted; we need to reevaluate all facets of our lives and ask ourselves if they are honoring to Christ. The reason we play sports, the way we celebrate holidays, how we spend our time in the evenings, who we talk to and don’t talk to. I’m not saying we need to rip out every single tradition, but we have to be careful that we aren’t abandoning Christ for the sake of continuing our own human traditions.

Elemental spirits of the world- This one stands in contrast to the philosophy and empty deceit category. If you don’t ever feel swayed by science, you may find yourself struggling with being lured away by this. This isn’t just blatant pagan worship where we claim that there is a sun god and a moon god and a water god; this extends into other things as well. This looks like planning your life based on a horoscope reading. This looks like trying to be spiritual, but not religious. This looks like being so “spiritual” that you don’t ever connect your faith to your actual life, just interested in the mystical side of Christianity.

At the end of the day, the real reason we need to be weary of all of these is because they are not according to Christ.

And because they are not of Christ, they can only leave us in the sin that we were born into. All of these philosophies, traditions, spiritual ways of life, they might be interesting or intriguing to you, but they can do nothing about the deadness of your soul. Only Christ can do something about that.

Life In Christ

And this is what Paul is reminding the young Colossian church.

Colossians 2:9–10 ESV

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.

Christ is divine, and you have been filled up by what is in him. How has that happened?

Colossians 2:11–12 ESV

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, 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.

this happened through baptism! Calling back to the Old Testament sign of circumcision that showed that a person was set apart for God, Paul connects this to the New Covenant sign of baptism which unites us to Christ.

It’s in baptism that we are completely unified to Christ, like a marriage relationship where the two different people come together as one. We are completely one with him, which means that we have died with him in our old self and have been raised up with him into our new selves.

Colossians 2:13–14 ESV

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.

Who was hanging on the cross? Jesus was! What was hanging there with him? We were, because we are united with him. In all the filthiness of our sin, we became one with Christ, and when the nails went into Jesus and killed him, they went into our sin and killed it too.

That’s why Paul says

Colossians 2:15 ESV

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

We have been truly united to Christ in every way, and so we are rooted deeply in him like a tree is rooted in the soil. Christ is the soil that gives us life, and when we are uprooted from him there is no life to be had.

That is why it is so essential that we see to it that nobody captures us with philosophy, human traditions, spiritual things, or anything else that isn’t Christ. Its so important that we don’t tear up our roots from Christ to chase after political movements or scientific discoveries or spiritual zen or anything that isn’t Christ himself.

How are you going to see to it that this doesn’t happen to you?

We’ve got to be plugged in to the true church that is preaching and teaching the Word of God faithfully. This is the advice that Paul gave to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

See to it that you aren’t taken captive by something other than Christ. See to it that you don’t uproot yourself from Jesus and forfeit the life that he gave you.

See to it that you are plugged into Christ’s body, his church. See to it that you stand firmly on his Word and can recognize the deceitful lies of the world from the life-giving truth of Jesus.

canceling debt that led to death, nailing it to the cross. brought us up into life with him, in whom we are planted and rooted. Don’t turn back to what was once threatening to end you! Stay rooted and continue to grow in the grace of Jesus.