Christ determines my philosophy of everything
Colossians 2:8
Paul continued the military imagery with this warning: “Beware lest any man carry you off as a captive” (as spoils of war). False teachers did not go out and win the lost, no more than the cultists do today. They “kidnapped” shallow converts from churches! Most of the people I have talked with who are members of anti-Christian 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 not familiar with the truths of the Word of God. They are vulnerable and can easily become fascinated by the philosophy and empty delusion of the false teachers. (Last week on the urgency; present every man complete/mature.)
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (Eph 4:13-14).
“Beware (literally, ‘Look’ well) lest there shall be (as I fear there is) any man (who is a known emissary of heresy) leading you away as his captive and spoil (not merely spoiling you, but making yourselves his spoil) through (by means of) his philosophy.
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (Gal 1:6-7)
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know 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, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears (Acts 20:28-31).
The apostle condemns “the philosophy” (so Greek) of the Judaic-oriental heretics at Colossae, which afterwards was developed into Gnosticism. This philosophy is vain and deceitful; it sets up the wisdom of man in competition with the wisdom of God, and while it pleases men’s fancies, it ruins their faith. It posits nice and curious speculations about things above us, but has only an empty and often a cheating appearance of knowledge. You, who have in Christ “the riches of full assurance” and “the treasures of wisdom,” should not allow yourselves to be led away as a spoil by empty, deceitful philosophy (Col 2:2-3, 9).
After—“according to,” the tradition of men—opposed to, “the fulness of the Godhead” in your Savior. The deceivers were especially the Jewish teachers, who endeavored to keep up the law of Moses in conjunction with the gospel of Christ, but really in contradiction to it. (Now in the verses which follow v. 8, the apostle shows, that we have in Christ the substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law.)ⁱ
This philosophy of the false teachers is “hollow and deceptive” (Col. 2:8, NIV) for several reasons. To begin with, it is the tradition of men and not the truth of God’s Word. The word tradition means “that which is handed down;” and there is a true Christian tradition (2 Thess 2:15; 3:6). The important thing about any teaching is its origin: Did it come from God or from man? The religious leaders in our Lord’s day had their traditions, and were very zealous to obey them and protect them (Mt 15:1–20). Even the Apostle Paul, before he met the Lord, was “exceedingly zealous of the traditions” (Gal 1:14).
The particular man-made traditions afflicting Colossae were “hollow” (kenēs, “empty”). The false teachers boasted of a higher wisdom in theory, transmitted by tradition among the initiated; but in practice they enjoined asceticism, as though matter and the body were the sources of evil. Phrygia, a region in Asia Minor (in which was Colossae) had a propensity for the mystical and magical, which appeared in their worship of Cybele (mother of the Phrygian gods, primal nature goddess with a eunuch mendicant priesthood, worshipped with orgiastic rites) and subsequent Montanism (2ⁿᵈ C. heretical prophetic movement) (note two expressions of Gnosticism, ascetic and licentious).
These false teachings were according to the rudiments of the world—(See on Gal 4:3). “The rudiments” or elementary lessons “of the (outward) world,” such as legal ordinances; our Judaic childhood’s lessons—the rituals and ceremonies of human religion (Col 2:16, 20). The false teachers’ traditions were “hollow and deceptive” for another reason: they involved “the rudiments of the world.” The Greek word translated “rudiments” basically means “one of a row or series.” It had several meanings attached to it: (1) the elementary sounds or letters, the ABCs; (2) the basic elements of the universe, as in 2 Peter 3:10–12; (3) the basic elements of knowledge, the ABCs of some system, as in Hebrews 5:12. But in ancient Greece, this word also meant “the elemental spirits of the universe, the angels that influenced the heavenly bodies.” It was one of the words in the vocabulary of the religious astrology of that day.
The Gnostics believed that the angels and the heavenly bodies influenced people’s lives. Paul’s warnings to the Colossians about “new moon” and other religious practices determined by the calendar (Col 2:16) may be related to this gnostic teaching, though the Jewish people also watched the calendar (Gal 4:10). One thing is certain: such teachings about demons and angels were not a part of true Christian doctrine. If anything, such teachings were satanic. Everything that man puts his trust in other than Christ (see list in Col 2:16-23).
The fact that this teaching is not after Christ is sufficient to warn us against horoscopes, astral charts, Ouija boards, and other spiritualist practices. The whole zodiac system is contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. The Christian who dabbles in mysticism and the occult is only asking for trouble.
True Christian philosophy “take[s] captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). 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).ⁱⁱ
Why follow empty philosophy when we have all fullness in Christ? This is like turning away from the satisfying river to drink at the dirty cisterns of the world (Jer 2:13). Of course, the false teachers in Colossae did not ask the believers to forsake Christ. They asked them to make Christ a part of the new system. But this would only remove Him from His rightful place of preeminence.
So Paul gave the true and lasting antidote to all false teaching: “All fullness is in Christ, and you have been made full in Him. Why, then, would you need anything else?” (see Col 2:9–10).ⁱⁱⁱ
Rather than according to Christ—“Their” boasted higher “philosophy” is but human tradition, and a cleaving to the carnal and worldly, and not to Christ. Though acknowledging Christ nominally, in spirit they by their doctrine deny Him.ⁱᵛ
Suddenly all the old categories men used to define themselves, and the old ways they attempted to understand the world and their relationship to the divine, were shattered. The new had come. Commenting on Colossians 3:11, Ralph Martin (in Colossians: The Church’s Lord and the Christian’s Liberty [Zondervan]) observes:
In the society of Christians a new type of humanity is being formed. Christ’s life flows out to His people and is reproduced in their midst. One proof of this new life was seen in the canceling of restrictions and inhibitions which made the ancient world so socially stratified and class-conscious. Paul had shown how in the church barriers of race, social distinction, and sex were being broken down as Christians acted on their baptismal profession of initiation into the body (see caste in India).
But many in the ancient world struggled against the idea of “new.” They were attracted to the church but tried to adjust Christ to fit their old categories. They tried to define Christianity in terms of their human philosophies rather than letting Christ define them as a new humanity (2 Cor 5:17).
The once-important center of Colossae, the church, was being drained of power by a group of men who claimed advanced knowledge (gnosis) but were attempting to fit Christianity into an old and empty philosophic system: the Gnostic way.
Not until the middle of the second century did the church fathers combat a developed form of Gnosticism. Yet most scholars see the terms Paul uses in Colossians and the concerns he deals with as indicating the presence of this heresy in Colossae. These Gnostics were concerned about issues explored by people of all ages:
- What is God like and what is His relationship to the world?
- How does a human being gain access to God’s true presence?
- How does the human being find fullness of spiritual life?
Gnosticism not only posed these questions, but claimed to answer them. When a local congregation formed at Colossae, early Gnostics hurried in to redefine Christ and the Gospel in their own terms.ᵛ
Endnotes: i Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (pp. 2332– 2333). Peabody: Hendrickson. ii Geisler, N. L. (1985). Colossians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 677). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. iii Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 125–126). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. iv McNaughton, I. S. (2006). Opening up Colossians and Philemon (p. 42). Leominster: Day One Publications. v Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The teacher’s commentary (pp. 940–941). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.