Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

Paul writes here that we should not allow ourselves, our thinking, to be captured by deceptive philosophies which depend on human tradition and the spiritual forces of this world.  A little later in this letter, he refers to those who delight in false humility and the worship of angels.  He describes such people as going into great detail about their experiences and being puffed up by idle notions.  Paul talks about how they insist that people must follow specific diets and celebrate rituals and religious festivals.  He appears to be referring to those who teach following an appearance of self-denial without actually allowing the Spirit to transform us and our desires.  In fact, Paul tells us that these philosophies are designed to make it look like we are living righteous lives, but that they fail to actually restrain our sinful desires.

Paul writes that we should not follow the rules of the spiritual forces of this world with “Do not handle. Do not taste.  Do not touch.” rules.  However, before we make too much of that, immediately after writing that Paul writes that we should put to death our earthly nature, which includes sexual immorality, impurity, and greed.  So, the freedom in Christ which Paul writes about does not mean that we are free to enslave ourselves to sin.  He tells us that the behaviors which grow out of our sinful nature are forms of idolatry.  I want to point out that most of the time, if not all of the time, when Paul writes about avoiding sexual immorality and impurity, he includes greed in the list of behaviors to be avoided as destructive of our new life in Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

Paul warns the people of the Church in Colossae against allowing anyone to convince them into following hollow and deceptive philosophy.  So, what does Paul mean by “hollow and deceptive”?  Paul gives us some answers to that a little further on, but we can learn a little just from the words he chooses here.  Hollow suggests that the practices being taught are all for show and not really about what you do when no one is looking.  Deceptive tells us that the teachings really on misdirection and dishonesty.  An example of this would be: some religions teach that you must never lie, unless by doing so to outsiders you can advance the religion (it then goes on to define “outsiders” as those who do not follow the religion in the manner in which your group interprets it).  As I said, a little further on while expounding on this same teaching, Paul writes that we should let no one judge us by what we eat or drink, or by the religious rituals we follow, or don’t follow.  He exposes all such practices as having a surface appearance of wisdom and righteousness, but they lack any call to actually restrain our indulgence in sensual sin.

Paul teaches that, through our faith in Christ, we should have put to death our earthly nature.  Which he describes as sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed. As a side note I want to point out that on several occasions Paul tells us that greed is a form of idolatry, the worship of material possessions.  He goes on to tell us that we must put aside anger, malice, slander, and filthy language.  Instead we must not lie to one another as we are all being renewed and transformed into the image our Creator.  This means that in Christ we are all God’s people, not Gentiles and Jews, not slave and free, not black and white and Asian.   We are all together parts of the Body of Christ.  Paul calls on us to deal with each other in love.  Let us seek, with all of our hearts, to act with compassion, kindness, humility, and patience.  Let us bear with those who irritate us, and forgive those against whom we have a grievance.  If we do these things, truly do them, not just pay them lip service, God will transform us and we will experience joy.  I write this more out of having seen how it works in people whose faith I admire than out of personal experience.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

I have always struggled to explain Paul’s advice to not to be bound by rules with his condemnation of sexual immorality and greed.  I understood his point but found it hard to explain the difference between the rules we should not let bind us and the “rules” which should bind us.  I realized today that the rules Paul tells us to ignore are about items, what we eat or drink, following specific rituals, taking certain actions on specific days.  While the “rules” he tells us to follow are about how we treat, or think about, other people.  Sexual immorality involves treating other people as no more than objects to satisfy our desires.  Greed involves treating objects as having more importance than others.  Anger, malice, slander, and lies involve believing that others are less important than ourselves and our desires.  Foul language makes us feel that our anger and rage are justified.  Instead of those we should act with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  All of these can be summed up, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, as love.  As I noted yesterday, if we make the effort to be thankful for the good we have received we will find it ever easier to do as Paul writes.  That is, the more we remember to be thankful for the undeserved grace which we have received from God the easier it will be to patiently, humbly, treat others with compassion and kindness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

Paul warns against allowing ourselves to be taken in by deceptive philosophies.  In particular he warns against philosophies which sum everything up with rules about what we should not do.  Instead Paul writes that we should clothe ourselves with positive virtues.  His metaphor of clothing ourselves requires a little thought.  He calls on us to present ourselves so that others see us as compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.   Paul tells us that we should strive to appear to people as being those things by being those things.    In order to truly be those things we must love others.  If we love others we will rid ourselves of anger, malice, slander, and filthy language.   I love the way Paul ties this all together by reminding us to devote ourselves to prayer and keep our conversation graceful, but seasoned.  If we pray and live our lives with love, we will know how to answer everyone in order to make the most of every opportunity.  Even that requires some thought, of what opportunities should we be making the most?  Those opportunities which allow us to show others how they can be reconciled with God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Colossians 1-4

Once again I am challenged by Paul’s reference to prayer.  I know that I do not pray nearly as much as I should.  Paul writing about how he prayed continuously for the Colossian Believers reminds me that I do not pray enough.  However, what he prayed for is just as important as the fact that he prayed.  He prayed that God would give them complete knowledge of His will along with spiritual wisdom and understanding.  We should seek these things ourselves, as well as praying that other Believers receive them. Then towards the end of his letter, Paul tells them, and us, to devote themselves(and ourselves) to prayer.  So, let us devote ourselves to prayer so that we may live wisely among those who are not believers.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Colossians 1-4

Depending on how we read Paul’s letter to the Colossians it can either be very confusing, or it can clarify his teachings regarding rules and freedom in Christ.  First, Paul tells them, and us, not to get caught up in certain rules about what to eat and what to do on certain days, nor to feel that we need to perform particular ceremonies.  He sums up the rules he tells us not to get caught up with as ones which tell us, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”  He tells us that we should not allow ourselves to be bound by restrictive rules.  There is no set of rules that you can follow which will make you right with God.

Then Paul writes that we should set our sights on heavenly things and put to death the sinful, earthly desires which we have.  He just told us that we are free in Christ.  Yet now he writes that we should avoid sexual immorality and evil desires.  I think we get an insight into Paul’s thinking by what he says about greed.  Greed is idolatry, the worship of material possessions and thus contrary to the Spirit of God.  So, if greed is worshiping material possessions, then the other sins Paul tells us to stay away from amount to worshiping ourselves.  Sexual immorality and other evil desires result from treating others as things to please ourselves.  There is a reason we refer to those we lust after as the “object of our desire”.