“Redeeming the Culture”

This last week I was out evangelizing with quite a few others from our church and I came to the door of the jr-high pastor of one of the local Rick-Warren-Purpose-Driven types of churches.   I was with two teenagers.   The man’s wife answered the door-bell and she seemed happy we were there once she knew we were out preaching the gospel (not JWs).  She said her husband was the jr-high pastor at that particular church, which I know well.  A first thought for me was what does a jr. high pastor do all day, but I refrained from asking that question, although I was really curious.  I considered the oiling of the skateboard wheels and the proper wrinkling of the urban chic t-shirts.  But I digress.  I talked to her for awhile about the gospel to find out what they believed the gospel was.  I had about finished with her thinking, which wasn’t quite developed enough for me to conclude, when her husband arrived.   I spotted her husband before she did.  As much as people stereotype fundamentalists, evangelicals might be easier to identify in their desperate desire to blend.  Information:  stop trying so hard.  You blend like a Chinese tourist at Dollywood.  Next.

The wife had to leave, so jr. high man and I talked first about the gospel.  I was a little surprised to hear that he was a Calvinist.  The senior pastor is a Dallas graduate.  He didn’t disagree with most of what I said there on the basics, although I’m hard pressed to have even an LDS contradict me up to a certain point.  It’s become all how you define the terms.  Maybe that’s always been it.  A big one is:  Who is Jesus?  A lot of different viewpoints there all under the banner of Jesus.  But I moved on to worship.  I kinda see that as the next thing.   In a certain sense, I see the gospel and worship categorically as the same (see John 4:23-24).  My question is:  do you worship God in your church?  Just because worship is happening doesn’t mean that it is actually happening.  What people think is worship relates to Who they think God is.  I already knew that at this church the worship was a matter of one’s taste.  Those were almost the exact words I heard from their senior pastor when I had a previous conversation with him.  I will say that talking to the jr. high pastor was a little like talking to a jr. higher.  The arguments were similar to jr. high ones.  I made a note that he needed to get out of the jr. high department a little more—pooled ignorance was happening.

Jr. high guy asked what music was appropriate for worship.  I’m fine answering that question, and I knew it was a trap to offer the name of a particular style, but I did name some I did not believe were acceptable to God for worship, namely rap, hip-hop, grunge, and rock, among others.   Upon listing those, his eyes lit up and he fired off a derogatory question as an answer:  “So you’re saying that God can’t take rap music and redeem it for his worship?”  The answer to that question is, of course, “N0,” but that is not how you answer.  The key word in his question, I believe, was “redeem.”  How he used that word says a lot about his view of the world and his understanding of God, of Christ, of worship, and of the Incarnation.

I believe this man’s concept of “redeeming the culture” is quite popular today.  It is also new.  It is not a historic understanding of either “redemption” or “culture.”  The phraseology is an invention, designed to justify worldliness.  What is most diabolical is that the phrase, “redeeming the culture,” is used to categorize a wicked activity into some sort of sanctified one.  You should be able to conclude what damage this would do to the cause of biblical discernment.

Earlier I said the man carried on a jr. high type of approach.  What did I mean?  He used questions as a form of mockery.  For instance, he asked, “So you’re saying that individual notes are evil or something?”  He also leaned on the time-honored, “So any kind of song that is upbeat, I guess, is wrong then?”   Who said anything about “individual notes being evil” or “upbeat songs being wrong”?  No one.   And he asked them with a kind of accusatory and incredulous tone, as if he was shocked.

To get the right idea of what God will redeem, we should consider 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, which says that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that we can glorify God with our body.  The body itself is not evil, despite what the Gnostics might say.  It is how one uses the body.  Paul explains that in Romans 6 when he says that the body can either be used for righteousness or unrighteousness depending upon what it serves.  Letters and notes are about the same.  They can be either used for evil or for good.  Cloth is the same way.  The material that turns into immodest clothing is not itself evil.  What is evil is what the cloth is turned into, how it is used.  Letters can be turned into foul language.  Paint can become wicked or profane art.  Notes can be formed into godless, pagan music, just like they can be made into sacred music.

However, someone can’t take pornography and redeem it for God.  I explained this obvious point to jr. high man.  I illustrated it by asking if naked women on the streets of a Marine base could be redeemed by handing out tracts.   The Marines would show more interest.  More tracts would be taken.  The contents of the tracts was holy.  Does the message justify the medium?  Of course, he said no.  The beauty of the illustration is that it makes it simple even for a jr. higher.

At a root level, this wrong idea about redemption relates to a perversion of Christ’s incarnation.   It is very much a Gnostic understanding of the Incarnation.  The logic of it goes like the following.   Jesus became a man.  Men are sinful.  Jesus became a man so that He could relate with sinners.  This takes His condescension right into the sewer.  Jesus was a man, but He was a sinless, righteous man.  He was tempted like men were, but without sin.  Jesus didn’t relate to men.  There was nothing wrong about the body.  A body isn’t wrong.  Jesus took a body.  That wasn’t wrong.  Jesus wasn’t redeeming the thing of having a body.  He didn’t take a body to relate with what sinful men do with their bodies.  He took on a body to die for us.  That’s how Jesus redeemed.  Jesus didn’t take a body to be like men; He took a body so that men could be like Him.  These “redeeming the culture” people turn this right around.  We Christians are not to take on the characteristics of the world, become like the world.  That isn’t incarnational.  We should be turning the world upside down, not the world turning us upside down.

To go a little further, we can also see an attack on the atonement in this idea.  Jesus redeemed by dying in His body, and shedding real, physical blood in His body.  He did not redeem the whole thing of sinful men having sinful bodies by taking a body Himself.  This borders on a moral example theory of atonement, as if Jesus showed to sinful men how to have a body through his moral example in and with His body.

Here’s what the “redeeming the culture” people take out of this.  If Jesus could take a body to do His work, then we can take rock music to do our worship.  Just like Jesus accomplished what He did with a body, we can accomplish what we need to with modern art.  This is incarnational to them, redeeming like Jesus redeemed.  We redeem these things, making good use of them, sanctifying them, like Jesus made good use of a body.

What should be sad to anyone reading this, and really anyone period, is how that this brand of so-called Christianity destroys scriptural concepts and just about makes it impossible to follow Jesus for these people.  The people of their churches think that their feelings, that are really orchestrated by sensual passions, are actually love.  They are convinced of it.  They are told that it is true, and in so doing, they are deceived.  And now the most conservative of evangelicals and most fundamentalists would say that we can’t judge that to be wrong.  Sure we can.  Those feelings are not love.  They are not love for God.  Ironically, they are love for self, fooling someone into thinking they are love for God.  Rather than redeem anything, they have taken something already redeemed, love, and have perverted it as a result.  And God requires His own to love Him.  You can see what this does to Christianity.

Professing Christians should just stop using the “redeeming the culture” language.  They have it all wrong.  They’re just excusing their love for the world and their desire to fit in with the world.  You don’t take a profane or sinful activity and “redeem it.”  The letters can be used for God.  The notes can be used for God.  A body can be used for God.  But a wrong use of letters, notes, a body, or cloth is not redeemable.   Whether any of those will be used for God will depend on what to which they are yielded.  If they are yielded to God based upon biblical principles, therefore, acceptable to God, then culture is being redeemed.  And only then is culture being redeemed.

Culture is a way of life.  If one’s way of life smacks of this world system, the spirit of this age, it is not redeemed.  Only a way of life surrendered to the way of God will God redeem.

The Ignorance of a Luke 10 Approach

When Jesus sent out missionaries, what did He do?  Do we know?  We do, because we can read about it in Luke 10.   We should also assume that this is the model that the Apostle Paul utilized in His efforts.  We will be and we should be sanctified by the truth, not by opinion and pragmatism.  I think that much of what we read in Jesus’ sending of the seventy in Luke 10 is ignored today by churches and church leaders.  How?

1.  Ignorance of the Method in Luke 10

The seventy were sent to say something.  They were sent to preach a message (Lk 10:5b, 9).   We don’t see “church-planting” per se in the Bible.  Jesus did not send the seventy out to start a church.  The Apostle Paul did not go to start a church.  Churches were started, but neither the seventy nor Paul were sent to start a church.  Scripture is sufficient.  Silence does not mean permission.  We ought not to be sending men to start churches.  Jesus didn’t and Paul didn’t.

We send men to preach.  We don’t send them alone.  We send them in twos.  That’s what we see.  We may think we have a better idea, but that’s the model that Jesus left us.  At least two men go.  They go into a town or city and preach.

As the men go to preach, they find out who receives the message and who does not.  If a person receives the message, that’s the possible start of a church.  If no one receives the message, the two don’t tweak the message or consider a different method. They leave after proclaiming judgment on the town or city.  Each home is a microcosm of this.  If a home does not receive the message, the men move on to the next home.  Look at vv. 1-17 (below) if you don’t think this is the case.  I’m open for your alternative ideas, but at least consider the text.

There is no pressure on the preachers to “produce.”  They don’t need to see a certain number in a certain number of weeks or months or years.  Their one goal is to preach just what God said.  From there, they just gauge the response.   They are not required to toil in obscurity with no one listening.  They are actually not supposed to do that.  They should preach—if no one wants it, move on; if someone does, park there.  If it succeeds, it will be because of the gospel, not the preacher.

The preachers Jesus sent out, He said He was sending as “lambs among wolves” (Lk 10:3).  Jesus didn’t say that people would like the method or the message.  It would be worse than a turn-off.  Most would hate it.

Demographics don’t relate at all to Luke 10.  Everyone was preached to.  Nobody was left out.

If the emphasis is on the preaching and not the starting of a church, then the point or the real goal will be met, that is, everyone will be preached to.  Many church planters go to a town and immediately start inviting people to church and the people of their community never, ever receive the gospel. They still haven’t preached the gospel to everyone.  They don’t even know that is what they were supposed to do.  They thought they were supposed to start a church.  They go with a pack full of non- or un-scriptural methods and get to building a crowd.  That is not the rock upon which Jesus said He would build His church (Mt 16:18).

2.  Ignorance of the Money in Luke 10

“Church planters” travel the country raising support to plant their church.  I understand that the seventy were a second phase of Jesus’ sending, after the twelve (Lk 9).  Later in Luke, Jesus sends them with money (Lk 22:35-36).  I’m not opposed to supporting missionaries.  What I think we need to know, and this is one of the lessons of Luke 10, is that money is not necessary to be a missionary.  Jesus wanted them to see that in Luke 10.

Today we hear there are “needs” in order to see a church “launched.”  One professing fundamentalist, quasi-evangelical, who had read all the studies, the missional philosophy, the cultural engagement strategy, said that he needed to raise at least $300,000 to launch his church.  People believed him. They supported him.  He was a hot commodity because he was up on all the latest techniques necessary for a successful church launch.

The building is another important “need” for the church launch.  (“Launch” is important for a launch.  Use the word “launch” if you want to launch.)  But the building must be something that people are going to want to attend, you know.  All of this really is a lie.  Jesus said nothing about a building.  Paul said nothing about a building.  A building is not necessary for a church to start.   You don’t need money, and you can see from reading Luke 10 that your first building is the house of the first person who will receive the message.

The building is really about an impression that becomes necessary for “church planting.”  You want to have a church and church has a building.  And you are not going to get a lot of people to stay if they aren’t comfortable with your building.  You won’t look classy or successful enough for those people, which the church planter perceives are a lot of people.  Plus, the program the church planter expects to succeed as part of the attraction to his church needs that facility.  That requires money.  So the desire for money relates to the alternative to the Luke 10 method.

3.  Ignorance of the Message in Luke 1o

“The Lord” (v. 1) appointed the 70 and He sent them to go ahead of Himself to towns where He would come after them.  Their message was “peace” (v. 5) in the “kingdom of God,” which was “nigh unto” them (v. 9).  A kingdom has a King.  The offering of a kingdom meant the King was coming.  If He was their King, He was their Messiah, as well as their absolute monarch.  They would be turning their lives over to Him.  If they relinquished their selves to Him, He would bring them the kingdom.  They had to receive Him as King. If He was King, He was Lord.  If He was Lord, they were His slaves.  The message Jesus sent them to preach was no different than the gospel that He preached from the very beginning of His earthly ministry (Lk 4:43).

If people receive the message Jesus expects of His evangelists, that is, the truth, the kind of building they have doesn’t matter.  Slaves aren’t offended by some discomfort.  Those who have denied themselves to follow the Lord aren’t concerned with those peripheral, superficial interests that captivate many church planters.

Jesus did send the seventy to preach.  That’s what he wanted them to do.  If a church started, it would come out of the affirmative responses to the message they preached.

For Reference, Luke 10:1-17

1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.

6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.

7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:

9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,

11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.

13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.

15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Christian Life (Colossians 3:1-4)

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  Colossians 3:1-4

Christian Life

v     If (since)

• The resurrection.
  • Proof of our acceptance of Christ’s death and His acceptance of us (Romans 4:24-25)
  • Pattern of our holy life (Romans 6:4)
  • Power for Christian character and service (Ephesians 1:18-20)
  • Promise of our own physical resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:14)
  • Pledge of our life hereafter (John 14:19)
• In baptism the Christian dies and rises to new life
  • Death had no hold on Christ after his resurrection
• If that’s true, there must be a difference! Must choose.
  • Active concentration (seek)
  • Permanent attitude (set)
  • Where is the difference? Thoughts, concerns
  • No trivialities—eternal verities (truths)
  • Doesn’t mean monastery—no interaction with the world
  • Means doing all the normal mundane activities with guidelines from the Word
  • Does mean all is seen in light of eternity
    • Different background
    • Blacklight
  • Will go on doing work in the world, but in a new way
    • Giving—getting
    • Serving—ruling
    • Forgiving—avenging
    • Sees eternal—sees temporal

v     Ye are dead.

v     Hidden with Christ in God

• Death = “hidden in the earth”
  Baptism = “hidden in Christ”
• Apocrypha = hidden books = hidden knowledge
  Apocrypteia = hidden knowledge is in Christ
• Life is hidden
  • The world cannot understand or know the life of a Christian
  • We cannot expect the world to understand
  • Contrast with James 4:14
    • Temporal life vanishes
    • Eternal life cannot be touched

v     When Christ shall appear

• Who is the Christ – Messiah, deliverer
• Where is He now – hidden in heaven
• How did He get there – the ascension
• Why is He there – His time is not yet come
• What is He doing there
  • Preparing for the saints
  • Praying for the saints
  • Preparing for His return
• How will He return – in glory
  • Revelation 19:11-16
  • His majesty will be evident
  • His train will be following (Ephesians 4:8) – trophies of His victory
• What will happen when He returns
  • Beast and false prophet cast in Lake of Fire
  • All kings of the earth and armies killed – fowls filled with flesh
  • Ye (we) shall appear also

v     Then shall ye also appear

• Where are ye (we) now – hidden in Christ
• Why are ye (we) there – we are dead in Christ
  • And risen with Him
• How did ye (we) get there – through faith, by grace
• What are ye (we) doing there
  • Seeking heavenly things
  • Thinking heavenly ways
• How will ye (we) appear
  • What authority
  • What presence

v     Who is our life

• Physically
  • Created us – John 1:1-4
  • Sustains us – Colossians 1:16-17
• Spiritually
  • Saved us – Ephesians 2:1, John 11:25, 1 John 5:11
  • Keeps us
  • Directs us – John 1:4
• Thoughts
  • Important areas of life:
    • Jobs (food and raiment) – if we have food and clothing, then be content
    • Family

¨      Marriage

¨      Children

• House
• Money
• Time
• Self-gratification
• Things – cars, jewelry, computers, stereos
• Christ IS Life – Luke 17:32

False Additions to Christ (Colossians 2:8-23)

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. Colossians 2:8-23

False Additions to Christ

Since Christ is preeminent, all additions to His work are false.

Paul feared that they could be carried away as the spoil of an enemy.

v     Philosophy – simple truth was not enough

• Handed down by human tradition
  • Claimed to be passed along by “word of mouth”
  • Never told to crowds
  • Only given to a chosen few
  • But all “traditions” must be in submission to the written Word
• Related to the “rudiments” of the world (astrology)

v     Astrology

• Rudiments of the world
  • Can mean “A, B, Cs” of a subject
  • Can also (probably here) refer to spirits of the stars
    • Great men, cynical men, level-headed men–all believed in the influence of stars
    • Born on a good day, all is well; born on a bad, too bad.
    • Only possibility of escape from them was secret passwords and formulas
• Special power needed to get out from under the influence of the stars

v     Circumcision – adding the flesh to faith

• Real and unreal
  • God’s command – Genesis 17:10
  • Physical is everything, regardless of heart
  • Others
    • Exodus 6:12 – lips
    • Leviticus 26:41; Ezekiel 44:7-9; Deuteronomy 30:6
    • Jeremiah 6:10 – ear
  • Real circumcision effected a change in heart and life
  • Not just a piece of skin, but putting off all of man that sets him against God
• Baptism – circumcision has happened in baptism
  • Leaving one way of life for another
  • A voluntary, conscious act of decision
  • A symbol – only through belief in Christ and God’s power
    • Death to self
    • Risen to new life
  • True circumcision takes place in baptism

v     Ascetic rules and regulations – Jewish laws revived

• Specifics
  • Dietary laws – eating, drinking, not eating, not drinking
    • Matthew 15:10-20; Mark 7:14-23; Acts 10
    • “Perish with using” – v. 22; cf. Matt 15:17
  • Special days – yearly feasts, monthly celebrations, weekly Sabbaths
    • These rules are the same type of bondage that Christ had saved them from
    • This spirit of “rule-living” is still alive in Christianity today.
• Answers
  • Christ forgives dead men’s sins
    • Dead men have no power – power of God
    • God did this to uncircumcised men – grace of God

¨      They had not a covenant with God

¨      They also became a special and peculiar people

• Jesus blotted out the handwriting against us
  • Self-admitted debts – I.O.U.

¨      Signed by writer

¨      Admitted debts – Exodus 24:3; Duet 27:14-26; Romans 2:14-15

• Blotted out – completely erased (ancient scribe would save paper by erasing ink, ink had no acid, could be completely blotted out with sponge)
• Nailed it to the cross

¨      Our indictment was executed on the cross

¨      Handwriting (indictment) based on law – grace erased

• Force and power from the law
• Jesus stripped their power and took them captive

¨      The “powers that be” became His captives

¨      These “elemental” spirits are out to ruin mankind

¨      They are conquered forever

¨      Stripping a conquered foe (triumphant general)

¨      Cosmic triumphal train with all powers of evil beaten forever

• All because of Jesus; He is preeminent; He has accomplished everything; no need for Gnostic knowledge

v     Special visions

• Telling things they had seen that were not true
• Visions of what they want to see, not what God has shown them
• We have much to see in the Bible
• Don’t need to be looking for something extra

v     Angel worship

• Jesus is only one of many intermediaries
• All of them should be worshipped
  • Worship should be reserved for God and Jesus Christ

1. Only a shadow of the truth (v. 17)
   • Real religion is fellowship with Christ
     • In Him is all fullness
     • Ye are complete! In Him
   • Religion of rules and days is a shadow of a religion
     • Shadow/body
     • Spiritual/material
2. These can produce a false humility (vv. 18, 23)
   • Can never speak to God, must pray to intermediaries (Angels, Mary, saints, etc)
   • Christ has made the path to the throne open to all
3. This can lead to sinful pride (vv. 18, 23)
   • Meticulous law observance tends to sinful pride
   • No one who thinks they’re good is good, especially one who thinks they’re better than someone else
   • Philippians 2:3
4. All is a return to unchristian slavery (v. 20)
   • • Aside: (v. 21)
     • “How to read your Bible”
     • Touch not, taste not, handle not…
   • Does not free from fleshly lusts
   • Keeps them on the leash (v. 23)
   • True freedom comes not from restraint, but from death

We Shall Rise! (Hallelujah!)

Finding a subject for Sunday’s sermon always presents a challenge.  Not because we run out of good material for preaching.  Let it never be said!  Who could exhaust the pages of Scripture?   I for one can say that the more I attempt to preach through the various books of the Bible, the more I find them inexhaustible.  I recently spent three weeks on Proverbs 3:5-7 in our Wednesday night service.  And when I finished, more subject matter came to mind that I had not covered.  I am currently preaching through the Book of Acts on Sunday mornings.  The series began in January of 2009.  I just preached through the first part of chapter 12.  I had to move on from chapter 11, even though I had more that I wanted to do.  The Bible is always that way.  It is impossible to “run out” of good material.

The challenge of finding a suitable subject for preaching has nothing to do with a lack of suitable material.  Rather, the refrigerator, the deep freeze, and the pantry are so packed full of good things that I sometimes find it difficult to choose which one.  It is like the menu at a really great, four-diamond restaurant with a world-renowned cook.  You know that everything on that menu will be outstanding, and you just can’t decide which dance you want your tastebuds to do.  The Bible is so full of great truths and power-packed verses that we sometimes find ourselves tossed between texts like a boy in a ball closet.

Never is this more true than at Easter.  I’m a “series” guy.  I like to preach a series of some sort, often through a particular book of the Bible.  But at Easter, I always take the time to preach on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on the promise of the resurrection of the saints.  But what to preach?  There are so many wonderful texts to choose from.  We can do the resurrection story itself, or cover any one of the hundreds of verses and passages that deal with the resurrection.  Of all the doctrines of grace, it is the most chock full of rich goodness.  We shall rise!  Hallelujah!  Because He lives, we shall live also!  We shall be caught up together in the clouds with the dead in Christ that rise first.  We shall meet the Lord in the air.  And so shall we ever be with the Lord!  Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, and since He has, He will come again, and receive us unto Himself; that where He is, there we may be also!  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed!

What a day that will be!  But, anticipating that great resurrection morning, we are reminded that the resurrection is for the here and now as well as for then.  And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.  Christ came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.  Having received the gift of God, we live the resurrection life (Colossians 3:1-3).  Let’s live it up, then!

Revivalism and Fraudulent Faith

You may have heard of the modern “word of faith” movement.  It might be the fastest growing segment of professing Christianity today.  According to those of this movement, the faith possessed by Christians can and should operate like a force or power.  If you have legitimate faith, according to them, then you have the potential for and should expect to have power as well.  In the word of faith movement, this power or force of faith exerts itself to obtain things that you want—prosperity, position, or health.   If you just believe, your faith can operate through your words with God to get anything that you want; that’s what God wants to do, and Christians should expect it.  So you could change the world, especially your own world, by means of this faith, to create a healing, cause a salvation, bring about a good relationship, or to change an economic situation.

Like the Pentecostal or Charismatic “word of faith” gets these blessings and changes individual realities, the faith of revivalists obtains spiritual results by means of personal faith.  I believe that both of these distortions of scriptural faith come from the same influence upon American evangelicalism, that of Charles Finney in the mid nineteenth century.   The perversion of revivalism is actually an earlier error, more in line with that of Finney himself.  “Word of faith” was a later development as an outcome of the revivalistic thinking.

Both revivalism and “word of faith” have a similar emphasis on the ability of man to cause his own spiritual effects by the right use of means. Both believe that faith can solve every important problem and create their own desired results.  In both cases, the results make it inappropriate to question the means—the end justifies the means.

Finney believed that the faith of a Christian could and should produce a revival.  In modern revivalism, a person reveals his faith by paying a price to get the power that comes from believing.  If he really has faith, then he will persevere to get the power from that faith by lining himself up with enough moral guidelines to reach some threshold that initiates the spiritual blessing that God wants to give, dependent on his faith.  The faith that merits revival also reveals itself in really, really wanting it, manifesting itself in praying long and hard to get it.

How does the faith of revivalism and the “word of faith” movement veer off a scriptural understanding of faith?  The faith of the Bible is not a power that someone possesses to control something in his future.  The faith of God’s Word accepts the reality that the Bible promises it.  And we can see that future is not normally one of success and great results and health and prosperity.   Faith is not an instrument that people use to acquire the future on earth that they want, but a God-given means by which men will accept the future that God has already promised them.  Faith trusts God with its future.

Jesus didn’t send out the twelve with promise that they could see tremendous results if they only had faith.  He sent them all over Galilee and said that they should shake the dust off their feet outside of the town or city that didn’t believe what they said.  At times, many believed—that is true.  But that is not some kind of paradigm that believers should take as an expectation for their future.

Genuine faith itself is the substance, not the results of that faith.  What is promised for that faith?  As you look through Hebrews 11 you see it to be a lot of suffering, difficulty, and rejection.  You see that in Abel, who was murdered, in Noah, who was mocked and jeered before he was vindicated much later by a worldwide flood, in Abraham, who never did possess the land to which he set out on his long  journey, in Moses, who gave up the Egyptian court, and then those who were tortured and saw asunder to reward their faith.  They went ahead and went through their characteristically difficult times because of faith.  Faith had no connection to worldly success or earthly results.  They did what they did because they had placed their futures in the hands of the God they trusted.  Their faith was in what God would make of their lives.

The attraction of revivalism is that it guarantees the results an individual of faith would want to receive.   The allure is not its historic or biblical theology.   Revivalists utilize proof texts out of context and then mainly stories of former revivals that have occurred since the inception of revivalism.  They brag about special moments in the past that have come because of power from God they received by faith.  No one should depend on these experiences as hope for the future.  We can’t and neither are we supposed to trust anecdotal material as a basis for Christian living or decision making.

In its own way, revivalism corrupts faith as much as the word of faith movement.  It redefines and misrepresents scriptural faith.  Revivalism doesn’t really trust in God.  Trusting in God accepts the results that God gives and is content with the outcomes from obedience to the Bible.  True faith doesn’t judge based upon assembly size, reaction to a post-preaching invitation, or numbers of professions of faith.  Faith brings its own built-in rewards—the indwelling Holy Spirit, the pleasure of God, forgiveness of sin, joy, peace, and contentment.  These are rewards of faith in the midst of a sin-loving and God-hating world, where God promises that all they who live godly will suffer persecution.

Deviating from a biblical understanding of faith is obviously going to have an effect on the nature of the gospel.   Revivalism has harmed the gospel in this way.  Revivalism diverted the focus of the gospel from God and the Bible to the short-term results of believing.  Scripture concentrates on God’s nature and His promises.   Small alterations are enough to ruin faith and then those changes become bigger through the years, enough for damning deceptions and a broad road leading to destruction.

No one wants to be seen as faithless, and yet he knows he will if his faith doesn’t produce the required result to be seen as faithful.  Men know this, so they produce the result that will merit the correct evaluation from men.  They give credit in the end to the faith that they possess, but the real praise should go to the methods that they used to produce their results.  They say it is faith, but it really is a unique mix of various technology, motivation, propaganda, techniques, and enthusiasm.  It takes the form of various styles of music, lighting, comforts, conveniences, advertising, programs, promotions, and compromises.  In many cases, the result given credit to faith isn’t a genuine result.  It hasn’t been produced by the power of God because of its mixture with the man-made method or strategy.

The manifestations of the perversions of revivalism are all over evangelicalism and fundamentalism, including in the churches or organizations or people who are critical of revivalism.  Non-revivalist preachers and their fans also judge their success by how big they are, calling that the “blessing of God on their ministries.”  And other non-revivalist preachers crowd around those men and their churches looking for what it is the “successful pastors” have in order to imitate their methods.  The sad result is that the One upon whom true faith rests doesn’t get the credit He deserves for the genuine blessing that He has produced that has nothing to do with the trappings of buildings, bucks, or books published.  Many of these well-known churches are as guilty of leaning on methodological manipulation as any staunch supporter of Finney.

May we return to scriptural faith.  May we seek to judge based upon biblical criteria.  May we correct our belief and practice according to the Word of God.

Three Imperatives for the New Man (Colossians 3:15-17)

If You’re Not Interested in This, You’re Already Disobeying This

The new man puts on new clothes with his new belt, but he’s not quite ready to walk out the door without these three commands that every new person needs to keep to act like the new man that he is.

First,  “let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (v. 15). Whatever decision we happen to have come up in our life, we don’t break the pact of peace that we have with God.  “Rule” is in essence ‘to make a decision for you.’  A president has to think about his relations with other countries when he makes decisions.  We have to think about our relations with God when we make our decisions.  The peace we have with God needs to be what makes our decisions for us.  The treaty we signed when we got saved has to rule our decision making process.  We chose not to be at war with God any more, so we continue to honor that compact.

This peace with God is the basis for our union with the church.  We all get along based on the same peace pact.  The body life of a church is a oneness with each other that we get from our oneness from God.  We don’t come together based on doing our own thing, but based on what will keep us aligned with God.

How does that command relate to being thankful?  When God’s way comes down the pike, we just keep thanking God for it.  We’re thankful for this new life that God has given us and we keep thanking God for it.  A lack of contentment, unthankfulness, will lead you to go searching for satisfaction outside of God and His people.  We keep thanking Him and that’s akin to letting peace with Him rule in our hearts.  We didn’t join His church to do our own thing, but to fit together with others who as well want to do what He wants, and are thankful for it.

Second, “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (v. 16). That’s to say that God’s Word should control our lives.   We look at life through chapter and verse eyes.  Scripture has its home in a settled, complete way in us.  The parallel of this is in Ephesians 5:18 with “be filled with the Spirit.”  Being controlled by the Spirit and by the Word of God are the same thing.  The “sword of the Spirit is the Word of God” (Eph 6:17).   When God’s Word controls us, we will have the discernment to make right applications to all the various areas of our life, that is, “in all wisdom.”

When you are filled up with God’s Word, you can teach and admonish others one another in the body and then sing to the Lord in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  You can truly help others and truly worship the Lord in song.  What people need to hear is the Word of God and what God wants to hear in praise is the Word of God.  Psalms are the Word of God.  Hymns and spiritual songs should also be Scriptural.

Since the direction of singing in the Bible is “to the Lord,” then what matters is whether God likes the singing.  The Words and the music both need to be scriptural, that is, in fitting with the taste of God, His nature and His standard.  We sing among each other as a church, but we sing to the Lord.

Third, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 17). Everything that we do, both verbal and non-verbal, spoken and action, should be consistent with the Lord Jesus Christ.  What did Jesus do?  What would He have you to do?  Don’t have anything you do be something that Jesus wouldn’t do.  Honor Him in everything.

Since we’ve put on Christ, we want to make decisions that are at peace with Him, have His Words control us, and only do things that would be consistent with Who He is.

Thoughts about a Few Fine Points in These Verses

Verse 15 — “to the which also ye are called in one body”

I’m mainly wanting to think about what the “one body” is.  “Body” is not soteriological, but ecclesiological terminology.  “One” is not “one” as in “numeric one,” but “one in unity.”  A physical body is one.  A church is one.  The “one” is about “unity” very much like the “one mind” and the “one mouth” are about unity in Romans 15:6.  Colossians 3:15 is not telling us that there is one numeric body.  A body, a church, is one through aligning itself with God.  The church is where the believers at Corinth realized or experienced the true belief and practice that was peace with God.

We obey God in a church.  The church is where we find the oneness that God wants, expects, and requires for believers.  God’s peace is not ruling where false doctrine exists and wrong practice occurs.

The “ye” are the church members of the Colossian church to whom Paul was writing.  Notice that Paul excludes himself from that group here by saying “ye.” If this was thinking about some mystical body that one enters by faith alone, Paul would need to say “we” in order to include himself in that group.  He doesn’t say that.  He says “ye.”  Each believer allows peace to rule His life through a church.  A church is one because the church members submit to the will of God.

Verse 16 — “psalms . . . , singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”

If a church is not singing the psalms (Psalm 1 through 150), could it be obeying this verse?  So a first fine point here is the singing of psalms.  That has been the norm in the history of the church.  Spurgeon’s hymnbook had a full psalter in the text.  His church sang all 150 psalms to various tunes according to the meter of the versification of that psalm.  I commend you to return to the singing of the psalms.  “You” is plural in v. 16, when Paul writes “in you richly.”  The Word of Christ is to dwell in the church, and it in part does so through the psalms.  I contend that a church disobeys Colossians 3:16 without implementing a psalter in worship.  Some do it out of ignorance, but having read this, that would no longer be the case.

I also want to emphasize that singing in Scripture is “to the Lord.”  God is the audience of worship.  We sing to Him.  That is the only direction of singing in the Bible.  For that reason, the music is not a matter of our taste, but God’s taste.  “What kind of music does God want to hear?” should be our question.  Instead, as influenced by the mainstreaming of Charismaticism into evangelicalism, by the labeling of and acceptance of the Jesus movement as a legitimate revival, and by the reception of the principles of the modern church growth movement, churches now use music that God does not tolerate.  The scriptural content of songs, like the versification of the text of the psalms, does not correspond with or harmonize with worldly, fleshly, ungodly tunes.   Most forms of music in the world are unacceptable to God.  By singing them to God, the people doing so manifest either a blatant self-gratification contradictory to scriptural worship or a woeful lack of discernment.

How Can I Forgive? (Colossians 3:13)

Sometimes we have relationship problems with other human beings.  Not you, of course.  You get along with everyone great, never offended.  Sorry if I offended you by bringing that up.  I said, “sorry,” so shouldn’t we just move on?  OK.  You get the point—we’ve got all of this flesh bumping into each other like Olympic hockey players.  We get tension, hurt feelings, and fractured relationships.  Some other people (not you, of course) have said or done some mean things to you, and now you might have a hard time speaking with or even looking at those people.  Just bringing this up might conjure up imaginations of one particular person and several incidents.   Even if you had all the kings horses and all the kings men, you don’t know if you could put back together this relationship.  Even if he tries to apologize, you don’t know how you can forgive.

To start, since you’ve put off the old man and put on the new man, that is, since you’ve been converted, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and have your position in Christ, you can forbear.  Your new nature tends toward forbearance.  The answer to “can’t we all get along?” is “yes.”  As much as so much has been done for you in the way of forbearance and forgiveness, you can forbear and forgive too.  You want to.  There is much more that you can take, can put up with, can endure, because no one can take away from you what is most important to you.  So it’s hard to offend you in the first place, but once someone has sinned against you, and repents, you can forgive too.

Sometimes someone has really performed a doozy of an offensive act against you.  Really repugnant.  Really taken advantage of you.  Something more than opening his car door into your paint job.  At least you don’t think you can get over this.  And perhaps you are considering the source, a character who is unforgiveable.  You seem to have quite a case against someone, quite a “quarrel” against him.  You have this grudge against him.  So you just don’t know how to forgive.  You want to.  The bitterness might even be starting to eat you up inside.  You know that you’re supposed to have reconciliation with other believers (Matthew 5:23-24).

You’re asking, “How can I forgive?”  People are often held back by this paralysis.  They don’t see it as possible.  The Bible answers that question in Colossians 3:13.  And it is the only description of “how to forgive” in the Bible.  How do we forgive?  We forgive as Jesus forgave.  How did He forgive?  When you think of how He forgave you, you have your answer.  Did you offend Him worse than anyone?  Even more than how much you’ve been offended by anyone else?  Yes.   Did He require a pound of flesh from you?  No.  Was He of purer and nobler sensibilities than you?  Yes.  Was He of greater value than you?  Yes.  Did He only partially forgive?  No.  Did He clear the path between you and Him completely with His forgiveness?  Yes.  Did He want to forgive?  Yes.   Did Jesus leave any quarrels or grudges over what you’ve done, once you repented?  No.  Well, that’s how you forgive.  Like Jesus did.  You can do that if you’ve been forgiven, because you’re a new man.

Kill Yourself (Colossians 3:5)

If you have received Christ, you already have killed yourself spiritually.  You gave up your life for His sake (Matt 10:39).  You were crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20).   Paul makes that point a little later here in 3:9, when he says that the Colossian believers had already put off the old man.  When we become new creatures (2 Cor 5:17) the old man is passed away.  We are not the old man any more.  The idea that we are sort of two people fighting against each other isn’t true.  Before we were saved we were one wicked person and then once we were converted, we become one righteous person.  We didn’t add a nature at the moment we became a Christian that could battle against another nature that stayed on.

However, we still do live in these bodies, and our body parts, our members, are still unredeemed.  This is the flesh.  Paul wrote in Romans 7:18 that in his flesh, dwelt “no good thing.”  Because of that, there will be a struggle for a Christian.  As v. 1 says, we are risen with Christ, and then v. 3, our life is hid with Christ in God, but we still have the flesh.  The nature of our new selves is that we can and we will struggle against the flesh.  We are dead to sin (Rom 6:2) positionally, but we still must reign in the ambitions and desires of our flesh.  We will either yield to our righteous nature or to the flesh.

To experience the reality of our position, we must cooperate with our new natures.  To do that we must act upon our flesh.  “Kill” is the word Paul uses to describe it.   In 1 Corinthians 15:31, he said that he died daily.  The flesh pulls the opposite of what God wants, and if we obey our body parts, we commit idolatry, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.  All sin is a kind of idolatry, which is why Paul ends by placing all of the sinful activity of v. 5 under that heading.

To partake in the benefits of the heavenlies in which we exist as believers, Paul says we must kill our body parts, and then he lists activities.   We kill the flesh by prohibiting it what it wants.  Paul goes from a specific action to a general attitude, informing us of how sin works.  We won’t fornicate if we don’t covet, or any sin between.    We stop the action by eliminating the attitude.  Our fulfillment in Christ is fulfillment in Christ.  We won’t experience that fulfillment out of fleshly deeds or attitudes, but by keeping on thinking about things above, where Christ is.

Why does v. 5 start with fornication and why this limited list of sins, which seems to target sexual immorality?   There are many more sins than these, but these are those that Paul used as samples for the type of killing that needed to occur.   Nothing needed put to death more than these kinds of activities that might be the most prevalent wickedness in society.  Of course, it traces these all back to idolatry and then covetousness, two larger categories.  The infidelity represented by this list also smacks of an unfaithfulness that should not characterize a believer.

Of help should be the progression seen in v. 5.  We can trace fornication back to idolatry through covetousness.  The path to fornication could be stopped by mortification of the flesh somewhere on the way down.   In many cases in our culture, it seems, the goal at best is to avoid fornication, with everything up to fornication as acceptable.  No one would get to fornication if he ended at uncleanness or inordinate affection.  However, those are all sins that lead up to fornication from covetousness.  They are still wrong, even if they don’t arrive at fornication.

All of the activities up to and even including fornication are encouraged by dating.  God didn’t design men to handle the regular close proximity and intimacy found in a relationship outside of marriage called dating.  Young people often burn with desires initiated by this practice.  Often this feeling is as well then confused with love.  Young people that have developed feelings for one another can’t distinguish between infatuation, love, or lust.  I think that most of them don’t want to sin, but they haven’t been shown a method that can succeed at not sending them down a forbidden path.  Dating is not in the Bible, and it is easy to see why, especially with the list of prohibitions.   By tolerating the dating method of obtaining a life’s partner, I believe we forfeit the responsibility of killing the sins that lead to fornication.

A Way Into Heaven Before You Die (Colossians 3:1-4)

The legalists arrived at a spiritual apex one way, the mystics a different one, and the ascetics another.  All of them had something in common though, they weren’t looking for their fulfillment in Christ.  One would do and do and do a whole bunch, the other would seek after religious experiences, and another would deny himself of much of earth’s pleasure.   Ironically, all of these were still worldly.   People claiming to be so out-of-touch with the world were still operating on the world’s horizontal plane.

The spiritual fulfillment we have doesn’t come from anything on earth.  Ours is found in a heavenly existence that we receive in Christ.    We believers have already escaped the corruption of this world (2 Pet 1:4).  Jesus has raised us up to sit with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6) and have our citizenship in heaven (Philip 3:20).  So since that is where our spiritual existence is, that is also where our focus should be.

What changes we believers into what the Lord wants us to be is our constant attention on the Person of Jesus Christ.  By looking unto Him and beholding Him, we are transformed into His image (Heb 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18).   By putting our minds on Jesus, we become in practice who we already are in position.  In Christ is the fulfillment of everything that legalism, mysticism, and ascetism would say they have to offer.  And we’re already risen with Christ as believers, which is why we can and should be looking toward the Lord, Who is in heaven.  The Lord Jesus Christ is all we need, so the other things really are a distraction.

Whatever it is that people think they can accomplish through the worldly means of legalism, mysticism, and ascetism, will be completed through Jesus Christ.   And as believers, we shouldn’t think much of those avenues to spirituality, because we already became dead to them when our life became hid in Christ.  As a matter of practice, we should stop looking to those worldly means of fulfillment and look to its only place, that is, in heaven where Jesus is.  Staying caught up with the Lord is what will give us all that we will ever need or desire.

Massively Exaggerated to the Point of Dishonest Applications of Colossians 2:20-23

Are separatists or fundamentalists, those who practice personal and ecclesiastical separation according to Scripture, the ascetics of Colossians 2:20-23?  Evangelicals want you to believe so.  They make this almost the entire application of Colossians 2:20-23.  Churches will get a lot bigger when they allow their members or attendees to live just like or very close to the world.  The evangelicals, like no other time in history, have stuck this kind of passage on separatists, to take away any guilt they might have for living lascivious lifestyles.  Now their congregations and evangelicalism, and Christianity really, are paying for it.  They read separatists and fundamentalists into this kind of passage to justify their manner of operation.

Ascetics added lists of rules to Scripture as an inclusion in their plan of salvation.  They add works to grace and not just scriptural works, but extra scriptural works, works not found in the Bible anywhere.   They also added extra requirements not found in God’s Word to real restrictions that were in Scripture.  We’re talking about what is mainly monk or nun like behavior.

Paul hits the ascetics with his words in Colossians 2:20-23, and warns the church not to go back to works salvation after union with Christ had removed the believers from such human religion (v. 20).  The ascetics were a kind of Gnosticism that believed flesh was evil, so their lifestyle became Pharisaical.  They kept “spiritual” by refraining from certain activities like bathing.  Someone might slip up and see your naked body.  And then as we move forward to v. 21, they wouldn’t touch people, afraid that their sin could rub off, and wouldn’t even taste certain foods that were too good to eat and might result in some pleasure.  If an ascetic were to do any of that, it would affect his spirituality.

Asceticism contradicted the sufficiency in Christ that Paul taught they had.  They had all fulness in Him, were complete in Him.  The ascetics’ regulations were made up, fake humility, phoniness, and ironically did not deny their flesh, but indulge it, what v. 23 says is ‘satisfying the flesh.’  What was supposed to be spiritual was actually flesh.  It was all about man and nothing about Jesus, which is where all of salvation dwelt.

Evangelicals label separatists or fundamentalists as these ascetics.  Do you understand what they are doing?  They are judging the motives of separatists.  It is true that some professing Christians, fundamentalists, will judge spirituality too much by external criteria.  I dealt with that in my lost post on Colossians 2:16-17.   Sometimes movements within fundamentalism have issues with this.  In many cases, the problems of these segments of fundamentalism relates to their wrong view of the gospel, but it isn’t an asceticism issue.

These evangelicals, which include John MacArthur, John Piper, Charles Swindoll, Rick Warren, and others, make absurd overstatement, like this one by MacArthur:

[The] whole orientation was that spirituality is determined by external behavior. And you get into an environment like that and I can promise you some, it’ll intimidate you. You begin to feel that if you do the wrong things or if you say the wrong things or you happen to be for some organization or for some individual in the ministry and this whole outfit is against them, boy you are really on the out.

By smearing separatists with this asceticism charge, those part of evangelicalism feel in a superior spiritual position because of their woeful under-emphasis on externals.  The Bible doesn’t shuck externals.  They come out of internals, true, but externals are all over the place, and these evangelicals have greatly abused the grace of God by sending their people this direction.   It has become a kind of left-wing legalism.  True spirituality comes from an almost complete lack of emphasis on externals, resulting in a great dearth of holiness and spiritual discernment.

Now you’re seeing some of the conservative evangelicals backtracking to keep things from sliding over the precipice—books on personal separation and against worldliness.  Those books are still anemic, and I think, because they’ve got a people who can’t handle something strong about it.  However, they see that God’s grace has been cheapened to the extent that their own gospel has been affected with eternal consequences.

The ascetics are those who did bully the Colossians church members into reappraising their own salvation experience, because they were not following extra scriptural regulations.  So let’s not do that.  However, it isn’t talking about true spirituality manifesting itself in true self-denial and holy living—men having a short hair cut in obedience to 1 Corinthians 11:14, women wearing skirts and dresses in submission to Deuteronomy 22:5, not drinking alcohol because of Proverbs 23:31, faithful church attendance because of Hebrews 10:24-25, and not listening to or using worldly music because of a host of verses which teach about abstaining from worldly and fleshly lusts.  All of that is setting your affections on things above (Col 3:1-3).

I think these lascivious ones are the biggest bullies in our culture today.  They want to live like they want and they don’t want you to say anything to them about it.  They don’t want you to judge their church as worldly. If you do, well, they’ll shoot an eisegesis of scripture at you.

Spiritual Bullies (Colossians 2:16-17)

We find perfect Christian balance in Jesus Christ himself.  We are complete in Him, because in Him all fulness dwells (Col 2:9-10).  In Jesus we are holy.  In Him we will be holy and live holy.  We will be changed and different.  We will obey His Word.  We won’t be ruled by the flesh any more.  But we also are free.  We are free from the religion of human achievement.  We don’t attain spirituality by keeping lists of rules.  With live righteous lives in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

A group of false teachers in the Colossae region went around making people feel guilty because they didn’t keep a list of rules not found in Scripture.   To them, even if you had received Christ, you weren’t saved if you didn’t keep their pet menu of rituals and regulations and routines.  External standards are always tempting.  Unconverted phonies can conform to them, so they don’t provide a suitable basis to judge someone’s conversion.  Salvation is by grace through faith, but spiritual bullies desire to coerce others into their own criteria for spirituality, causing confusion and doubt to a church.

So Paul tells these churches at Colossae and Laodecia not to restrict themselves solely because of these false teachers that want them to cramp their lifestyles to earn their way to righteousness (v. 16).  This contradicted the sufficiency they had in Christ (vv. 9, 10).  He wasn’t, by the way, saying to them that they could do whatever they wanted.  Colossians 2 isn’t the only passage in the Bible on liberty.  There are huge chunks of text on this in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians as well.  For instance, he wasn’t requiring them to jump through the salvation hoops of the Essenes, but in other passages he does tell the church to look out for the welfare of the weaker brother.  They didn’t have liberty to sin, to be worldly, to be a stumbling block, to be a bad testimony, to let their good be evil spoken of, to disobey church leadership, or to cause disunity in the church.  But he didn’t want them to be bullied by the onerous self-serving dicta of genuine legalists.

You aren’t a Christian because you show up for church work day, men’s prayer time, and for both times of door-to-door evangelism.  You aren’t a Christian because you are a regular kneeler at the front during invitations and you shout “amen” louder than anyone else in the church.  You aren’t a Christian because you don’t go to the movie theater, don’t subscribe to Sports Illustrated, your hair doesn’t touch your ears, you don’t have a Christmas tree, and you’ve never read a Tolkien novel.  You’re a Christian only because of Jesus Christ, because of His work on Calvary, because of His resurrection, because He intercedes for you on the right hand of the Father, and because of the righteousness with which you are robed in Him.  That will all look like good works and holiness and love for God and others.  However, nothing that we can do will add anything to the fulness that is in Christ.

The problem represented by Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:16-17 can raise its ugly head in any church, but I know it to be a particular one for separatist churches.  The churches often have high, scriptural standards of holiness.  People in those churches can replace actual salvation and spirituality with the rules of the church.  Those rules don’t even exist, but they do in the minds of some.  Some church members might live a double life buoyed by their ability both to wear the Christian uniform and nitpick others who don’t wear it like they do.  Inside they hold evil thoughts and an ugly spirit.  They’ve really developed their own religious system separate from the Bible and true godliness.   This kind of culture can spread, either causing major difficulties in a church or verging on taking over.  Paul says don’t let it happen.

Don’t let spiritual bullies have their way in a church.  I know they latch hold of one thing that I say in a sermon.  I might say that I don’t eat at some restaurant because of the prominent bar and they take that as “anyone who goes there isn’t saved.”  They themselves aren’t devoted to God but they won’t go to a restaurant that maybe they don’t go to anyway, and they’ll condemn anyone  else that goes there because they haven’t kept the rules of the church.  I’ve found that they do very little to help anyone else.  They will even bully the pastor into regulating himself for fear of the campaign they might start due to his inability to keep their ways.  And yet they expect to be thought highly of because they know how to look and they keep all the regulations they know are important.  Some of those standards might be helpful, but they don’t exist as a bar for measuring spirituality.

The Lord Jesus set us free from bondage through His death.   Jesus delivered you from the captivity of Satan and his demons.  Let’s not be bullied into another type of subtle, insidious imprisonment after all that the Lord has done.

You Aren’t Adding to Your Holiness (Colossians 2:10-15)

Thus far, Paul has used an indirect approach in addressing the errors promoted by false teachers in Colosse.  His introduction reminds me of the way the nurse introduces the shot.  She sets it on the table next to me.  She opens up several of those alcohol swabs and wipes.  She sort of thumbs the spot.  She addresses it with the alcohol wipe.  Then comes the big stick.  Ouch!

We all know what is coming, and by the time the alcohol wipe touches the skin, we know that it is coming soon.  We know why it is coming, and why we need it, and we are quite sure it will help.  But we can’t help wincing a bit when it finally comes.  Consider this the final wince before the shot.  The shot comes in verse 16.  But meanwhile, we’ve got that alcohol wipe, and it is high time we applied it.

Between the Gnostics, the Essenes, and the Judaizers, the believers at Colosse were confused.  Before they were saved, when they were dead in their sins and the uncircumcision of their flesh, they understood that they were in bondage.  It didn’t always feel like bondage, but once they converted, they understood that it really was bondage.  Because of false teachers, however, they were really beginning to feel that they were in more bondage than before.  The rules and restrictions and ‘can’t’ lists seemed to grow exponentially.  They had to be circumcised, they needed to respect all these new holy days, they had to stop eating food they enjoyed, they had to keep the sabbath, they had to “touch not, taste not, handle not.”  Every time they turned around, there was a new rule.  Basically, they found that they had to give up everything they enjoyed, and replace it with all sorts of things they did not enjoy.

I find no evidence in the book of Colossians that these believers were resentful of this new kind of bondage.  If they were chafing at the rules or thinking about turning back, Paul gives no indication.  From all appearances, they were ready and willing to go along with the form of ascetic Christianity being taught by false teachers.  For this, I believe that they deserve a little credit.  But here is the point when Paul steps in to reverse the trend and send them back in the right direction…

You are in Christ, and in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  Being in Christ then, you are filled (complete – v. 10).  How complete are you?  Well, you are already circumcised.  What’s that, you say?  You’ve never been circumcized?  But you are, though.  You are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.  The body of the sins of your flesh are put off by the circumcision of Christ.  You are in Him, remember?

Would you repeat that question?  You were asking if that means you don’t need to be circumcised after all?  That’s correct.  You already are, remember?  With the circumcision made without hands.

That’s not all either.  You are buried with Christ also.  You are buried with Him in baptism by immersion (sprinkling doesn’t picture burial).  So, you don’t need to give up life and living.  What’s that you just asked?  You wanted to know if ‘living’ would get bad stuff on us, the way dirt makes us dirty?  You wanted to know if we aren’t supposed to die to the things of this world, and stop enjoying things?

Wait, wait… one question at a time please.  Yes, I have heard that definition of Puritanism — the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.  But that is really just a slander… No, you don’t have to fear pleasure and lawful enjoyment.  No, you won’t need to die to pleasure, that’s what I am saying.  You are buried with Christ already.

How’s that again?  Yes, exactly… this means that you already died with Christ (see Romans 6).  Not only that, but you are risen with him through the faith of the operation (the Greek word here is energeias – energy) of God, who raised Christ from the dead.  You see, you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh.  But now you are risen with Christ.  He has quickened you together with Christ.  The word is sunzōpoieō, and it indicates that you are not made alive by yourself, but that you are joined together with Christ in being made alive.  So, yes, you are free to live, because you are alive with Christ.

Jesus Christ died, buried, and revived.  He quickened you together with Himself when He saved you.  In quickening you, he forgave you all trespasses.  He also did something else for you, something that the false teachers like to ignore so that they can plunder you of your liberty in Christ.  When Christ quickened you, forgiving you all trespasses, he also obliterated the bondage of the law.  As a matter of fact, you know how those Judaizers and pseudo-religious leaders are always harrassing you about your need to be circumcised and to submit to the ceremonial law?  Well, let me tell you about them.  You see, when Christ was nailed to the cross, they thought that they had triumphed over Him.  But in fact, He was triumphing over them.  When He gave up the ghost, He shocked all their sensibilities, for He prayed, “Father, forgive them…”  He shocked their sensibilities even more, for He ripped the veil of the temple in two.  And then, on the third day, He made a show of them openly in that He arose from the grave.

Now, they want you to think that holiness is found in keeping yourself from touching so-called “defiled” things.  They want you to believe that you become more holy by keeping all of their feasts and holy days and sabbaths.  But you should understand that your righteousness and holiness is not in yourself.  It is found in Christ.  Be holy, for sure.  You must, because you are in Christ.  We’ll be getting to that shortly.  But for right now, understand that you can keep all of their laws, but you aren’t adding even one speck to your holiness.  Your holiness (forgive me for repeating myself) is all wrapped up in Christ.

Some final thoughts…

I know of a church that requires Christians, before they can join the church, to sign a covenant with the church promising that they will not have a television, that they will not watch professional sports, that they will not participate in any team sport, that they will not watch any movie with a rating above a “G,” that they will turn down commercials on their radio, that they will only listen to one of the two radio stations approved by the church, that they will never skip family devotions, that their ladies will never wear cullottes, that their men will never wear shorts, that they will never go to a restaurant on a Sunday, and that they will not drink Coca-Cola.  If they will not promise all of these things, they cannot join.

I believe that Paul’s point in Colossians 2 would reject this sort of thing.  God has quickened us together with Christ, and He intends that we would live.

Walk in Christ the Way You Received Him (Colossians 2:6-8)

A Case for Christian Presuppositions

We have been inundated with books of the “evidential” variety, beginning with McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and most recently continuing with Lee Strobel and his very popular The Case for … series of books.  I’ll not go so far as to say that these books have no value.  No doubt, there are those who have come to faith in Christ after having taken a candid look at the evidence.  Nor would I argue that there is not a veritable universe filled with evidence of our Creator.  The whole earth is full of his glory.

But I have a problem with this method of evangelism.  I believe that it elevates human intellect and invites men to come to Christ on their own terms.  The Bible characterizes the world as having an autonomous self-sufficiency, and the evidential approach to apologetics appeals to this autonomous self-sufficiency.  For, when an autonomous man is persuaded by human wisdom and evidence that he “just can’t answer,” that man has come to Christ on his own terms, rather than coming on Christ’s terms.

Christ’s call to salvation requires mankind to repent.  But the evidential approach requires no repentance.  It merely requires a progression in one’s understanding.  The worldly mind promotes human reasoning above all else, and the evidential approach appeals to human reasoning.  Paul often spoke of the worldly mind.  In Colossians 2:8, he described it as philosophy that is vain deceit, and characterized it as “after the tradition of men… and not after Christ.”  In I Corinthians 1:12, Paul tells us that “the world by wisdom knew not God.”  And in Ephesians 4:17ff, Paul demands that we “henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind…”  He says that their understanding is darkened, that they are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.  We have not received the spirit of the world (I Corinthians 2:12), but the spirit of Christ.  Nor will the spirit of the world ever bring a man to Christ, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spririt of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”  (I Corinthians 2:14).

Brethren, I would remind you that it is the natural man who demands evidence (I Corinthians 1:22).  But we refrain from speach that utilizes the words which man’s wisdom teaches (I Corinthians 1:23-24; 2:13).  The worldly mind refuses to believe anything that does not meet its criterion for evidence.  This is why men who lived during the time of Christ, who saw His miracles and heard His preaching and even made up lies to deny His resurrection did not become believers or disciples of Christ.  It certainly wasn’t for a lack of evidence.  They had more evidence than any man can possibly want in our day.

The world’s problem is and always has been its presuppositions.  The world sets its presuppositions against the presuppositions that the Bible demands.  And the world by wisdom does not know God.  God requires a man to repent of these worldly presuppositions, or he will perish.  And this, as I see it, is exactly the problem with the evidentialist approach to apologetics.  Evidentialism appeals to a man to keep those worldly assumptions and come to Christ that way.  So that when a man converts, he does not convert because he has submitted himself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  He converts because he has persuaded himself that Christianity is the truth.  He comes to Christ, not on Christ’s authority, but on the authority of his own autonomous mind.

As an aside, I believe that this kind of “converting” explains why so many of these converts continue to lead such a worldly and sensual lifestyle.  They walk in Christ the way they received Him.

We receive Christ on His terms.  He is God.  He does not appeal to evidence when He calls men to salvation.  He appeals to His own authority.  He demands that we lay aside our own assumptions and take up the Christian presuppositions of Scripture.  Sight does not make a man a Christian.  And yet, many Christians in their desire to persuade men, appeal to their own self-sufficient sight by appealing on the basis of evidence.  The just shall live by faith.  We walk by faith, not by sight.  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

The way that we received Christ is the way that we are to walk in Him.  That includes, most obviously, our manner of living.  But it also includes our thinking, our scholarly endeavors, and our witnessing.  When we witness for the Lord, we are to witness in submission to His Lordship.  No doubt, we are the people, and we think that we have found a better way.  After all, these evidentialists, they are bringing many people to make a profession of faith.  We can’t really see evidence of conversion, but at least people are giving lip-service to it, right?  I mean, that’s probably better than nothing.  Which reminds me, why am I wasting my time writing this when I could be out soul winning.

But Paul commands us to be rooted and built up in Christ.  That is how we are to walk in Him.  Stablished in the faith, as we have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.  And as we do, Paul warns us, that is, those of us who are walking in Christ the way we received him, to “Beware lest any man spoil (take captive, carry off as booty) you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men (worldly presuppositions that demand evidence and refuse to acknowledge the authority of Christ in the realm of knowledge), after the rudiments of the world (autonomous self-sufficiency), and not after Christ.

In this, then, we should take note of yet another evidence of true conversion — that the former man of the world has repented of his former basic assumptions, and now has a new basic assumption.  He now assumes that whatever God says in His Word is true, and he approaches Scripture that way.  As Ephesians 4:20-24 teaches, that man has new committments, new assumptions, new presuppositions, a new love, a new direction, new evidence, a new life – behold, all things have become new!

The Sufficiency of Jesus (Colossians 2:8-10)

All fulfillment depends on Jesus.  Whatever false teaching would mess that up should be avoided.   And men with their father, the devil, will persist in influencing people to turn away from the Lord.  Every single human being gets that choice:  the true and only Jesus or what men have to say about Jesus and everything else.  Everyone’s eternal destiny hangs on how he responds to those two options.

The first possibility is in v. 8, which is man’s thinking on things.  You can go with that and it might even make sense to you.  It is after all how most people get popular and powerful in time.  Of course, Paul warns to beware of that direction.  It will “spoil” you.  The Greek verb translated “spoil” essentially has the understanding of “being made spoil.”  You’ll be nothing but Satan’s booty if you go that direction.  You’ll be his trophy hanging on his wall.  You’ll think you have freedom to think and express yourself and really be the real you, but you’ll actually be his prisoner, his captive.

By the way, Satan will call the philosophy “evidence.”  He’ll say it’s empirical, it’s science, and the only reasonable way.  He’ll say that his way is for the thinking person, somebody who isn’t easily duped by shallow, mindless Christianity.  It is very elite.  This is the way man’s wisdom is—it comes with a lot of bells and whistles.  It will make you look good.

To get the Jesus’ way, which is the only way of salvation, real wisdom, eternal life, and true satisfaction, you have to recognize your own spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy.  You have to do something like what Paul did in Philippians 3 when he said all his best smarts and achievements he had to put the “dung” label on.

I wish that teenagers would consider this for a moment.  The fads of this world are sucking you into a worthless life.   They may be “cool” or “phat” or “sweet,” but they make you captive.  You think you’re getting something, but all you’re getting is getting gotten.  What you think you will get from the world and its toys will leave you with the inside of a donut, even worse.

On the Jesus side of the ledger (vv. 9, 10) is “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”  The Gnostics said, “not so, Jesus was just some emanation several times removed from God; God couldn’t or wouldn’t dwell in a body—all flesh is evil and all spirit is good.”  And that teaching, my friend, is convoluted and a dead end.  In Jesus is everything that God is, which happens to be everything.  And when I say everything, I mean things that you haven’t even thought that you needed.  Which is why it is also to say that “ye are complete in Him.”

Want a complete life?  It’s Jesus.  That’s why it’s so important that you get settled about Him.  Stop frittering your life away with the useless trinkets, which happen to be anything that is not Jesus.

And Christian, be confident.  You’re complete in Jesus.  Complete.  Believe it.  Don’t apologize for that choice.  It’s the best.  Now go tell everyone.