Kidnapped!
Opening Prayer
Take a few minutes to remind yourself of the freedom purchased for you through the cross and resurrection.
Read Colossians 2:6–15
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Spiritual Fullness in Christ
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929–1968).Having reminded the Colossians of the infinite scope of God’s grace in Jesus, Paul’s tone changes. He now starts urging his readers to apply this truth to every aspect of their lives. And he doesn’t mince his words. Just as they received Jesus as Lord of their lives, he pleads with them to carry on rooting and building their lives on Christ and the Gospel message. It’s up to them to guard themselves from the toxic ideas now circulating in their church, to see to it that they are not ambushed by weird teaching (2:8).
Paul doesn’t specify the exact nature of this alternative message but he gives us a few clues. Their faith is in danger of being poisoned through a heady cocktail of pagan philosophy, religious ideas about the role of angels and an exaggerated emphasis on self-denial. As far as Paul is concerned they need to take immediate action. It’s as though he’s saying “stop it now!” He clearly believes that this new Christian community is sufficiently well-informed to know the difference between the word of truth (1:5) and the lies being peddled in Colossae. We too face the same kind of dilemma.
Apply
Can you see Jesus being exalted in our culture? Is there an area of your life where you are bending to culture rather than to Christ?
Closing prayer
Lord, keep my heart fixed on following You. May I not be led astray by the voices of the culture around me.
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