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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:9, 12-20, 25-29; 2:2-3, 6-19; 3:1-4, 10-11, 15-16
In this chapter we will see the vision of Christ in the book of Colossians. We will begin by reading a number of portions from the first three chapters.
Verse 9 of chapter 1 says, “Therefore we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease praying and asking on your behalf that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” This verse reflects the prayer and desire of the apostle that we be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will. We should not consider that God’s will here is concerning minor things, such as whether or not to buy a pair of shoes, whether we should rent a house, or where we should go to college. Rather, this refers to God’s greater will, even the greatest will of God.
God’s will is His plan, or purpose, and the knowledge of His will is in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Wisdom is something in the spirit, but understanding is something in the mind. To realize and understand the will of God, we first need wisdom in our spirit and then understanding in our mind.
Verse 12 says, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” The Greek text here refers not to an inheritance but to a lot, a portion. This lot is the portion of the saints that is given to us by God. This allotted portion is Christ. God has no intention to give us something else as our allotted portion. The portion, the lot, given to us by God is the Christ of God. Beginning from verse 13, the apostle tells us who Christ as our God-given portion is. Verses 13 and 14 say, “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The portion given by God to us is the Son of God’s love, and in this One we have redemption through His blood.
If possible, I would ask you to memorize all these words and phrases. I would even encourage some young brothers to memorize the whole book of Colossians, from the first to the last verse. Then you can speak this book from memory. At least we need to remember all the items concerning Christ.
Verse 15 says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation.” God is invisible, unseen, yet He has an image. This image is Christ. Image here refers to expression. God is invisible, but He has an expression, who is Christ. Verses 16 through 20 continue, “Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him. And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him; and He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things; for in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross — through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” Not only were we humans reconciled by Christ to God; all creatures, the things on the earth and in the heavens, were also reconciled.
In these verses there are more items concerning Christ that we should memorize. He is the image of God, the Firstborn of all creation, the means of all creation, the One through whom all things were created, the One in whom all things cohere, the Head of the Body, the Firstborn from the dead, the One who has the first place, the One in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and the One in whom all creatures were reconciled to God.
Verses 25 and 26 say, “Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints.” Stewardship means “economy,” “administration,” or “dispensation.” From the very beginning throughout all the generations, this mystery has been hidden.
Verse 27 says, “To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Bible students have differing opinions as to what the antecedent of which is. Some say it is the riches, and others say it is this mystery. I prefer to say that which refers to this mystery, but whether it is the riches or this mystery, it is the same. We may speak of the riches of our bank account; the riches and the bank account are the same thing. Without the riches, the bank account means nothing. Likewise, without the riches in verse 27, the mystery means nothing. The mystery depends on the riches, and the riches are the contents of the mystery. The King James Version incorrectly says, “What is the riches of the glory of this mystery,” using is in the singular. The riches are not one item only. They are the many items of the mystery as the contents of the mystery. This mystery is Christ, not Christ alone, but Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is in us for today, and He is our hope of glory for tomorrow.
Verse 28 begins, “Whom we announce.” What Paul announced was not dispensations, prophecy, teachings, doctrines, gifts, or tongues. I say this again because people stress these things too much. Who is the whom that Paul announced? It is Christ. This verse continues, “Admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom.” Paul not only announced, but he admonished and taught. Some say that I am a trouble maker; if I am, it is because I desire to admonish every man and teach every man. We need not only to announce but also to admonish and teach. We need to admonish because there are too many things to distract people from the central item, which is Christ. Admonishing is negative, but teaching is positive. We admonish and teach not only all men but every man, one by one.
Verse 28 ends, “That we may present every man full-grown in Christ.” The Greek word here is not perfect but full-grown. The word perfect is too simple; it does not give the feeling that we need to grow. The word here implies maturity, growth in a full way to its fullest extent. This is not maturity in doctrine, teaching, speaking in tongues, or gifts of healing. It is to be mature, full-grown, in Christ. We have to grow in Christ, and we must mature in Christ. Verse 29 continues, “For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.” The apostle strove, struggled, and fought to labor in this way, not by his own human strength but by the divine power which operated in him.
Chapter 2 reveals more concerning Christ. Verses 2 and 3 say, “That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.” Then verse 6 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” I like these two words: received and walk. We have received Christ, and now we walk in Him. Verse 7 continues, “Having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” In Greek, having been rooted is in the perfect tense, and being built is in the present. We have been rooted in Christ; this is an accomplished matter. Now we are in the process of being built up in Him; this is still going on.
Verse 8 is a warning: “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” To be carried off as spoil is worse than being damaged. It is to be brought into captivity, to be captured. Verses 9 and 10 say, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you have been made full in Him, who is the Head of all rule and authority.” Fullness in verse 9 and made full in verse 10 are from the same Greek root. The fullness dwells in Christ, and we have been made full in Him. We may illustrate fullness and being made full with a glass containing blue dye. If we put a white handkerchief into the glass, it will be made blue because the blue dye is in the glass. The fullness dwells in Christ, and now we have been put into Christ, “dipped” into Him, so in Him we have been made full.
Verses 11 through 13 say that we have been baptized, buried together with Christ, raised with Him, and made alive together with Him. Christ also blotted out the ordinances and stripped off the rulers and authorities (vv. 14-15). Stripping off may be compared to dusting, like the way we dust off our clothes. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, the principalities, the evil powers, came to Him, but the Lord brought all this “dirt” to the cross. Through His death on the cross He dusted them off.
Verses 16 and 17 say, “Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” The apostle mentions five items: eating, drinking, a feast for joy, a new moon for a new beginning, and the Sabbath for rest. Food, drink, joy, the new beginning, and rest are all a shadow, but the body is of Christ. Verse 19 goes on to speak of the Head, the Body, the joints for the supply of the Body, and the sinews for the knitting together of the members of the Body.
Chapter 3 begins, “If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth” (vv. 1-2). In this book Paul speaks of the mind several times. In 1:21 he said that the Colossians had been enemies in their mind because of evil works, in 2:18 the defrauders are vainly puffed up by the mind set on the flesh, and here in 3:2 the believers should set their mind on the things which are above.
Verse 3 says that we have died and that our life is hidden with Christ in God, and verse 4 says that when Christ our life is manifested, we also will be manifested with Him in glory. Following this, verses 10 and 11 say, “And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” Finally, verses 15 and 16 say, “Let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.”
For a long time I have felt that we must come together to see the vision of Christ in four short books: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Galatians and Ephesians each have six chapters, and Philippians and Colossians each have four, for a total of twenty chapters. More than thirty years ago, in 1933, I was surprised to realize how these four books relate to one another. At that time I gave some messages on these books in Shanghai, and since that time the Lord has continually opened my eyes to see more and more. In all my Bibles this portion is the most worn out. It is easy for me to find the book of Ephesians, because after I have a Bible for only fifteen months, the pages around Ephesians are already worn. In a training in Taipei in 1953 we had a study of the book of Ephesians, which comprised more than five hundred pages, almost one hundred pages for each chapter. We cannot exhaust reading these four short books. They are short but truly profound. If we would take them out of the Bible, we could not know Christ adequately. The full revelation and complete vision of Christ is in these four books. I am sorry that many Christians do not speak much about these books. They talk about Ephesians a little but in a very doctrinal, objective way.
The arrangement of the books of the New Testament is under the sovereignty of the Lord. Matthew is first, and Revelation is last. To put Revelation first and Matthew last is like putting the feet on the top and the head on the bottom. The four Gospels first give us a full record of the life of the Lord Jesus, a full biography of the Lord Jesus on the earth. They tell us who the Lord is and what He did for us.
After the history of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, Acts is a record of the preaching of Christ to others. By this preaching people were saved to be the members of the Body of Christ, so after Acts there is Romans to tell us what the members of the Body are. All the members of the Body of Christ were originally sinners. The first two and a half chapters of Romans tell us that we were sinful and under the condemnation of God, but we were justified through the blood of Christ. Then the subsequent chapters tell us that we were transferred out of Adam and into Christ. Now we are in Christ, and we need to walk in the Spirit of Christ. In this way we become the members of the Body to live the Body life.
After Romans, the two Epistles to the Corinthians tell us the way to solve all the problems in the church, the Body. First Corinthians speaks of doctrines and gifts. The Corinthians, like theologians, discussed many matters, such as marriage, going to law courts, sacrifices to idols, and resurrection. They even argued about Paul’s apostleship. They were the experts in studying and discussing the teachings and doctrines. On the one hand, they liked to talk about doctrines, but on the other hand, they also liked to exercise all manner of gifts. These were the peculiar characteristics of the Corinthians. However, all their troubles and problems came from the doctrines and the gifts.
According to the two-thousand-year history of the church, all divisions, confusion, denominations, and problems come from these two sources: doctrines and gifts. If we are frank and honest, we will admit that the more doctrines and gifts we have, the more divisions we have. Every division and denomination is built upon either a certain doctrine or a certain kind of gift. I am standing here to challenge this. Recently, I received some letters from the Far East in which some brothers insisted on nine points and wanted to know my attitude toward them. I replied that my attitude is toward Christ, not toward doctrine. I do not like to talk about doctrine. I told those brothers that we simply need to help people to believe in the Lord Jesus, to personally receive Him as their Savior, the Son of God who was incarnated as a man, died on the cross for our sins, and resurrected on the third day. Then we need to help people to love this Christ, know this Christ, experience this Christ, and be built up as the church to express this Christ. As long as we do that, that is wonderful; that is good enough. Let us forget everything else.
We are not here for a certain kind of doctrine. Some may say, “But, Brother Lee, you are here for the doctrine of Christ.” Praise the Lord, that is right! We all have to be for the “doctrine” of Christ. Then some may say, “You are not only for Christ; you are also for the church.” That is right also. We are fighting for nothing other than Christ and His Body, the church. We cannot solve the problems in the church by teaching and gifts; it is only by Christ, and this One crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). We, the members of Christ’s Body, have been put on the cross, and now we are in Christ. Christ is the answer to solve all the problems.
At the beginning of 1 Corinthians Paul says, “Indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom” (1:22). If we seek signs and miracles, we are following the Jews. The signs are related to the gifts, and knowledge, wisdom, is related to teaching and doctrine. In contrast to this, the apostle said, “But we preach Christ crucified” (v. 23), and in the following chapter he said, “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified” (v. 2). Then in the following book, 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul tells us about his own experience. He experienced Christ under any kind of circumstance.
After the two Epistles to the Corinthians, we have the four short books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. These four books reveal Christ in a full way. After the two Corinthians, we need these four books to give us a full revelation, a full vision, of the very Christ who is the answer to all the problems in the church life. These books tell us first who Christ is. Second, they tell us how this Christ must be very subjective to us, that is, how Christ has to be worked into us to be the inward, indwelling Christ. Third, they tell us the secret of experiencing and partaking of Christ. Then fourth, they tell us what is the result, the issue, of the experience of Christ.
Thus, these four books cover four points. As the basis, Colossians tells us who Christ is. In order to know who Christ is, we must read the short book of Colossians. Then Galatians tells us that the all-inclusive Christ has to be wrought into us. He has to live in us and even be formed in us. Following this, Philippians tells us the secret of how to experience this indwelling Christ, who is the all-inclusive One. Finally, Ephesians reveals that the issue, the result, of the experience of Christ is the church.
Colossians speaks of the eternal will of God, the economy of God, the mystery of God, and the God-given portion to us. What is the will of God? What does God intend to dispense to us in His economy? What is the mystery of God? And what is the portion God gives to us? The answer to all these questions is Christ. God’s will is to work Christ into us, in His economy God intends to dispense Christ to us, Christ is the mystery of God, and Christ is the portion God gives us. That is why in this short book we have such great terms as His will, the stewardship (economy) of God, the mystery of God, and the allotted portion of the saints (1:9, 25; 2:2; 1:12). All these are Christ.
God has one will in the universe. Romans 12:2 speaks in the singular of “the will of God..., that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.” Some may say that the will of God is to go to a certain college or to get married. However, if our going to college is not for Christ, that is not the will of God. Likewise, if we marry without Christ, that also is not the will of God. Whatever we do in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ is the will of God, because God’s will is simply Christ and nothing else. God’s will is to make Christ everything to us. It is that we take Christ as everything, that we take Him as life to live by Him and give Him the first place, the preeminence, in all our life.
For something to be the will of God, it must be in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ. Even if I minister here, yet not in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ, this ministry is not the will of God. God has only one will. There is no need to check something in another way; simply check whether or not that thing is in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ. There is no need to wait and analyze. If we can boldly say with full assurance that we are doing something in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ, then it is of the Lord.
I say again, God’s economy is to dispense Christ into us, and this very Christ is the portion of the saints. We have no other portion. If you ask me what I have, I will tell you that I have nothing, yet I have everything because I have Christ as my portion. If we receive something other than Christ as our portion, we will be cheated. In the Old Testament, Solomon the wise king told us that all things under the sun are vanity (Eccl. 1:1-11), and in the New Testament, Paul counted all things as refuse, as dung (Phil. 3:8). Even a Ph.D. degree is dung, and all the tall, attractive buildings in the affluent part of this city are dung. God would cheat us if He gave us these things as our portion. These are not our God-given portion. The portion God gives us is the reality, that is, Christ, the Son of God. All things are vanity of vanities; only Christ is real. He is grace and reality (John 1:17). Praise Him, He is our portion! I am satisfied because I have the unique, universal portion, the portion of the saints, which is Christ Himself. God’s intention is simply to give us this portion.
Who is this portion? Colossians first tells us that Christ our portion is the image, the expression, of the invisible God (1:15a). What God is, what God has, and what God has done and can do are all embodied in Christ and expressed in and through this Christ. Christ is the very expression of the very God. We may think that we need Christ only to be our Savior to save us from hell and take us to heaven. However, Christ being the image of the invisible God is much higher than this.
Within Christ as the image, the expression, of God dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (v. 19; 2:9). The fullness of God is in Him, and He is the very embodiment of God. Without Him, or outside of Him, we do not have God and we cannot find God.
This Christ is also the mystery of God (v. 2). As the mystery of God, Christ is also the history of God. The whole “story” of God is in Christ and is Christ. Whatever God has been, is, and shall be is in Him. Moreover, all that God planned and purposed to do is for Him so that He might have the preeminence, the first place, in all things (1:18). This pertains to the relationship of Christ toward God. With God, everything is Christ and is in Christ.
Then concerning creation, Christ is the first item, the Firstborn of all creation (v. 15b). I do not have the human words to explain this. In a word, Christ is the Creator as well as the creature. He is the One who created, and He is also the One who was created.
All creation was made in Him, through Him, and unto Him (v. 16). In Him and through Him refer to the past, and unto Him refers to His inheritance in the future. What then of the present? At the present time, all things cohere in Him. He is the Firstborn of all the creation, and all creation was made through Him in the past, exists in Him in the present, and is unto Him in the future. How big is creation? Millions of solar systems comprise one galaxy, billions of galaxies form the universe, and no one has found what is at the center of it all. All this was created through Christ, has its existence in Christ, and is unto Christ. All the scientists realize that there is an unknown power in the universe. This power is Christ Himself. Praise Him!
Redemption is in Christ, and Christ accomplished redemption (v. 14). In this redemption He dealt with our sins and the world, He abolished the ordinances, and He dusted off the evil forces (2:14-15). The whole universe is full of “dirt.” When Christ put on the flesh, He took all this dirt upon Himself. Then He put this flesh with its dirt onto the cross, and by the death of the cross He dusted away, stripped off, all the dirt. In particular, He dusted away the principalities, powers, dominions, and evil powers in the air. His redemption includes all of this. Moreover, Christ accomplished redemption to reconcile, to bring back, not only us the believers but also all things in the heavens and on earth, all the things that were created through Him, subsist in Him, and are unto Him (1:20).
In the new creation Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and the Firstborn from the dead. Christ is the Firstborn in two ways: the Firstborn of the old creation and the Firstborn of the new creation (vv. 15, 18).
All positive things in the universe are shadows; they are not the reality. A man is not the real husband, and his son is not the real son. No matter what kind of light someone is under, if he does not have Christ, he is still in darkness because that light is not the real light, and the sunshine is not the real sunshine. Our clothing is not the real clothing. Regardless of how good our clothing is, if we do not have Christ, we are naked. Christ is also the real food and drink. The reality of all things is Christ (2:16-17).
We should not enjoy the shadows too much. All the shadows simply signify the reality. My photograph is only a shadow of me; it is not the real me. The real me is a living person. The food we eat every day is only a “photograph” of the real food. We should not be cheated and fooled by the photographs. They simply signify Christ as the real One. We do not care for eating, drinking, a feast, a new moon, or the Sabbath. If we do not have Christ, we do not have a “new moon,” a new start. Christ is our morning. Whenever we meet Christ, touch Christ, and experience Christ, we have the sense that we have a new start. Moreover, Christ is the real feast for joy. If we do not have Christ, we do not have the real joy. Christ is also the real Sabbath; without Him we have no rest.
We cannot exhaust how much Christ is. Christ is everything to God, to creation, in redemption, in the new creation, and to all physical, material things, which are nothing but a shadow of this Christ. How much Christ is to us! Colossians tells us that He is our life today and our hope for the future. I am afraid that we do not realize Christ to such an extent.
Colossians speaks not only about who Christ is but also about the experience of Christ. Verse 6 of chapter 2 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” The following verse says that we have been rooted in Him. We are like little plants, and Christ is the soil, the earth. Moreover, we are now being built up in Him. Only Christ is so important to us. He is everything to us; He is our life and our hope, we have been rooted in Him, and now we are built up in Him. Therefore, we have to live by Him and walk in Him. We should not be beguiled, distracted, or sidetracked by anything. Philosophy, empty deceit, the elements of the world, and the worship of angels can beguile, distract, and sidetrack us. We must pay our full attention to this Christ. Moreover, we need to realize that this Christ is the very life-giving Spirit who indwells our spirit. If Christ were not the Spirit, He could not be life to us, and if He were not in our spirit, we could not experience Him, enjoy Him, and take Him as our life. Now day by day we have to live by Him and walk in Him.
We need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts and the word of Christ dwell in us richly (3:15-16). The words that He speaks are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
What I have spoken here is just a sketch. Please read Colossians again and again, and pray about what you have heard and about what you understand. Christ is so much to us. Now we have to praise Him. We have received Him, so now we must walk in Him, having been rooted in Him and being built up in Him and with Him. He is our life for today and our hope for the future. Therefore, we must learn to preach Him, admonishing others not to be sidetracked from Him by other things. We also need to teach Him to others, to grow, and to help others to grow until we can present them to God full-grown in Christ.
When we have this kind of vision of Christ, we will declare that doctrines, teachings, gifts, miracles, and signs mean nothing. God is not for those things; all those things are for Christ. If there were a number of miracles among us today, however, we might all be distracted away from the indwelling Christ and the inner life; we might pay our full attention to the miracles. In the Gospel of John the Lord did many signs. The crowds were impressed, but the Lord gained very few of them. He would not entrust Himself to those who came to Him because of the miracles (2:23-25). The Lord is truly wise, and He knows that what we really need is the inner life. We need to know Christ.
In the book of Colossians there are no tongues, gifts, or miracles. Still, some people today pay attention to these things yet neglect the Christ revealed in this book. Let us come back to the Christ in Colossians, to know Christ in an inner way, in the way of life. To know Christ requires a vision, a revelation. Therefore, we have to pray. In these days let us pray that the Lord would open our eyes that we may see Christ who is the mystery of God, the center of God’s economy, and the portion of the saints given to us by God. Let us pray in this way that we may know Him as our life and experience Him in a full way. He is everything to us. This must not be a doctrine; it must be a real vision to us. We have to fight for this. That is why we need to know the book of Colossians.
