Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2; 3:4, 10-11, 15-16; 4:2
The book of Colossians is not easy to understand. I doubt that very many readers of this book, even among us, have truly seen the revelation it contains. For this reason, many readers concentrate on points such as the comforting of the hearts in 2:2. The focal point of Colossians is not the comforting of the hearts. Rather, the focal point is Christ as the mystery of God. Even 2:2, which speaks of the hearts being comforted, makes this clear: “That their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.” The result of the comforting of our hearts is that we have the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God. Therefore, the focal point is not the comforted heart; it is Christ as the mystery of God.
It is rather easy for readers of the New Testament to understand what Paul is dealing with in such books as Corinthians and Galatians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with various negative things, even sinful things, which frustrated the Corinthians from the proper enjoyment of Christ and from the church life. In Galatians Paul deals with the law and with the Jewish religion. However, it is not easy to point out what Paul is dealing with in the Epistle to the Colossians. Some expositors have pointed out that Paul deals with such matters as angel worship and asceticism. Although this view is correct, it relates only to the outward appearance of this book. Actually, in Colossians Paul is dealing with the hidden matter of man’s culture. A strong indicator of this is the use of the word barbarian in 3:11, a word not used in either 1 Corinthians 12:13 or Galatians 3:28, verses parallel to Colossians 3:11. Paul’s use of the word barbarian in Colossians indicates that this Epistle deals with culture.
The source of the trouble among the believers in Colosse was culture, Jewish culture and Greek culture. I believe that all the churches in Asia Minor had been saturated with Jewish culture, particularly with respect to religious observances, and with Greek culture, particularly related to philosophy. At the time of Paul, the culture in the Mediterranean region included three main elements: Jewish religion, Greek philosophy, and Roman politics. Two of these elements — Jewish religion and Greek philosophy — had invaded the church.
Just as culture exerted a strong influence on the believers in Colosse, culture today exerts a strong influence on us. Unconsciously we are under the influence of the culture into which we were born. It seems that the religious and philosophical elements of culture are part of our being. In many groups in Christianity the political element of culture is present also.
In 2:18 Paul says, “Let no one purposely defraud you of your prize, in humility and worship of the angels, standing on things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh.” Here Paul warns the believers not to be defrauded through humility. He does not warn them about fleshly indulgence. Humility is one of the best human virtues. In many ethical teachings, a high value is placed on humility. In certain respects, humility is even a finer virtue than love. But even humility can be used to defraud the believers of the enjoyment of Christ.
In this verse Paul also warns us not to be defrauded through the worship of angels. Humility is related to ethical philosophy, whereas the worship of angels is related to religion. Angel worship is not crude. On the contrary, it is a refined, cultured, cultivated, and highly-developed form of idolatry. It is much finer than the pagan worship of animals. It is the worship of heavenly beings who are close to God. It was through such beings that the law was given. In 2:18 Paul refers to both philosophy and religion. These aspects of culture can be used by the enemy to defraud us of Christ.
The principle is the same today. Satan, the subtle one, is still using ethics and religion to defraud Christians of the enjoyment of Christ. In saying this, I am not referring to others, such as those in the Catholic religion, but especially to us in the Lord’s recovery. Some may agree that humility could defraud them of Christ, but they would not admit to being defrauded of Him by the worship of angels. Although we may not actually worship angels, we may admire them. Moreover, we may admire many things that are not God Himself.
If we get into the depths of the book of Colossians, we shall see that it deals not with sin or with the law, but with man’s culture. Culture is the unconscious living of every human being. This is true both of primitive society and of advanced countries as well. The principle is the same everywhere. People throughout the world are under the influence of their culture. Those in the Far East may find it difficult to speak spontaneously in public meetings because they are unconsciously influenced by oriental culture. According to the book of Colossians, what defrauds us of the enjoyment of Christ and frustrates the church life is our culture.
The book of Colossians speaks to our need today. Mainly we are not troubled by the sinful things, as in 1 Corinthians, nor by the law, as in Galatians. But we are all unconsciously and subconsciously under the influence of culture. When we came into the church life, we brought our culture with us. This culture is now undermining our enjoyment of Christ. Culture is the systematic method we have developed to exist and to maintain our being. The stronger our culture is, the more critical we shall be of others. Based upon the culture we have, we develop our type of asceticism, our own practices to restrict the indulgence of the flesh. Our asceticism is the method we devise to restrain ourselves and to keep from doing sinful things.
The book of Colossians reveals that in God’s economy Christ is everything. Christ is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation, the mystery of God’s economy, the firstborn from among the dead, the fullness of God, the mystery of God, the One in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and the Body of all the shadows. Eventually, this preeminent, all-inclusive Christ is the unique constituent of the new man. Furthermore, as Paul declares in 3:4, this Christ is our life. The expression “our life” is a strong indication that we are to experience in our daily living the Christ revealed in this book.
For our physical existence, everything depends on our having life. If there is no life in your body, then everything else related to you is terminated. For example, if you have no life, how could you have such things as love or submission? Everything associated with the human living is based on having human life. If the life is terminated, everything else is terminated also. This underscores the importance of Christ being our life. It is vital for us to see that the all-inclusive Christ is our life. According to the revelation of the New Testament, this Christ has been processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
In 3:15 and 16 Paul charges us to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts and to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us. The saints in Colosse were troubled by different isms, philosophies, and practices. Just as a referee is needed to settle disputes in a game or contest, so the Colossians needed a referee, an arbitrator, to calm down all the differing opinions. It is significant that only in the book of Colossians, a book that deals with culture and its isms and practices, does Paul speak of the inward arbitration of the peace of Christ. This arbitrator calms down all the opinions which have their source in our culture.
When the peace of Christ calms our opinions, the word of Christ, which is to dwell in us richly, replaces them. Instead of our opinions, we then have the word of Christ. The New Testament reveals clearly that the word of Christ is the Spirit. Furthermore, Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. Our Christian life is altogether a matter of Christ as the living Spirit. We do not need isms, philosophies, practices, or observances. We need the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. The brothers need not try to love their wives, nor the sisters to submit to their husbands. Rather, we all should contact Christ and let Him be our love and submission. Christ today as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit. We need to say, “Lord Jesus, I thank You that You are here. You are in me all the time to be whatever I need.” If we would practice this, we need a clear vision that Christ is everything to us. Such a vision will slay our philosophy, asceticism, opinions, and isms. It will even terminate the influence of culture on our experience of Christ. Then, instead of being cultured people, we shall be people occupied with, possessed by, and saturated with Christ.
There is no doubt that our hearts need to be comforted and knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding. But the goal of this comforting of our hearts is that we would have the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God. We should not allow the concern with the heart to keep us from the realization that we need Christ, the mystery of God, to be everything to us. Moment by moment, we need to take Him as our life and live by Him.
We have pointed out again and again that after Paul tells us that Christ is our life and the constituent of the new man, he charges us to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in us and to let the word of Christ inhabit us. To have a full understanding of what it means for the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, we need to know the background against which the book of Colossians was written. At Babel the cultural divisions of mankind came into being. The opinions from our culture are expressed mainly in religious observances and in philosophical ordinances, represented respectively by the Jews and the Greeks. The cultural opinions have divided mankind into many different nations. However, God’s eternal purpose is to have a corporate people to be the Body of Christ for His expression. But if mankind remains divided by cultural opinions, how can God’s purpose be carried out? It would be impossible. But according to Ephesians 2:15, Christ’s death on the cross has abolished all the cultural ordinances and differences and terminated them. Christ’s purpose in doing this was to create in Himself one new man and thereby make peace. Hence, the peace made by Christ was produced through the crucifixion of cultural opinions. When the Jews and the Gentiles were created into one new man, peace was made. This very peace, the peace of Christ, is what Paul refers to in Colossians 3:15.
According to 3:11, in the new man there is no possibility for the various cultural distinctions to continue to exist. Here there is no longer the distinction between the cultured and the uncultured, for in the new man Christ is all and in all. After speaking of this, Paul goes on to charge us, who come from many different backgrounds, to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts. This peace is the issue, the result, of the death of Christ that terminated the cultural differences. Therefore, whenever the peace of Christ presides in us, this peace will subdue cultural opinions, religious observances, and philosophical concepts.
Often when we pray, we do not enter into genuine prayer. Through experience we can differentiate or discern prayer that is genuine from prayer that is not genuine. Do you know why it is so difficult to pray in a genuine way? The main hindrance is not sin or worldliness; it is cultural opinion. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we are still controlled by our cultural opinions. However, if we persevere in prayer, we shall eventually pray in a genuine way. This means that in our prayer we are released from cultural opinions and enter into the spirit. Whenever we experience genuine prayer, we are outside of our culture; in particular, we are outside of our cultural opinion. During times of genuine prayer, we are in our spirit, and we are one spirit with the Lord. It is at these times that we live Christ.
Furthermore, at such times of genuine prayer the death of Christ works within us in a prevailing way to terminate all the negative things in our being. Spontaneously, Christ’s resurrection power also prevails in us. As a result, we are actually one with Christ and identified with Him. This experience during times of genuine prayer gives us a taste of the normal Christian life.
The more genuine prayer we have, the more we shall have the experience of being outside our cultural opinions, of being one spirit with the Lord, and of living Christ. The sad thing is that when we stop praying, we automatically revert to our culture. Then we strive to live according to our own asceticism. When we enter into genuine prayer, we are far away from asceticism and all other isms, for we are one with the living Lord. Furthermore, when we pray in this way with others, we are truly one in the praying spirit. Then we touch the reality of the one new man, where there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian or Scythian, circumcision or uncircumcision. We realize that the new man is constituted of Christ alone and that in this realm there are no differences of culture. However, when we stop praying, we come back to our natural life with its opinions and striving. Instead of living Christ by being one spirit with Him, we restrict ourselves according to our self-imposed asceticism. In our natural life we make up our minds to do good, and we endeavor to accomplish what we have determined to do. This is the suppression of the self; it is not the living out of Christ.
To pray perseveringly means that we should never depart from the praying spirit. We should remain in a praying condition. To be in this condition is to be out of our opinion and to be one spirit with the Lord, living Him and taking Him as our life and as our person. Spontaneously we are away from everything other than Christ, and we are living by this living Person. Our problem is that we do not remain in such a condition of prayer. This was the reason Paul charges us to persevere in prayer. We must pray perseveringly in order to be preserved in such a praying condition. In other words, our daily living should be the same as our experience in times of genuine prayer. Our experience in prayer should become a model of our daily Christian life.
In these days we are burdened to look to the Lord that we may see the true significance of living Christ. We thank Him that gradually He is showing us what it means to live Him. One aspect of living Christ is that of remaining in a praying condition. When we are in this condition, we are outside of culture. Because we are one spirit with this living Person, taking Him as our life and as our person, there is no striving to live properly. Rather, as we are one with the Lord in spirit, the death of Christ is applied to us, and His resurrection power becomes prevailing in us. Then we spontaneously live Him.
