Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27-29; Eph. 4:13
The book of Colossians reveals that the all-inclusive, extensive Christ should replace every factor, element, and aspect of our natural human life. To a great degree, our human living is composed of culture. Humanly speaking, culture is very good. Every society is preserved and maintained by culture. If people did not have culture, there would be much more work for the police department and the law courts. At present, the work of the police and the courts is a supplement to the culture of a society. When a person does not conduct himself properly according to culture, the police may intervene. Every nation, society, and community is preserved by culture, the law, and the police.
If, after reading these messages on Christ versus culture, Christian parents tell their children that they no longer need culture, this will be a serious mistake. Without culture, children would act like animals. Children must be raised according to the standards of culture. Before they are of a proper age to receive Christ, the children must be built up in culture. The more the children are trained according to culture, the better it will be for them. The children must be trained to honor their parents, to love their brothers and sisters, to behave properly toward their neighbors, to be good students in school, to obey all laws, and to respect their teachers and other adults. Because children are too young to behave according to Christ, they must be taught to behave according to culture. If we did not have culture, we would be barbarians.
The use of culture can be compared to the function of the law in the Scriptures. The law was decreed by God. Romans 7:12 says that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Used rightly, the law kept God’s chosen people in custody until the coming of Christ. Rich families in ancient times had custodians who exercised custody over the children. In like manner, culture keeps children in custody today. However, as the book of Galatians indicates, the law was misused by the Judaizers. Now that Christ has come, the law should deliver God’s chosen people to Christ. But the Judaizers misused the law, even over-using it. Instead of allowing the law to release God’s chosen people and to give them over to Christ, the Judaizers used the law to keep people from Christ. The concept of the Judaizers even crept into the church to distract some of the genuine Jewish believers in Christ back to the law. Although culture is right and necessary, it is also subject to misuse and can actually keep people from Christ. Culture should be used to keep the children until they are able to receive Christ and live according to Christ. Children need to be preserved by culture while they are growing up.
As Moses gave the commandments to God’s chosen people, parents must give commandments to their children. But when the children are able to realize their need for Christ and repent, we should minister the rich Christ to them and help them to receive Him. We should tell our children that the culture we gave them was only good for a certain time and that now they need to receive Christ. Hence, culture is used by God through parents to keep their children in custody until the time comes for them to receive the Lord. It is important to see this proper use of culture.
Now that we have received Christ, He, the all-inclusive, extensive One, must replace every aspect of our culture with Himself. We have seen that fallen man uses culture as a substitute for God. First, such a culture is a substitute for God. Then Christ comes in to replace this substitute with Himself. Since we are no longer children, we need Christ to replace every element of our culture. This does not mean that we should despise culture. Rather, it means that we should love Christ. If we are filled to the brim with Christ, there will not be any room in our being for anything else. Every part of us will be occupied by Christ and with Christ. Then in our experience we shall have the fullness of Christ. We shall be filled with Christ to the extent of our capacity. The Christ who fills our being will replace our culture with Himself. This is the revelation in the book of Colossians.
Because Christ is extensive and all-inclusive, with Him there is no scarcity. If we have such a Christ in our experience, we shall not need anything else. There is no need that He cannot meet, and no capacity to receive Him that He cannot fill. Since we have the all-inclusive Christ, we do not need Judaism, Gnosticism, or asceticism. We have the all-inclusive and extensive Christ with His fullness. He could fill the whole universe, and still He would not be exhausted. We do not need anything, ancient or modern, in place of Christ. We do not even need our self-made and self-imposed culture. I am concerned that many among us still live according to their self-imposed culture. These saints are always imposing restrictions on themselves and living according to them. There is no need for us to remain in the custody of our self-made culture. Instead, we should stay in Christ and in the freedom we have in Christ. We need to be filled to the brim with Christ. This is the underlying concept of the book of Colossians. Christ, the extensive One, must replace every element of our natural human life. This requires that we not hold on to anything of our culture, for that would produce a mixture. Let us allow the pure Christ to fill our being and replace every aspect of our natural human life with Himself.
Some saints may be rather proud of their pleasant disposition or of their natural virtues, such as humility, patience, and kindness. If you have such a disposition and such virtues, you should neither hate them nor treasure them. Instead, you should allow the extensive Christ to replace even your good disposition and your virtues. God does not want us to live out our natural being with its virtues. If you live according to your disposition and your virtues, you will not be able to say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). On the contrary, you will have to admit that to you to live is your natural being. In the church as the new man, there is no room for any kind of natural person. In the new man Christ must be all and in all (3:11).
We have pointed out that we should neither hate our natural being nor treasure it. To hate our being is to practice asceticism, a form of suicide. Instead of trying to hate the natural being, we should follow the Lord’s word to deny ourselves. To deny the self is to ignore the self, to forget it, to pay no attention to it. Suppose as you are walking down the sidewalk, someone stops you and begs you for money. Again and again, he pleads with you to give him money. You should neither hate this person nor love him. Rather you should pay no attention to his request. Eventually, realizing that he can get nothing from you, he will go away. This illustrates the attitude we should have toward the self. The self is greedy, always begging for things. Instead of either hating the self or loving it, we should simply refuse to pay attention to it.
However, if we would keep from paying attention to the self, we must concentrate on something better than the self. This is the reason we need a vision of the extensiveness of Christ, the vision presented in the book of Colossians. If we see this vision, we shall concentrate our entire being on the extensive Christ, who will then fill us and occupy us. Because we are filled with the extensive Christ, we shall have no need of Judaism, Gnosticism, mysticism, or asceticism. Our being will be occupied with the vast, unsearchably rich, extensive Christ. Spontaneously this Christ will come in to replace every aspect of our natural human life with Himself.
The book of Colossians presents a vision of the wonderful, extensive, all-inclusive Christ. Once we see this vision, our entire being will be attracted by this Christ and will be possessed by Christ and occupied with Him. Then gradually the extensive Christ who occupies our attention will replace every element of our natural human life. He will even replace with Himself our kindness, our humility, and our love for our parents. At best, our natural virtues can be compared to polished copper, but Christ is gold. He far surpasses in value anything we possess by nature. The more we experience the Christ who exceeds everything and replaces everything in our natural life with Himself, the more we shall be able to declare, “To me to live is Christ.” We shall not live humility, kindness, or patience. To us to live will be the Christ who has taken full possession of us and who occupies us and fills us with Himself. That such a Christ should replace all the elements of our natural human life is the message of the book of Colossians. If we understand this underlying concept, Colossians will be an open book to us.
If we have the full assurance of understanding concerning the extensive Christ replacing every aspect of our natural life, we shall realize what it means to become full grown in Christ. In 1:25 Paul says that he became a minister according to the stewardship of God. The goal of Paul’s stewardship was to dispense the extensive Christ into God’s chosen people. This extensive Christ is a mystery, especially to the Gentiles. In 1:27 Paul says, “God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This mystery is full of glory, and this glory has riches. The glorious mystery full of riches is Christ in us.
In 1:28 and 29 Paul goes on to say, “Whom we announce, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full grown in Christ; for which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.” In verse 28 Paul does not say that he preaches Christ; he says that he announces Him. Announcing something involves a greater degree of assurance than simply preaching that thing. For example, when the leading ones make announcements at the close of a meeting, they do not preach to the saints. The announcements are made with assurance. Likewise, Paul did not simply preach Christ — he announced Him. I also desire to announce the extensive, all-inclusive Christ.
In verse 28 Paul says that he warned every man. After some are convinced and subdued by our announcing of Christ, they need to be warned. Hearing of the all-inclusive Christ, they may want to be filled with Christ and to live Christ. But many negative things may rise up in opposition to this. The enemy is like a crouching beast, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on us and to keep us from living Christ. If you were to love the world and care for worldly amusements, having no heart to be filled with Christ or to live Christ, the enemy would not pay much attention to you. But if you are one who loves the Lord and seeks to live according to Him, you will face opposition.
Years ago, certain of the children of the Christian leaders in my home town became very worldly and pursued worldly enjoyment. After a church had been raised up in that place, a number of these young people turned to the Lord and to the church. In many cases, their parents rose up against them, even though they had not opposed them for their worldliness. But when these young people came to the church to seek after Christ, they encountered fierce opposition. This shows that the enemy is crouching, waiting for an opportunity to attack those who pursue the Lord.
At the time Paul wrote to the Colossians, Greek philosophy and Judaism were among those things which were distracting the believers. Those in favor of Greek philosophy sought the opportunity to convert the believing Gentiles back to Greek philosophy. Likewise, the Judaizers wanted to seduce any Jews who had believed in Christ. Because Greek philosophy and Judaism were endangering the believers, Paul warned every man. In the short book of Colossians, Paul gives a number of warnings. In 2:4 he says, “This I say that no one may delude you with persuasive speech.” In 2:8 he says, “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit.” In 2:16 Paul warns the Colossian believers to let no one judge them in eating, drinking, or in respect of feasts, new moons, or of Sabbaths. In verse 18 Paul says, “Let no one purposely defraud you of your prize.” Paul realized that many things were there to be utilized to lead the believers astray from Christ and the church life. The same is true today. Believers may not be opposed for their worldliness, but they will be opposed if they turn to the Lord’s recovery and pursue Christ in the church.
To be full grown in Christ is to be filled and saturated with Christ. We remain ourselves, but we are permeated, saturated, and filled with Christ. Then our living spontaneously is Christ. We should not simply say, “Christ lives in me.” We must be absolute with the Lord to allow Him to live in us day by day. If your husband or wife gives you a difficult time, do not defend yourself or vindicate yourself. Simply let Christ live in you. However, we must admit that it is easy to talk about this, but it is difficult to practice it.
The proper Christian life is not a matter of ethics, morality, or improved character or behavior. The Christian life is Christ living in us. We should live according to Christ, not according to our natural mildness, humility, or frankness. We need to live Christ. Christ must saturate us, permeate us, and fill us. Then in our living He will be expressed from within us.
Our relationship with Christ can be illustrated by the grafting of a branch from a wild olive tree into a cultivated olive tree. Christ is the cultivated olive tree, and we are branches from the wild olive tree. First, we are cut off from the wild olive tree and then placed into the cultivated olive tree, in the spot where an incision has been made. After this, the branch from the wild olive tree is bound to the cultivated olive tree. This is grafting. Through the process of grafting, the life juice in the cultivated olive tree flows into the branch from the wild olive tree, permeates it, saturates it, and fills it. Eventually, the branch will bear fruit. Likewise, we are branches grafted into Christ as the cultivated olive tree. If we are permeated, saturated, and filled with the life juice from the cultivated olive tree, we shall be able to say, “To me to live is the cultivated olive tree.” When a branch reaches this stage, it will be full grown in the cultivated olive tree. This illustrates what it means to be full grown in Christ. To be full grown in Christ is to be saturated and filled with Christ. It is to have every part of our being occupied with Christ. This is the full growth in life and maturity in Christ, the issue of the life revealed in the book of Colossians.
The Greek word for full grown in 1:28 is the same as that used in Ephesians 4:13, where Paul says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is simply a full-grown man. Eventually, this maturity will issue in the Body, the corporate expression of Christ. We all need to grow and become full grown so that Christ may have a corporate full-grown man, the Body, as an organism to express Him.
