Before we come to Colossians 2:6 and Truth And What’s Really Close To It - I’d like to begin by sharing about two families.

This is Erick Munoz in front of a picture of his wife Marlise and their son Mateo.  Marlise was declared brain dead in November.  On January 26th, doctors at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas obeyed a judge’s order and took Marlise off of life support.  What made a tragic circumstance horrendous was that Marlise was pregnant.

Attorney’s said, “According to the medical records we have been provided, the fetus is distinctly abnormal.  Even at this early stage, the lower extremities are deformed to the extent that the gender cannot be determined.”  The attorneys also said the fetus also had fluid building up inside the skull and possibly had a heart problem.

Erick named the 23-week old “fetus” Nicole which was his late wife’s middle name.

Had you heard this?  This is hard stuff.  Isn’t it? 

This is Dylan and Robyn Benson of Victoria, British Colombia.  Last December Robyn sent Dylan out for some Tylenol because she had a headache.  When he got back Dylan found his 32 year old - 22 weeks pregnant wife - collapsed on the bathroom floor - unconscious - later declared brain dead from a massive hemorrhage in the center of her brain.  

Doctors are keeping Robyn’s body alive hoping to deliver her baby in about 4 or so weeks.  Dylan has named the baby boy Iver and he is doing well.

How we respond in situations like the Munoz’s and the Bensons’ - and other issues like abortion - or euthanasia - homosexuality - divorce - death - loosing our job - parenting - parenting our parents - how we respond and deal with all that comes from our worldview and what that worldview is based on.

What Paul is dealing with here in Colossians is significantly related to how we do life.  What we base our worldview on is really really important.  Meaning that its really important that we think about what we believe and why and how that relates to the real time of where we do life.

Which is what’s behind our two word summary of Paul’s theme in Colossians:  “Got Truth?”

A Christian worldview looks at what seemingly is a series of random events that happen to us as we go lurching on down through our lives - that many would say is just dumb luck.  As Christians we believe that behind all that is the God who is working purposefully in history according to his will and plan for history.

Which also raises some huge questions.  Doesn’t it?  Does God cause the tragedy we experience in life?  Or the joy?  How we respond to those questions again comes back to what we base our worldview on.  God - who is truth - having a way larger picture of what’s going on in His universe that we do. 

Looking at Colossians we’ve been reminded of verses like Psalm 119:160  “The sum of your word is truth” and Jesus’ declaration about Himself - John 14:6:  “I am the truth...”  God speaking to us that the basis of our worldview - how we do life - must be the truth of His word - both written and in His Son Jesus.

That truth is the foundational truth we need to having a healthy worldview.  Foundational to keeping us from becoming unhinged.  Foundational for us to do life the way life was created to be done.

We’re together on that?

Verses 6 and 7 are Paul’s Encouragement - His theme for this next section of His letter.

Let’s read these together:  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Let’s grab where Paul is going.

“Therefore” is a flash back to what we looked at last Sunday (1:24-2:5).  Paul writing about ministry.  Ministry - serving God as stewards of His gospel.  Which is about what all of us are created and called to.  Ministry is about God - His purposes - His glory.  Ministry is about people.  People that need to know Jesus and to live following Him.

Paul - in writing about ministry wrote about how he was suffering in doing ministry and struggling for the Colossians - literally agonizing over them.  Paul writes:  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

Fist bumps all around.

Paul’s encouragement - going on - even though the Colossians had begun well in their faith - Paul writes:  so walk in him   Meaning, in the same way you received him keep on living with him.  Continue in him.  Live out your life following him.  Trusting him as the Anointed One of God - your Savior and Lord.

What does that look like?  “Walking in Jesus”?

Paul writes - first:  You’re rooted and built up in him. 

Rooted is something that’s happened - past tense.  We’ve been planted in Christ.  What God does for us when we trust Jesus as our Savior.  God places us in Christ who is the soil - the sustenance and sustainer of our lives.

Built up is something that’s happening - ongoing in our lives.  Growth of the plant through the different seasons of life.  Sometimes we get pruned.  We go through hard stuff in life.  Sometimes God disciplines us.  Sometimes we’re producing great fruit.  Growth through all that.

Second - Paul writes - walk in Him:  established in the faith, just as you were taught

Established - in the Greek -  has the idea of being strengthened.  Like a well established plant.  A plant that’s been there growing for a number seasons and so the very structure of the plant is strong.  The roots are deep.  The trunk is thick and hardy.  An ongoing process of growth and strengthening - establishing the faith of the believer.

Established in the faith is tied to “just as you were taught” - meaning that Paul has in mind the whole body of truth that’s in the Scriptures that these Colossians had been taught - and even this very letter that we’re studying today.

Its like learning hundreds of AWANA verses but not knowing what they mean.  Knowing God’s truth is really important.  Living God’s truth is the process.  That takes faith.  That produces growth. 

Faith isn’t faith if we know what comes next.  Faith isn’t faith if we’re telling God how He needs to work out what’s going on in our lives.  If we’ve been established in the faith - meaning we know the truth that’s in the Bible - enough to trust God with our lives - then we need to live trusting God with our lives.

24/7/365 seeking God in prayer.  Seeking His wisdom - the application of His knowledge - His guidance in the day to day of our lives.  Learning to wait for Him to lead us forward.  Learning to - by faith - trusting Him.  That ongoing trust God uses to strengthen us as we grow up - being rooted in Jesus.

Third - Paul writes - so walk in Him:  abounding in thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving rearranges our priorities in life.  Thanksgiving keeps us focused that life is about God not us.  His glory.  Not ours.  That we desperately need God - for everything we need.  Period.

“Abounding” is like a river at flood stage - overflowing its banks - uncontainable gratitude.  Being grateful to God for everything He’s given us - even life in His Son and His very presence with us.  Overflowing gratitude for God’s abounding blessings - in whatever circumstance of life we may find ourselves.

The point of Paul’s examples - what it means to walk in Him - is a process of growth.  A newborn child receives life from his or her parents.  God plants us.  That child learns to walk.  A little shaky at first.  But a process of learning to roll over - pull up - stand clinging to things - first steps - and then she learns to really walk.

We have to learn how to do that spiritually.  To mature.  To learn how to trust God and rely on Him.  We need to learn that life is about God and not us.  To experience His provision and presence in our lives for which we can be eternally grateful.

One word:  Fertilizer.  We gotta apply to our lives what’s going to cause growth.  Ultimately we can’t neglect prayer and Bible study and worship and fellowship and accountability and disciple making and being discipled and taught.

Which may sound like a “heard it in church Sunday School” answer.  But it’s the bottom line of what it means to walk in Him.  All those spiritual disciplines are essential to keep us following Jesus through the stuff of life.  The things that God uses to bring growth in our lives as we remain rooted in Jesus.

Which is encouraging - First - Paul writes - because you’ve received Christ Jesus the Lord.  Second - what Paul writes is encouraging - because it’s a huge encouragement to keep going:  “Walk in Him.” 

But Paul is in agony - struggling.  We need to hear behind Paul’s encouragement is a warning - a huge concern that Paul has for the Colossians.  Paul encouraging the Colossians to “walk in Him” because it is way too easy for them - and us - to not walk in Him.  Been there?

Philosophy means “love of wisdom.”  Which doesn’t sound bad.  And it isn’t.  Loving wisdom is a good thing.  Paul’s warning is about philosophy that comes with empty deceit.

I heard a story about a farmer whose horses kept slobbering all over everything.  He saw an advertisement on the internet - one of those obnoxious side bar ads that keep popping up.  The add offered a cure for slobbering horses for $75.

This farmer clicked on the add and ordered the cure.  Paid his $75.  About 2 minutes latter he got an email with a pdf attachment - labeled SlobberingCure.pdf.  When he opened the attachment the file said simply:  “Teach your horses to spit.”

Which is a whole lot like the world’s version of how to do life.

According to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition:  “A man is only worth the sum of his possessions.”  The only real value to our lives - the only valuable part of life - is measured in what we gain for ourselves.  Grab all you can while you can because that’s all there is.  There’s purpose in that.  Life is about me.

He who dies with the most toys - wins.  And then what?  What do we win?  Go ahead and ask people that.  Try it some time.  And they get really irritated.  Because that’s a “rock my world view” truth check.

Most people haven’t really stopped to think about what their worldview is based on.  Life doesn’t give us a whole lot of time to practice.  Life just happens and we need to try and make the best of it as we go along.  Anything deeper than that just is gonna cause arguments and we just don’t want to go there.

Satan’s wonderful world of delusion promises huge things to those who buy in to all that empty deception.  But its all bait an switch.  In the end it - and every place in between - it comes up pretty empty of what we really need. 

Paul is focused on philosophy that comes with empty deceit.

He writes:  “See to it” which means “walk forward eyes wide open.”  Which is kind of like the Spanish “Cuidado” - meaning don’t just notice that the floor is wet - choose to walk carefully - take precautions so you don’t slip and break something.  

See to it that no one takes you captive.  In Greek “to take captive” means... “to take captive” - to get captured and led off as a captive - entrapped - enslaved by this empty deceptive philosophy.

There’s a real danger here.  A real battle that’s raging around us for the eternal destiny of mankind.  We’re all part of that battle.  What’s happening today to many people is very serious.  People are getting picked off.

We live in a world full of deception.  That deception is very serious when it comes to our salvation - our eternal destiny - and especially our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Even Christians are getting into serious serious trouble.  

Paul - in his warning - gives us three ways to recognize this deceptive philosophy.

First:  deceptive philosophy is according to human tradition - it depends on human intellect - on putting our human ideas and wisdom above God’s truth.

Albert Schweitzer - who many people look up to as a great philosopher - scholar - and theologian - who wrote a book entitled, “The Quest For The Historical Jesus”.  What Albert Schweitzer has said is characteristic of how a tremendous number of people think today - many of them claiming to be Christians.

Albert Schweitzer said that Jesus never claimed any of the things that the church or theologians have claimed for Him over the centuries.  Schweitzer said to live in the spirit of love is to live in the “spirit” of Jesus - which is to be a Christian.  Christian doctrines and creeds - what we believe - are all man made.  They’re not given by God.  In other words we can believe whatever our intellect and reasoning tells us Scripture or God might be saying to us.   (1)

According to the main stream Christian religious philosophy of today - Jesus is not God in the flesh - He’s not the Savior - we really don’t need one anyway - and the Bible is a collection of myths and stories - not the truth of God.  People who hold to a view that the Bible is the Word of God are a minority faith - a faith held by only a few poorly educated - almost mentally deficient people - who have no basis in scholarship for what they believe.

Paul says that this deceptive philosophy rests on human traditions.  It sets aside God’s truth  - and claims that the guesses and conclusions of man are superior to what God has said.

Second - deceptive philosophy is according to the elemental spirits of the world - it focuses on knowledge that comes - directly or indirectly - knowledge that comes from Satan.

For thousands of years - people have believed that the world was made up of four basic elements - earth, wind, fire, and water - and somehow these four elements were the building blocks - the basic organizing principles behind everything else that is.  These are what Paul refers to as the “elemental spirits.”

People believed that behind these four elements - people believed that there were supernatural personalities - a deep mysterious power - that flowed through the fabric of reality - mysterious power or personalities that they can contact through some kind of dark, religious, spiritual and mysterious experience.

In much of our culture today there is confusion over what it means to be “spiritual” and what’s behind all that “spirituality.”  Goddess worship - worshipping mother earth - harmonic convergences - astrology and horoscopes - voodoo - some fraternal organizations - the new age movement which is really ages old - gurus and channelers and psychic guides who claim to have tapped into something mysterious and distant - even some of the card games and online games - phone apps literally tap into all that.

What’s the big deal?  Paul - in Ephesians 6 - warns us that the power behind all that is Satan.  God - in the Old Testament - repeatedly warns His people to stay away - don’t go there - all that is a worship of other gods - what is under the control of Satan.  Nobody - especially a Christian - has any business being associated with any of that.  (Deuteronomy 18:9-14; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Ephesians 6:12)

Third - deceptive philosophy is not according to Christ

Choose any cult - Mormonism - the Jehovah’s Witnesses - the First Church of Christ, Scientist - any religion - Islam - Buddhism - any man centered philosophy - humanism - communism - post-modernism - any cult - any religion - any “ism” and they all have at least one thing in common.  Which is... 

They all demean the glory and true character of Jesus Christ.

Either they claim that Jesus was nothing but a very good man - or on the other extreme - they say that Jesus is a supernatural being - one god out of many gods - who come into human affairs to teach us wonderful truths that we would never know otherwise.

To deny Christ - the very Word of God made flesh - is to deny the truth of God and to base our lives - our worldview - to live our lives based on some other deceptive philosophy.

The empty deceptive philosophy of this world has three characteristics:  1) it’s based on human intellect; 2) it comes from Satan; and, 3) it sets aside the glory and true character of Jesus Christ.  And the bottom line is this:  The philosophy of this world - is a tool in the hand of Satan -  who is seeking to captivate us and lure us away from the truth of who we are in Jesus Christ - our salvation and life in Jesus.

Are we together?  Let’s go on.

Verses 9 to 15 are Paul’s Focus.  What do we need to keep focused on so that we don’t get picked off - captured - by the delusional philosophies of this world?

Bottom Line…  Jesus.  How do we “see to it”?  We stay focused on Jesus.

Let’s read these verses together:  For in him - who’s Him?  In Jesus - the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.  In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 

That is a powerful passage.  Isn’t it?  Let’s go back and unpack some of the truth Paul is laying out for us to focus on.

In verses 9 and 10 Paul’s focus is that in Jesus we’re complete.

Paul is writing about is at the core of what we as Christians believe.  Jesus is fully God - meaning everything that God is Jesus is.  He is 100% God.  And Jesus is fully man - meaning everything that it means to be human Jesus is.  He is 100% man.  Jesus is - and this really tough - He is at the same time fully God and fully man - not all mixed up - or intermingled.  But all at once - both His divine and human natures and essences are together - and yet distinct - being one person - Jesus.

If that’s a mind bender you’re in good company.  The only person who understands that is God.  Its a God thing.  But grab where Paul is going with all that.

In Jesus God has come and joined the human race.  In Jesus - when we receive Him as Christ Jesus the Lord - all of God’s fullness is brought into our lives - everything we need for life and godliness.

Fullness means there’s no space left to be filled by something else - no other rule or authority that we need to look to to complete us.  In Jesus we’ve been made complete.  We’ve been given everything we need.

What more do we need?  What more can the philosophy of this world add to that?  It may be that we need to discover more of what it means to have Jesus in our heart - that’s a lifelong process.  We need to always be growing in our relationship with Him.  But the point is that we don’t need anything more than we already have.  We simply need to understand more of what we have already received.

Paul’s focus in verse 11 is that in Jesus our sins are removed.

In the Old Testament - the Law of Moses required the cutting away of the foreskin as an outward symbol of participation in God’s covenant with Israel.  Circumcision was done with physical hands - affecting an external organ of the physical body.

Now Paul says that our circumcision is made without hands.  The foreskin of the flesh is a symbol of our sinful nature - our disobedience against God.  When we come to Jesus - confessing our sin - and receiving Him as our Savior - God cuts the sins of our flesh out of our lives.

That’s what Jesus has done for us on the cross.  When He was crucified - Jesus took the sin that was cut out of our lives - on Himself.

We have circumcision - not physical -  but spiritual.  Not external - but internal.  Not partial - but complete.  Not by Moses - but by Jesus.  In Jesus our sins are removed.

In verses 12 and 13 Paul focuses on the new life we have in Jesus.

Last October - we were at the Andrew’s - using their pool for Alex and Samuel’s baptism.  Like in June when we’re out worshipping at Yosemite Lake.  Before they were baptized, Alex and Samuel shared how they had come to trust in Jesus as their Savior.  Then they were baptized.

Paul - in Romans 6:4 - Paul writes about the baptism of believers.  He says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Alex and Sam - were baptized - as believers in Jesus Christ.  First, they were put under the water - submerged - showing their identification with the death of Jesus Christ - the burial of their sins with Jesus.  Then they were brought out of the water showing their identification with the resurrection of Jesus - brought from the grave - into new life.

Our sins are forgiven and God makes us alive together in Christ.  Baptism symbolizes our new life in Jesus - a whole new basis for living. 

Then in verse 14 - Paul writes that in Jesus we are no longer condemned for our sin.  The debt we owe for our sins has been paid by Jesus on the cross.

Put simply - Sin is no longer and issue in our relationship with God.  It affects our fellowship with God - but not our relationship.  God has fully dealt with all - not some - or most - but all our sins - nailing them to the cross of Jesus.

Which is a truth we need to grab onto.  Whatever guilt we may feel or condemnation or need to someone get ourselves right with God is about what we’re beating ourselves up with not what God - in Jesus - has released us from.

We need to acknowledge our sin in order to enter into the benefit of God’s forgiveness - but forgiveness is already there in the heart of God.  Whatever our mistakes - failures - unloving words - unkind attitudes and selfish actions - they’re forgiven and no can longer condemn us.  We’re free. 

Which brings us to verse 15.  Let’s read this together:  He - Who?  Jesus - disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

To someone living in the Roman world this would have been a familiar scene.  A triumphant general entering Rome leading a parade of victory.  The conqueror - riding at the front - on a chariot - leading his troops through the streets of the city.  Trailing behind them is a disheveled group of vanquished kings, officers, soldiers - stripped of their authority - disarmed of their power - the spoils of battle on display for the crowds to laugh at.

Jesus is the conquering general - the potentate of creation - who’s vanquished the powers and authorities - who parades them on display before His creation - the entire universe.

To the observer - there on the hill of Golgotha - the cross is a cruel instrument of torture.  To Paul - it the instrument of ultimate victory - Jesus’ chariot of victory.

Looking at the list of who we are in Christ Jesus the Lord - take one moment to thank God for what He has done for you.  Focus on what it means to live life in Jesus.

But focus this - verse 15 - the basis of how all that is possible.  The basis - the bottom line truth - is Jesus.  When Jesus comes out of the grave every empty “ism” - every deceitful philosophy and delusional wisdom of man - the very basis of it all in Hell - is blown away in utter - total - defeat.  Jesus seized all these by the throat and triumphed over them.

Praise God that He hasn’t revealed to us His philosophy so that we can compare and contrast and put it under the microscope of our own wisdom.  God has revealed His truth in Jesus Christ the Lord - so that we can live confidently in Him.

If we understand who we are in Jesus - what we have in Him - there is no need to seek after the wisdom of this world.  There’s no need for us to be apologetic before the philosophies of this world - and our friends and neighbors who question why we should be so dedicated to Jesus - no need to live weak, faltering, or failing lives.

We are people of God - made complete in Jesus - whose sins have been removed and are free of guilt - who have been given new life - life which is victorious above anything that this world can offer or throw against us.  Created and called to live in His victory.

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1. Ray Stedman, Colossians 2:8-15  “Beware” - Discovery Publishing Catalog #4025

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.