Your Faith in Christ, Col, 2:4-5
Colossians 2:4-5 · Vern Peterman · Oct 3, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262313455269

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

In Colossians 2, verses 4 and 5. It continues to amaze me. Just the marvelous, rich depth that the Lord puts in His Word for our benefit. This particular passage here, Paul is beginning a sort of a series. That is, throughout chapter 2, he does have a particular theme that he's carrying out. And we'll want to take a look at that.

As sort of an introduction to that, I just might say a couple decades back, I was a marketing manager for an electronics firm over in the Silicon Valley. And we did a lot of business with a company over in Germany. And it was north of Bamberg. And so I made business trips over there. had a lot of communications back and forth. And, you know, we sold their instruments, they sold ours, that kind of thing. And so, at any rate, we'd go over and just north of Bomberg was this little quaint town of Baunach, Germany.

And they made, however, this equipment. Every piece of equipment that they made had a phenomenal number of warning signs on them because they worked with powerful high voltage. And it was the sort of thing where if you didn't use this properly, you probably wouldn't ever use it again. Okay. And so it would be the warnings were ample and generous. They didn't pull any punches on that.

They are also made them available in whatever multiple languages you want. No hesitation in putting multiple languages on them because they want to make sure there were plenty of warnings. They wanted to make sure that people lived through using the equipment more than once. And so they had all sorts of warnings on them. If people didn't take care of the warnings, there were some substantial things that could happen, and you wanted to pay attention to those.

Paul is giving essential spiritual warnings, like this equipment that the company made that we worked with here. Paul is giving multiple spiritual warnings in the book of Colossians, chapter 2. And we're looking at the first one here this morning. We'll see not just the one here in verse 4, but in chapter 8, excuse me, verse 8, in verse 16, and in verse 18. So he keeps coming to these warnings.

And notice some things about these. Each one of them has a little phrase there, no one. No one. In each of the warnings, the King James has lest any man, which is basically the same idea. It is an absolute kind of warning, isn't it? And look what the warnings are about.

The one we'll be looking at today in verse 4, delude you, takes you captive, act as your judge, keep defrauding you. Now, how many of you would like to volunteer for any of these? Do you like to be defrauded? How many of you like to be deluded? You just enjoy that, right? Having people trick you? Of course, enjoy being taken captive.

You see, at Paul's point, as he describes each one of these warnings, it's something you certainly would not want to have happen. So he's giving the warning. The warning is an essential warning. It's not optional. Now, a few things about these warnings that you'll take note of. Paul gives warnings which fit with each aspect of the spiritual danger. It's one reason why he doesn't just give one and move on. he gives warning to fit each aspect of the spiritual danger.

Sometimes, for example, the equipment that we would see in this firm over in Germany would have multiple warnings. Not only would there be a shock hazard, but maybe there was a noise hazard, maybe there was some kind of a toxic gas hazard. Whatever the hazard was, there was a warning fitting to each one.

If you see a danger sign, doesn't it bother you if it's blank? Danger. What kind of danger, okay? If you see a sign on the road, for example, it matters a lot whether it's a duck crossing or a dinosaur crossing, okay? It makes a big difference. One, you're concerned about the animals. The second one, you're concerned about you, right? So it does matter. You care a lot whether it is a warning about rocks falling So this is the sort of thing you want to pay attention to, and you want to know what kind of concern you have. I don't know where that was installed anyway. So now the second thing.

He describes spiritual dangers in understandable, commonly used terms. He doesn't come off with something obscure. He doesn't, to give a for instance like this, he doesn't say, Beware the pseudo-philosophical hyper-propensities of the hypogalactic paraprognosticators.

Huh? And when you're trying to figure it out, the danger has already overtaken you, okay? He gives a warning where you know clearly what the problem is, and then he lays it out exactly in plain terms. Nothing so obscure that you're still scratching your head while you're overwhelmed, okay?

Thirdly, he doesn't soft-pedal the warnings. Notice how his warnings are fairly intense. His warnings are not rounded on the edges and sort of smoothed out. He doesn't say something like, I'm more or less inclined to tell you that if you happen to think about it, you might keep an eye out for anybody whose spiritual elevator doesn't quite go to the top. He doesn't sort of soften and round this thing out. So the fourth thing, he counters the approaching falsehood by clearly teaching the truth. He doesn't just give you warnings.

Certainly, as we're raising kids, we like to give our kids warnings about things, but we don't just give them nothing but warnings. We tell them what is the real situation. We give them, this is the true teaching. And so, as we go through this, and I want to give you a warning. binoculars out of the pews there so you can see this. This is not intended that you read every detail. My point is this, as he goes through the chapter, verse 4 through 23, he essentially lays out a warning, then lays down some truth, then lays out a warning, then lays down some truth, and he alternates between the two so that indeed they have their warnings, and he spells those out in the terms that we've indicated here, But he also goes extensively into laying out the truth. We need to be told as believers what is true, not just have warnings. We also need to indeed have those warnings because we need to know the character of the risk in front of us and the magnitude of the risk.

Now, look at what he does here. He starts off in verse 4 fairly quickly getting into this no manner as the King James has alternately lest any man. The same idea comes across there. He continues on with this message, and so it leads us to a question. You love questions, of course. What is the Apostle's tolerance level? At what point does he say, that's enough?

Do you see that? No one. Let me give you a, for instance, here's a nice glass of water. Yeah, a few little air bubbles here and there, but you've seen that before. That's not a problem. Now, would you drink that glass of water? A little tough since it's on the screen, I know, but would you drink the glass of water? All right. Suppose I gave you a little more information. Suppose I told you that that glass of water looks nice, nice, clean cup.

No problem with that. It's got something in it. Arsenic. But it's very nice. You'll enjoy drinking it. Would you drink it? No. That piece of information is telling you, no, I'm not going to tolerate any of this stuff. I don't have to tell you how much is in it and you're going to back off from it. You say, I'll pick another glass. Thank you.

Paul's tolerance level is pretty clear here. His tolerance level for false teachers and false teaching is zip, nada, nothing, zilch. He doesn't go for it, he doesn't buy it. Paul doesn't go for, oh, that's true for you but not for me. Try that out of an airplane. True for you and not for me doesn't work. The law of gravity is the law of gravity.

Or, we like having a diversity of teaching around here. It makes for variety. The diversity is healthy. Or, we'd rather maintain unity than to concern ourselves with specific teachings. Or, as long as it's generally still Christian, we don't get hung up on any of the doctrinal details. Or, heaven sakes, we just teach everything and let people pick whatever they like.

You notice he doesn't seem to go for that. He lays down the truth, the truth is what it is, to use the term, he calls a spade a spade, and he each time, no one, no one, no one, or as the King James puts it, lest anyone, lest any man. Now, so what's the first warning here? The first warning centers on this word delude. King James has beguile there, which is also a very illustrative kind of word.

Paralagitsamai, alongside speak or reason. This has the idea of interpretations or statements or teachings that are not in line with the truth. You might say they're badly tweaked, off a bubble, torqued, whatever term you want to use. Teachings that don't quite line up. Let no one come to you with something that is beguiling, something that sounds good but doesn't quite line up. It matters. Don't let anyone come to you. This is not even just one.

This word is used in the Greek Old Testament where Laban deceived Jacob and so those Jews who are of course reading this warning from Paul I'm sure they could refer back to this and see, ah, I know what that is. This is the tricks that Laban pulled on Jacob.

This is the changing of wages. It isn't a matter of just sort of administratively change the wages, it was tricky changing. It was deceptive changing. Okay, so this word delude is a key part of Paul's introduction here to this warning. Now we have a question that comes up.

Are false teachers only deceiving or are they also being deceived themselves? Are they just deceiving others or are they themselves also deceived? I put a little tricky picture in there just to illustrate the point. Are those people working on the underside or the top side? The question is, are these false teachers teaching something which they flatly know to be false, or are they actually deceiving themselves and conveying something to everybody else in which they have been caught up in the deception? What we see, as Paul writes to 2 Timothy 3, is that evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Yes, there is a double deception. that is at least possible if not actually the case.

His answer to that is Scripture is the standard. Scripture is the standard. Let's apply Scripture and let that be the standard so that we're not relying on those who are deceived and being deceived and deceiving others. Now, what's the instrument of delusion? How do they go about deluding others? And he answers that here with this persuasive argument. Enticing words, as the King James has it.

Pathanologia. This was a word that was used for deceptive and crafty speech in the whole Bible. This is the only place it shows up. Even in the Greek Old Testament, it doesn't show up. This is a word that Paul picked here, and there's a reason, I think, why he picks it.

It's one that was used among the Greek philosophers, but it also had some other use, and you've got it also on page two of your handout here as well. Pathanologia. One example is There's a Greek papyrus document that describes two thieves using persuasive argument to try to talk people into letting them keep the things that they stole. Or another example, a slippery salesman trying to sell off to somebody else something that he himself doesn't want.

So the word is used that way. But it's also used among the celebrated philosophers where they use it in a kind of a non-derogatory, a non-negative sense. It doesn't have any tricky connotation. So the word doesn't automatically mean tricky, but it does mean using a bunch of persuasive argument, trying to convince people.

The ultimate lesson comes through in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 and 2, where Paul says, and when I came to you, brethren, this is the church at Corinth, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God, What does he do?

He says, I'm telling you the straight spiritual facts. I'm giving it to you straight. I'm not trying to persuade you towards something. I want you to understand the truth. That's why I'm not going to go and twist words and tweak things and try to make something look like other than it is, as the false teachers were prone to do. He says, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? That's the truth. exactly as it is. We're not here to trick people and to persuade people into believing something that just isn't plain true. So, now, in verse 5, he steps into, even though I am absent in body, nevertheless, I am with you in spirit.

This is similar to what he writes in 1 Corinthians 5.3.

And there, it's for the purpose of judgment. He's saying, I have to make a judgment about what's going on in your church body. So I'm going to make it even though I'm personally absent in this case He's thankfully using it as a phrase that says he is rejoicing about what he hears is going on in the church Even though I'm not with you. I rejoice over what's taking place I'm glad about what's happening at the church at Colossae Paul was a long way from Colossae. There's no question about it long distance here. He was you know in Rome and he's writing to this church that is going to be a few months away, basically, to get a letter or something of that sort to them, a long distance. So he's trying to make it clear he indeed is concerned. He loves these people and cares about them.

So he makes the distinction, even though I'm absent in body, nevertheless, and this is the Greek word ala, which means a strong, sharp contrast, Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, as the example out of Ephesians 5.15. This is the one extreme, and now the other. He says, even though I am very much absent from you, I am very much present with you in spirit. The sharp contrast. I very much care about what's going on. I very much am concerned about how the body is doing there. I'm with you what?

In spirit, is the way he puts it. This expression is one which we use in English as well. We'll talk about being in spirit with somebody or being in the same spirit, unified in thoughts and passions and values. We care about the same thing. We will say in English, I am with you in spirit, and we have much the same emphasis to bring across there. that he's carrying across here, the foundation of his being in spirit, is what they shared spiritually in Christ. So he's not referring specifically as if there's something spiritual when he says in spirit, but essentially that is the foundation that he shares with them, isn't it? Very much so. When he says, I am with you in spirit, then he comes along and follows that with rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

This is what he's focusing on. Remember what we said before. First he's giving a warning. First he's saying, be careful of this. And he gives an essential spiritual warning, a spiritual safety warning, if you will. But he doesn't just stay with warnings. He lays down, here is what's true. Here is what I see in the body. at Colossae in that church, and I am rejoicing in what I see." He wants to make that abundantly clear to them.

This word rejoicing there is Cairo, and just for clarification, it has nothing to do with the city in Egypt. Nothing to do at all with that. This rejoicing is from the Keres family of words. Remember, we brought that up repeatedly as we were studying through the book of Philippians. It's from the Keres family of words. the words that are related to grace.

So he has grace given joy. This is joy with God as its source. This rejoicing comes from the life of Christ and not because the flesh is tickled or pleased or anything of the sort. He is rejoicing out of the life of Christ in him that rejoices at their spiritual welfare and the life of Christ in them. That's what he's rejoicing in.

Colossians 1.24 Now, we've got this interesting and curious word, bleppo. I don't know, you probably don't lie awake at night dreaming about bleppo and pondering things like that, but we'll take a look at what he does mean here. This is a key word, and it has sometimes the idea of beholding. So it may be something where Paul's kind of thinking in his mind, almost like taking a mental picture, and he's thinking about them, As Epaphras has described, here's how the church is doing.

He says, ah, I love to see that. He's also got a concern, of course, and we don't want to dismiss that. But as Epaphras describes it, he says, yes, that's good. And he loves to ponder it, and he rejoices as he thinks about how they've been doing. He hasn't seen them, so he uses this word seeing in his mind's eye, as Epaphras, who is the fellow who had who had brought the gospel into the valley there where Colossae was situated, was describing things to Paul. Now, Paul is rejoicing over a couple of things with these believers there in Colossae. One was their good discipline, and two was their stability of their faith in Christ. Those were the two key things that he was rejoicing about. And the first word there is good discipline, order in the King James. is translated from this Greek word here.

And I got to tell you, it doesn't mean these, you know, yellow cars that run around and they charge you for by the mile, right? It's not taxis as Texas. It's not Texas either. Okay. Taxis was used in the Jewish culture for the orders of priests, the idea that they're organized. Okay. You have these different orders and the orders are organized and they're acting according to their organization. So that's the way that's laid out.

First Corinthians 14.40 has it this way, but all must be done properly and in an orderly manner. That's the word taxes. Things are done in an orderly manner. He says, I'm glad to see things are done in an orderly manner among you. Now, the other word that he comes up with, he talks about their stability, or the King James uses another good understanding of the word, steadfastness.

And the Greek word there is Stereoma, okay? It's a noun. Now we need to correct something that might be a misconception. Stereoma has nothing to do with a mom who is looking at twins, okay? It has nothing to do, it's not, you know, it's not that. It is also not a special Greek word for a person who has mothers that are identical twins, okay? So it's not anything about that either.

Okay. Now, what it is, however, is a word that describes instead a firmness, a solidness. He says, I see that you are firm, that you are stable. That's what it's talking about. These words, taxis, stereoma, were words that were used to describe a Roman military unit. Taxis described a unit that had no breaches, no breaks in it, each person was acting according to their assignment. And so that was the way that they would describe a Roman military unit that was operating properly, and you're going to train the unit to operate with this description.

The other word used in parallel with it, and he just grabs those pair of words, this is a military unit which had strength in its unity. There was a united front. So these words kind of were two shades of a similar meaning. The united front made it hard for an enemy to penetrate.

So if you were a Roman military officer, you sought to get these characteristics into the unit that you were working with. You wanted taxis and stereoma. So the Roman soldiers, when they would display this defensive posture, had taxis and stereoma. There were no breaches. Each person was acting according to the way in which they were supposed to act, and there was a solidness, a unity, a unity among them that was evident. It would be another example of soldiers marching with Paxus and Stereoma. They're together, they're going in line, they're each operating in the way that they should be. So, why does Paul make use of military terms? We've got a reason to ask this question here. Of course, a lot of people might think, well, of course they're in the Roman Empire, but We got to ask some reasons, and here's why. Colossae was not a Roman colony. There was no major Roman military base there. We have no evidence of either of those. It wasn't a regional center for Roman government, so there wasn't, as in Ephesus, a large contingent of Roman soldiers.

So we got this question. How come? Why do we have him using military terms here? So that's a very good question and we want you to think through that. It is really a good question and so this guy wants you to think through it. He says you have to think about it. People are snickering. Do you believe me? Oh look, I'm pretty sure this guy thinks it's a good question. At least he thinks so. Here's the reason.

Here's Ephesus that had a substantial Roman military presence there. Why? Because it was a Roman governorship that operated out of Ephesus, okay? Inland from there was Pisidian Antioch and Lystra. This is an area where Timothy lived as he was growing up. And those two were Roman colonies. So as you would expect, they're traveling between those two places, right? And here's Colossae. A little bit more detail on it. You have this on page four of your handout. Colossae was at the intersection of two Roman military roads.

So why did Paul use these terms? He used these terms because the Roman soldiers were constantly going through. They could be seen Not because they stopped there necessarily, not because they lived there or operated there or even that the people were Roman soldiers, but the people were constantly seeing Roman soldiers pass through, going between Ephesus and these two Roman colonies. There's another perspective, I think, though, that brings up the issue of why he would bring this up.

By picturing the believers as a strong unit that was orderly and all were in place, that would place the false teachers, these Gnostic teachers, in opposition. It would put them on the outside, wouldn't it? These were the ones coming on the outside, breaking up the unity. These are the ones coming on the outside, trying to take advantage of a break in the ranks. Ah!

So Paul's description not only is telling them this is the way the church is to be, and he rejoices in it, but it positions the Gnostic teachers, the false teachers, in opposition to the believers. not as being their friends. He would want them not to take their focus off of Christ, which the false teachers were prone to do.

And finally, he puts the emphasis there on your faith in Christ. What he's looking for here, he wants the believers to stand jointly and mutually together. There isn't a biblical reason for believers to get disjointed. There isn't a biblical basis for believers to be out of sync with each other. He wants them all to be putting their attention on Christ.

Faith in Christ should be a focal point here. Not just that they have a characteristic all by themselves, but that that characteristic stems from and is focused upon their faith and trust in Christ. The good discipline and stability only have meaning in terms of putting our focus on Him.

Truth is, without faith in Christ, there's no reason for us to meet here this morning, is there? But with faith in Christ, these are characteristics that if Paul were writing to us, he would say, I would rejoice to see that in this church body. I would rejoice to see taxis and stereoma in the church body. Why?

That's resulting from those who have their faith in and focus upon Christ. What you see here is a picture of constancy, continuing to behold Him, continuing to put our attention and focus upon Christ. You notice how it's real easy for us to get distracted, but he's saying our call is to put our focus upon Christ, not to look to other things. You know, the world's going to give us other things to look at. You know that. The world is going to give us other things to put our dependence upon. And the sin nature isn't going to complain about that one bit.

No. But he's saying here, with our focus upon Christ, with our faith in Christ, therein is our stability. Therein is the firmness. Therein is our unity. It's because we have faith in Christ. It's because we are focused upon Him that we have unity. It's because we're focused upon Him and in dependence upon Him that we have a solidarity and a stability.

Now, he starts off with a warning here in this passage. He's saying, I say this so that... and he's given the warning. But as he does so, he doesn't end there. brought out the pattern. He gives warnings and then gives teachings. He gives warnings and then gives teachings. The teaching here is he describes the Church.

He doesn't want the Church to continue to be stable and firm and unified just because that's what he wants it to be. He says that firmness and stability and unity is something we rejoice about. Why? Because it depends upon their continuing faith in Christ. It's because Christ is the focal point that he rejoices, not just in the raw characteristics of the Church itself. It's because the focus is upon Christ.

I say this so that no one, not even a single one, will delude you with persuasive argument no matter how much it tickles the ear. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, I care very much about you. rejoicing to see these characteristics that center upon faith in Christ and focus upon Him.

Let's pray. Lord, indeed, as we look at the warning and the focus of what Paul has to say in these two verses, What better thing could he do than to direct us to Christ? What better thing could he do than to say that ultimately, though he rejoices in the character of what he sees in the church, ultimately it's the focused upon Christ that is primary and central. And certainly any warning that would be given would be a warning intended to have us avoid distraction from Christ. And Lord, we thank you for the truths that are here, and we just pray that this would be indeed brought truth, brought us truth into our hearts and into our lives, that it would be lived out here in this church body, not because we are determined to be unified, not because we are determined to be stable, but because we have a consistent focus on You by Your marvelous grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.