Colossians 2:1-7
Bobby Bowden turns 91 today. Who’s Bobby Bowden? He successfully coached Florida State football for 34 years and is known as one of the greatest football coaches of all time. He also professes Christ and speaks in churches when he can. He recently came through a bout with Covid-19. He said, “God wasn’t ready to take me home yet to be with Him.” Then he added, “I’ve had a chance to get a lot of wins in my life, but I really wanted to win this one because I wanted to be around to vote for Donald Trump.” Coach Bowden is a legend in the world of college football. Here’s why: “I just love to coach. I love to take a group of young men in the later summer and mold them into a team.”
“I just love to coach.” As we open Colossians 2, I can hear Paul saying, “I love to coach God’s people. I love to see Jesus Christ take lost people, give them new life, and then build them into a strong force for Christ.” Look at verse 1.
Col 2:1, For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
He had never been in Colossae or Laodicea or had even seen them. But his heart is with them and he struggles on their behalf. The word “struggle” is Greek word “agona.” Paul fights for God’s people even from his prison quarters. He knows they face a barrage of opposition. Not only are they fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil, but false teachers abound; the wolves are always at the door. So he wrote this section to prepare them for the spiritual battle. You see this in verse 4, warning them of deluding and persuasive arguments. He wants them to fight the good fight of faith. If you want to be a strong church, there are certain things that must be in place, and here they are.
1. YOU NEED HEARTS FILLED WITH COURAGE.
Col 2:2a, that their hearts may be encouraged…
Every coach knows an athlete’s heart must be in the game. The heart is where you think, where you choose, evaluate, long for, and anticipate. When Moses prepared Joshua to lead God’s people into the Promised Land, Moses put courage into Joshua’s heart. Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
To be prepared for battle you’ve got to be strong and courageous for Christ in this world. We’ve got to stand without flinching. We know we’re on the winning side. We’ve got the truth. Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
2. YOU NEED A LOVE THAT REFUSES TO TEAR APART.
Col. 2:2b, having been knit together in love…
Whether it’s war or sports, when the opponent is attacking, you appreciate your fellow believers. The team must be loyal to one another and work and fight as one. God didn’t save us to be lone rangers. As you grow and fellowship in the church, your love for other believers gets stronger and stronger, knit together in love. Colossians 2:19 says we are a body that is joined together with spiritual ligaments and tendons. Tendons are hard to pull apart.
My family sold turkeys in the Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philadelphia. Before Thanksgiving and Christmas we sold a lot of them! We killed them and picked the feathers at home, laid them in ice, and took them to market the next morning. We displayed them with their heads and feet still on and their innards still in them. When we sold a turkey, not only did we cut off the head and eviscerate the insides, but we put the turkey’s lower leg and foot up on my dad’s tendon puller mounted on the wall and pulled this lever down and literally ripped the tendons right out of the upper leg. Who wants to eat turkey tendons for thanksgiving, right?
A strong church refuses to allow anything to rip out those loving tendons that hold the body together! This doesn’t mean there aren’t problems among Christians. We are strongly committed to truth, and sometimes we disagree over aspects of minor doctrine, or, God forbid, over the color of the carpet. You may not agree with all the decisions we will have to make in the new building, but don’t let minor issues create unloving thoughts. Hearts knit together in love is a beautiful picture. We love by the truth, and we speak the truth in love. It’s one piece, like a knit sweater. The yarn is the truth and the knitting is the love and you remove one or the other and you’ve got a tangled mess! So we’ve seen that a strong church needs courage and love.
3. A STRONG CHURCH IS CONFIDENT THAT CHRIST HIMSELF IS OUR GREATEST TREASURE.
Col. 2:2c-3, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Now that is just a mouthful! I think this is Paul’s biggest struggle. He strongly desired that these believers would be so filled, saturated, and totally blessed that they would realize how spiritually wealthy they are in Jesus Christ. He drives this point in over and over throughout Colossians. It’s the very heart of the heart of Christianity. Christ is our treasure; we need nothing else. You cannot be prepared for battle if all you focus on is false teaching. You need that assurance, that confidence, that Christ is everything, that He is sufficient for all your spiritual needs. He is God’s wisdom, and He is all you need. 1 Corinthians 1:31 says, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
Paul’s point here is that Christ Himself is absolutely all of God’s wisdom and knowledge for us. He is the center, the sum and substance. He is our treasure. He controls all. From eternity past to eternity future, Christ is the treasure of God’s wisdom for us. A church prepared for battle loves and lives for Jesus Christ the Lord!
4. LEARN TO DISCERN TRUTH FROM ERROR, OR EVEN TRUTH FROM ALMOST TRUTH.
Col 2:4, I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
To delude has the idea of derailing your thought processes. The phrase “persuasive arguments” carries the picture of an unprincipled lawyer presenting a case to the jury where he throws all kinds of doubt into their minds. This was Satan’s technique in the garden. “Has God really said?” “You surely won’t die.” “God knows if you eat it, you’ll be like Him.” Do you hear this reasoning around the truth? And today Satan is busier than ever pumping out delusions and persuasive arguments. Just think of the flood of false teaching that poured out into the entire world from the minds of Marx, Darwin, and Freud in the late 1800s. They are still with us today, stronger than ever! We need to learn to discern. “Is that what God really says?”
I read chapter 19 in Arnold Dallimore’s biography of Charles Spurgeon. The chapter title is “Earnestly Contending for the Faith.” Spurgeon was part of the Baptist Union in England and toward the end of his life he realized that a good number of men had bought into the New Theology that denied the inspiration of the Scripture and many of the fundamentals of the faith. So Spurgeon took an unpopular stand against the advice of almost all of his friends. He withdrew from the Baptist Union. He wrote an article about the situation entitled, “The Down-Grade,” meaning the down-grading of the gospel and the Word of God. Many of his friends turned against him. False accusations flew thick against him. He felt it bitterly. But he wrote, “I can never compromise the truth of God…. It is not a matter of personalities, but of principles.” (p. 211) As much as it hurt him, he assured people he held no personal ill-will and that he separated from the Union with utmost regret.
We need discernment to ferret out those delusions and persuasive arguments that contradict the Scriptures. There are tons of voices out there. One commentator put it well, “A strong church must develop the power to resist seductive teaching. We must keep the pasture free of noxious weeds, we must educate the sheep where to feed, and we must be alert to the wolves out there who thrive off the biblical ignorance of people.”
5. YOU NEED GOOD ORDER AND STRUCTURE.
Col 2:5, For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
Here we have Paul rejoicing again. His heart is with them and he is blessed to hear about their good order and stability. These are two military terms picturing the church as a standing army prepared for the onslaught of the enemy.
1) Good discipline, taxis, has the idea of standing in an orderly manner. 1 Cor.14:40 uses the same word – let all things be done decently and in order. I watched a few minutes, maybe seconds, of Bethel Church led by Bill Johnson when gold flakes were (supposedly) coming from the ceiling. The people went crazy – total disorder.
2) Stability of your faith. The word for stability is our word stereo – full and solid. Paul rejoiced in their firm, solid, unwavering Christ-centered, Christ-established faith. Here we are solidly united in Jesus Christ and all that He is for us! Courageous, loving, confident, discerning, stable…
6. YOU NEED VIGOROUS AND CONTINUAL GROWTH IN CHRIST.
Col 2:6-7, Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
One author said, “The essence of the Christian life is packed into these two verses.” They deserve memorizing. Let’s break them down into several parts.
1) You received Christ. This is where you start. There is a time when you receive or welcome Christ right into your life. Paul isn’t talking about baptism here, or confirmation class, or raising your hand, or reciting a prayer. He’s definitely not talking about infant baptism. For the life of me I can’t figure out how an infant can receive Christ. They can’t even open the door to receive Grandma and Grandpa into the house! But if you are a true believe, somewhere along the line of your life you said something like, “I understand who this Christ Jesus the Lord is, that He came to save sinners and died in their place on the cross. I realize I am a sinner. I have offended God and without Christ I will die in my sin and remain under God’s wrath. I do now receive Him as my Lord and Savior!” But this is just the beginning.
2) Keep walking in Him. When you got married, the wedding was not the end of the story. After the vows you didn’t say, “OK, see you later. I’ve got my own stuff to do.” And your relationship with Christ is the same. When you receive Christ as your Savior and Lord, you begin to live your life in Him, every day. You are a completely new person who now has an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Old things have passed away. You have a new life in Him. His Spirit dwells in you. So now keep on walking with Him every day as a Christian. This is progressive sanctification.
3) You’ve been rooted in Him. That’s a perfect passive. When you received Christ, God planted you in Christ and none of the trees He plants ever die. God plants your roots down into the nourishing grace of Christ. Everything of eternal value in your life comes as you draw upon His power and sustaining life.
4) You are being built up in Him. We’ve been tracking our daughter’s house being built, from foundation to framing to roofing to electricity, heating and air, dry wall. Over time it takes the shape of the picture we saw in the literature. God is building you up and you are becoming more and more like Christ. You are different now than you were a year ago. You love Christ more. You are more loving, more joyful, more patient. You are being built up in Him and by Him through His Word.
5) You are being established in your faith. “As you were taught.” Teaching establishes you. You aren’t blown around by every strange wind of doctrine. You know the truth of God’s Word more now than you did a year ago. Your thinking is not nearly as fuzzy or mushy as it used to be. You’re seeing stuff in the Bible you never knew was there! You see doctrines much more clearly now than you used to. You are learning about God’s sovereignty, election, propitiation, imputation, and so much more. You can now talk your way through Ephesians, maybe Romans. You can list the attributes of God. You’re being established. You’re treating your spouse more lovingly. You’re guarding your words more carefully. You’re learning to keep short accounts with God.
Sadly, many sit in churches just clocking time. They don’t know much more about the Bible and Christ and God and eternity now than they did a year ago. But a strong church is vigorously growing in the faith! That’s why Colossians 1:28 is so important – We preach Christ, teaching and admonishing every man with all wisdom!
6) You are overflowing with gratitude. Paul always brings us back to gratitude. Your life is a flowing, surging, overflowing fountain of gratitude.
Courage, love, treasuring Christ, discerning, good order, and vigorous growth in living out God’s truth day by day are indicators that a church is prepared for the battle we’re already in. Bobby Bowden said, “I just love to coach.” Paul would say, “I just love Christ and I love to see churches grow and become strong forces for Christ in this godless world.” How about it? Are you in the strengthening process? Are you developing discernment for the battle against the false teaching that inevitably comes?
May God help each of us to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Have you received Him? Has God given you a heart to receive Him? Can you say right now that you are trusting in the person of Jesus Christ alone for your relationship to God? If not, tell God right now you want to trust Him.