Colossians 2 Study Guide & Breakdown
Paul’s Concern for Their Salvation
Colossians 2:1-5
2 For I want you to know what a great conflict[a] I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, [b]both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing [c]to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
2:3: For all those who seek the secrets of the universe, a desire the Colossian heretics always fed upon, Paul assures us that Christ knows everything: Most of this is HIDDEN to us, so we must seek Christ alone, who is God’s Wisdom: In the Incarnation He became for us a Servant, taking on our weak and mortal existence, but He always remains Lord of all…
Against False Theology
Colossians 2:6-15
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding [a]in it with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest anyone [b]cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead [c]bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all [d]principality and power.
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body [e]of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the [f]handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
2:8: THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE WORLD include- (1): the basic elements of matter; (2): the laws that regulate the universe, including those conditioning fallen human life, such as death, sin, the flesh, and the Mosaic Law; (3): the spirits who use these conditions to oppose Christ and are at the core of the pagan cults and systems of knowledge; and (4): human traditions opposed to God’s tradition:
2:9-10: (See John 1:14): Do we need to rise through manifold levels of being to get to God??? No!!! The Incarnate Christ is fully God and fully Man-He fulfills human nature, and all levels of being submit to Him: Do we need to rise slowly through a humanly conceived spiritual bureaucracy to God??? No!!! We go directly through Christ, for He is the sovereign power, THE HEAD over angelic beings:
2:11-14: Do we need to perform manmade rituals and works to gain a hearing before the Redeemer??? No!!! We come through God’s work, HOLY BAPTTISM, to be joined to Christ: For Jesus Christ triumphs over the conditions of fallen existence-sin, death, the flesh, the law, and evil spirits-by His death and Resurrection: In the OT rite of circumcision only a small price of flesh is removed; IN THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST, our baptism, we die to the flesh and live to God:
2:15: Don’t the dark powers still can take power over us??? No!!! All these created PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS, the angels who are the hidden powers behind fallen human existence, are defeated by the Resurrection of Christ!!! Even the law has been fulfilled and thus transcended – (v. 14): Christ triumphs, and He rides in triumphal procession, leading out the prisoners of war in chains before Him, while He follows behind in His glorious shining victor’s chariot, THE CROSS!!!
Against False Spirituality
Colossians 2:16-23
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a [a]festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the [b]substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has [c]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
20 [d]Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and [e]neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
2:16-23: Here Paul speaks against false worship – (vv. 16, 17), false mysticism – (vv. 18, 19), and false ascetism – (vv. 20-23): He says, LET NO ONE JUDGE YOU – (v. 16) and do not submit to THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE WORLD – (v. 20; see v. 8 and those notes above): For man does not live by SHADOW, the law, but by THE SUBSTANCE – (- also meaning “body”) that produces the shadow – (v. 17), which is the body of Christ, the Church: Man-centered superstitious ritualism is deadly: The fulfilling liturgy is that of the body of Christ, culminating in the Eucharist: (For Paul on liturgical worship, see 1 Corinthians 11-14): Mystical experiences are not wrong in themselves, but we must beware of deception, pride, schism, and a mind controlled by passions and the body- (For Paul on mystical experiences, see 2 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 1; and 3): Ascetic practices- prayer, fasting, almsgiving- are taught by God (Matthew 6), but enemies lie along the path as well: Submitting to created realities, heeding human traditions, the deception of feeding the flesh when you think you are denying it, are false asceticism and condemned as pride- (For Paul on asceticism, see 1 Corinthians 9; 1 Timothy 6:12; and 2 Timothy 2:3-6):
Psalm 42 (43) Study Guide & Breakdown
42(43): Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your [a]tabernacle. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The [b]help of my countenance and my God.
Psalm 42 (430: Is a prayer of Christ on behalf of His Church for enlighten during the ungodly – (AN UNHOLY NATION, v. 1; MY ENEMY AFFLICTS ME, v. 2): For He Himself is LIGHT AND TRUTH – (v. 3), who was SENT into the world in His Incarnation – (See also John 8:12; 14:6): Thus, He GUIDES – (v. 3) the Church to the heavenly holy of holies – (THE ALTAR OF GOD, v. 4): So this enlighten puts joy in one’s face – (v. 5): in hymns of the Church, YOUR HOLHY MOUNTAIN AND YOUR TABERNACLES – (v. 3) are seen as referring to the Mother of God and to the saints:
SPECIAL PRAYER- FOR OUR FRIEND VINNY & THE SCHOOL CHILDREN AND TEACHERS SHOT IN TEXAS TODAY!!!