{"id":1587,"date":"2015-10-05T07:52:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T14:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=1587"},"modified":"2015-10-05T07:52:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T14:52:25","slug":"captive-in-christ-not-to-the-elementary-principles-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=1587","title":{"rendered":"Captive in Christ, not to the Elementary Principles of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captive in Christ,
\nnot to the
\nElementary Principles of the World<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Col 2:8-15<\/p>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>See to it that no one takes you captive through\u00a0philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the\u00a0elementary principles of the world,\u00a0rather than according to Christ.\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>and in Him you have been\u00a0made complete, and\u00a0He is the head\u00a0over all\u00a0rule and authority;\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>and in Him\u00a0you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of\u00a0the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>having been\u00a0buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also\u00a0raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who\u00a0raised Him from the dead.\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>When you were\u00a0dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He\u00a0made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>having canceled out\u00a0the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and\u00a0He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>When He had\u00a0disarmed the\u00a0rulers and authorities, He\u00a0made a public display of them, having\u00a0triumphed over them through\u00a0him. <\/strong><\/p>\n

You might remember that we ended with Paul building on the point the \u201cjust as you have received Christ, so walk in Him.\u201d?\u00a0 That is a phrase we are wise to remember as we look at this text since this is the practical sense of what it means to \u201cwalk in Christ\u201d.\u00a0 To walk in Christ means NOT to walk away from Christ for any lesser thing.\u00a0 This was the danger with the Believers who lived in the city of Colossians and in fact is a danger in the world we live in as well. \u00a0Paul is concerned that something will take them captive.<\/p>\n

We have come to what some have called the heart of this letter to the Colossians, as Paul begins to deal directly with the issues that Epaphras has brought to his attention.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s biggest concern for this church is that they might fall prey to the false teachers and Paul links these two tools together, philosophy and deception.\u00a0 These two are of the tools the enemies of the church have used since the first century church and they can be counted among those things of great danger to church because they can and have sucked the life out of the church.\u00a0 What are they and how can we identify them?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watch what can take us captive<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Philosophy and \u2013 <\/strong>the love of wisdom. Everyone has their own explanation of the universe.\u00a0 MacArthur calls it \u201can exercise in the frustration of a degenerate mind, trying to determine ultimate truth without the help of God\u201d.\u00a0 “Captured by philosophy” as opposed to “complete in Christ.” And it is said that every person will belong to something \u2013 either captured by human philosophy or he is complete in Christ \u2011\u2011 that’s the only choices. It\u2019s that simple.\u00a0 A man either becomes a victim of human wisdom, human reason, human logic, or he becomes complete in Christ. That’s the choice of every human being. You will choose man’s wisdom or God’s.\u00a0 There is a real danger that somebody’s going to carry you away, make you prey, make you a captive, lead you off like a war prisoner; that’s the thing Paul is warning them against.\u00a0 What is the bait \u2013 what is the draw that would pull us from the God who we know loves us, and who we desire to love more?\u00a0 We can put the love or worship of wisdom above our love for God.\u00a0 There is no denying that there is a draw to be more open to things that either have the appearance of wisdom or of godliness.\u00a0 The Jewish leaders of Jesus\u2019 time certain had the appearance of knowing how to live, with all their rules and guidelines, and yet there was no group that received greater condemnation than these Pharisees. Perhaps the danger is not in the thing itself, but in the attention that it draws from us when we are drawn towards it.\u00a0 It is the pursuit of something that leaves God out of our lives and decisions?
    \nSome of the philosophies that we confront in our world \u2013<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. Nihilism<\/span> \u2013 the rejection of all religion. The rejection of all meaning. We can present the meaning of life that this person can not actually imagine.<\/li>\n
    2. Hedonism<\/span> \u2013 the belief that pleasure is the only thing in life. If it feels good, do it.\u00a0 We serve the God of pleasure, and the devil is the perverter of pleasure.<\/li>\n
    3. Individualism<\/span> \u2013 isolated and lonely. One of the advantages of the church is we have a community.<\/li>\n
    4. Relativism<\/span> \u2013 everything is relative. There are no absolutes and so each person does what is right in their own eyes.<\/li>\n
    5. Queer Theory<\/span> \u2013 the notion that sexuality doesn\u2019t ultimately matter and gender doesn\u2019t matter. The objective is to destroy humanity as God has made us.\u00a0 We can show compassion but we won\u2019t show compassion for those who declare they believe the Bible and yet make the same allowances for this trend of thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    6. Empty deception, — <\/strong>the marks of this philosophy are both emptiness and deception. \n

      <\/strong>Then Paul gives you some of the possible sources of these two things:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. According to the tradition of men, <\/strong>Tradition often perpetuates inadequate, depraved human thinking patterns. Tradition doesn’t mean anything. Just because it’s handed down doesn’t mean it’s true. There are cases where it is good.\u00a0 In the case of Timothy, Paul points out there are good traditions.\u00a0 But don\u2019t be fooled that just because it is a tradition, makes it a good thing.\u00a0 Just because this is the way you\u2019ve done it, doesn\u2019t make it truth.<\/li>\n
      2. According to the\u00a0elementary principles of the world,<\/strong> The thought is that to return to philosophy is to cast away the mature teaching of the Bible for the infantile poverty\u2011stricken opinions of an immature religion drawing its truth not from God, but from this world. When you can boil this down, you will find man\u2019s principles behind it all, not God\u2019s truth.\u00a0 The problem is sometimes it is so complicated that it gets hard to boil it down.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Which is in opposition to Christ \u2013 this is how we deal with false philosophy, we live is the fullness of the philosophy of Christ.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Who is this Christ<\/span>:\u00a0 What is it that any believer will be leaving when they abandon Christ.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,<\/strong> there isn\u2019t any more of Christ to find. The people who come and tell you that there is more of Christ.\u00a0 They attempt to find something greater that would take you away from God\u2019s gift, Christ.\u00a0 There was nothing lacking in Christ, so why would you leave a feast for famine?\u00a0 Who would choose fools gold over real gold?\u00a0 And yet, this is what people are doing when they permit their hearts to be engaged and captivated by empty deception.\u00a0 Remember the story about the Turkish delight in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.\u00a0 It seemed delicious and yet it left young Edmund empty and longing for more.<\/li>\n
        2. 10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and in Him you have been\u00a0made complete, <\/strong>being complete means that you lack nothing that you need. Why would you need to look anywhere else to find what you are lacking because you have been made complete in Him?\u00a0 What is it that you need that Christ does not have?<\/li>\n
        3. He is the head\u00a0over all\u00a0rule and authority;\u00a0<\/strong>everything that attempts to take that place is working against Him. There is nothing greater, no one higher, no one more powerful.\u00a0 People sometimes like to be on the team with the best athlete, or the strongest and best leader \u2013 You are already in that family.<\/li>\n
        4. 11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and in Him\u00a0you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, <\/strong>He has done all that is required to set you apart. He has done what it takes to make you God\u2019s child.\u00a0 Circumcision was God\u2019s way of setting the nation of Israel apart from other nations, and this spiritual circumcision is God\u2019s way of setting you apart from all the others of humanity.\u00a0 You are different.\u00a0 You feel this is your very bones, but don\u2019t attempt to live like the others because you no longer belong to that nation, you are God\u2019s people.\u00a0 In fact, Peter tells us we are a nation of priests.\u00a0\u00a0 Among the Jews it was symbolic, it indicated that they needed to be cleansed. There was wickedness in their very nature.\u00a0 If you really want to know how sinful we are as human beings, then you only have to see one thing and that is what kind of children do we produce?\u00a0 When we come to Christ, we receive a real circumcision, the removal of the body of the flesh, the removal of that condemning power of the flesh.\u00a0 And there is nothing any empty deception can add to this work of God.\n
            \n
          1. in the removal of\u00a0the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
          2. 12\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>having been\u00a0buried with Him in baptism, <\/strong>this is the picture of the fact that we have been buried with Christ in His death. We die with Him on the cross and we rise with Him.\n
              \n
            1. in which you were also\u00a0raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who\u00a0raised Him from the dead.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

               <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Captive in Christ, not to the Elementary Principles of the World \u00a0 Col 2:8-15 8\u00a0See to it that no one takes you captive through\u00a0philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the\u00a0elementary principles of the world,\u00a0rather …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[94,95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}