Don't Be Taken Captive
Colossians 2:8-10 · Miles Driedger · Oct 4, 2026
Colossians, No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/104261848131408

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

Well, good morning. It's great to be together here this morning, privileged to open the Word of God with you. It just occurred to me that the phrase pastors usually use is the Word of God to you. And while I'm doing that, I guess, I want to open the Word of God with you. And we're going to be in Colossians 2 verses 8 through 10 this morning.

And you know, it's kind of interesting. I was preparing for this morning and I knew how many people were going to be away and I thought, oh, it's going to feel really empty. And it doesn't. Nice to have you all here this morning. This morning's message is called, Don't Be Taken Captive. And we'll get into that and why that is and what that's all about. That's coming straight out of verse 8 there.

But I want to just start with a story and ask you, have you ever been in a situation that was dangerous, though you didn't realize it? Or have you seen someone else who was in a dangerous situation or a dangerous position, but they didn't realize it? Does anyone recognize this?

Anyone who's been to Alberta? This is the Royal Tyrell Museum. A very godless place, I guess, but it's a dinosaur museum. This is in the Badlands in central Alberta. And we went there with our family. maybe 10 years ago. The kids were still fairly small. So this is the front entrance here of the museum. And right out front, they've got this big outlook overlooking the Badlands. It's just an amazing view from up there. And so we were there with my brother and their kids. And we walked up there.

Now, it depends on your angle on this as to how dangerous it looks. This is looking from below up to the top. And so my brother and I took all the little kids up there, and boy, when you're at the top, the view is just totally distracting. And your kids take full advantage of that distraction to run around and play. So my brother and I are just enjoying the scene.

We hear a faint yelling from a distance, and way down here, down on this bench, our wives are sitting watching us. And it turns out that Henry, he was a lot smaller then, has squeezed out between the rails and was running around on the edge of this precipice. And we had no idea. And so she's hollering to us, hey. We didn't catch it until she comes barreling up the stairs to come, and finally we heard her. Oh, look, we have a toddler on the loose, you know, on the edge of this drop-off. And so he was saved, and he's still here today.

But, you know, the point in sharing this story is that if you care about someone and you see them in danger, what are you gonna do? You're gonna warn them, right? You're gonna tell them about the danger that exists. And that's what Paul is doing in this passage. He says, see to it. And that's the NASB, I feel like it's kind of a weak translation. Really he's saying, look out or beware. And he's warning the Colossians about some danger or some threat that they need to be aware of. So that's what we're gonna look at this morning. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna answer three questions. One, what is Paul warning against? What's the danger? And then two, why is it so dangerous? And then number three, we're going to ask, why do we need the same warning?

But before we do that, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just pray that as we approach your word this morning, that you would instruct us, that you would teach us, that you'd allow us to really grasp hold of what it is that you're communicating to us in your word, knowing that this is not just for the Colossians.

Yes, it was written to them, but you've given your word to us as well so that we can learn. from it, and they're really important things for us here this morning. So we just trust that you would teach us and make these things clear as we spend some time in it. In Jesus' name. Amen. So let's just review a little bit to get our bearings as to where we are in this letter.

And three weeks ago, in chapter 1, verse 27, Paul introduced the mystery. And we said that that's not something mysterious, but it's something that has been made known. Right, something that was previously unknown but has now been made known or revealed. And does anyone remember what the mystery is? This was Brian's pop quiz a couple weeks ago. Who remembers?

The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. But what's that all about? What does that mean, right? We can say those words, we can say, oh, that's, you know, that's the mystery, but what does that actually mean? What's the purpose behind Christ in you?

And really, this goes back to 1 verse 18, where Paul tells us that Jesus is the head of the body. And what's the body? Well, the church, right? And so to understand the church, We have to understand this metaphor that Paul is using here, right? What is the head in relation to the body? Well, the head's the, we could say the control center, right? The head is what controls the body. Your mind is using your brain to send messages throughout your whole physical body. Why? Well, to make it do what you want it to do. So the body is to respond to the head. Does that make sense? We're all pretty, it's a pretty simple, it's a simple picture that Paul is using here.

And in the same way, right, the church is the body of Christ, right? And Jesus is the head because he's the one who directs the body, right? The church is supposed to be directed and enlifed by the Lord Jesus, right? I mean, if you take the head off your body, the body ceases to function, right? without Jesus Christ as the head, the church cannot fulfill its intended purpose, right?

What it was designed for. And so that really should be really informative about what the church is. What's the purpose of the church, right? If Jesus is the head of the church, which is his body, then we should understand that Jesus wants to live out his desires and his will through his body, which is us.

Right? So that's the mystery of Christ in you, right? That we are joined to Jesus Christ in a spiritual union that allows him to live his life through us, which is an amazing thing. That's a phenomenal truth just to, you know, begin to understand, right?

The church becomes the living expression of who Jesus is. And this is shown really well in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 11, where Paul wrote, for we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. Why? So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So that Jesus, who he is, what he's like, his nature, his character, is put on display. It's manifested through us. And that's, That's why Christ in you is the hope of glory. Because that's what glory is, right? To have his nature, his character. So the mystery of Christ in you is the hope or the assurance of glory.

Jesus Christ living out his life through you and I, day to day, moment by moment, right? So we want to just keep that in view here as we move forward into this text. We're talking about this mystery of Christ in you, Christ, the head of the body, living his life out through you.

And then two weeks ago when Brian was here, he was talking about Paul's labor over the Colossian believers, right? And Paul was striving to present these believers complete in Christ. And the word complete is teleos. It talks about something that has arrived at its purpose, something that is fulfilling the role for which it was designed or made. And what Paul wants is he wants believers to be fulfilling that intended purpose.

Right? So, as we said, what is God's purpose for you? Well, it's everything that we just said about the mystery, right? It's to live his life through you. It's to put Jesus on display through you in order to glorify Jesus, right? It's not about us. It's about glorifying Jesus Christ through us. But that's the purpose. That's the end goal. That's the talias towards which Paul is striving and laboring. But why did Paul have to labor towards that end? Why did he have to strive for that?

Because it doesn't just happen, right? It's not natural to us, right? And so we have to be taught. about these things, and then we have to be reminded. And then we have to be reminded again, and again, and again, right? Because it's not natural. And we're constantly slipping back to our natural way of operating.

And on top of that, right, the church is constantly being bombarded with deceptions that derail that purpose, right? And as we saw in verse 4, when Roger was teaching, Paul is saying what he's saying. Why? So that no one will delude you with persuasive arguments.

So we've got these things coming into the church all the time that are deluding or deceiving us, and they're derailing this purpose that God has for us. And so, you know, Paul's labor, his ministry was this constant labor to keep Christians on track with God's design, with God's way of living the Christian life, with what God has in mind. And what was the way that Paul did this? How did Paul accomplish this? Look in verse 28, chapter one, verse 28. What did he do? He says, we proclaim him. We proclaim him. We proclaim Jesus Christ, right?

He's reminding, believers, his whole ministry to Christians is to remind them who Jesus is and how they are related to him, right, as their head, right, and that Jesus is enough and that we don't need something or someone more, we need Jesus Christ. And so the Christian life is not Jesus plus, right, and that's just like it was when you were born again, when you were saved in the first place, right, and Roger opened that up last week in verse 6, Right, and we can see that the Jesus who did it all in your Christian birth is the same Jesus who did it, who will do it all in your walk. Right, because he's able and he's enough. And just like we had to come to Jesus in humble faith to be born again, we have to continue to come to him in humble faith day by day to allow him to live his life through us. And we see that in verse six, right? As you received Jesus Christ, so walk in him. This is a direct parallel. And it all has to do with Jesus. And so Paul would keep pointing believers back to Jesus Christ as their life. So now we come to Paul's warning in verse six. And it's translated in the NASB, see to it, Or you may have, be careful or beware.

And the Greek word there is blepo. It's kind of a fun one to say, right? Blepo. It just means to see, to see. But in this position here, it's emphatic. It's right at the beginning of the sentence and it's in the imperative mood. And in this context, it sort of carries the sense of warning, right? There's something here you guys need to look out for. Okay, so open your eyes, look. That's what my sister-in-law was yelling at us, look, he's outside the fence. There's something to be aware of, something you need to see. Which indicates what? About this, okay?

Paul could see it, but the Colossians couldn't. He said, see, look, guys, look, open your eyes. So Paul could see this wrist, but the Colossians couldn't. Now when we say that, we have to understand that the Colossian believers, they were aware of the things that Paul is warning about, but they didn't see the danger in it. And that really is the most dangerous kind of danger. The kind that's right there, you see it, but you don't know that it's dangerous to you.

Okay? So I've got another family story here. Same brother, actually. You're getting into a lot of trouble. Eric and his family, my brother Eric, and his family were We're traveling through South America. Now, some of you met them on their way back through, back north again from South America. And you may remember this story. I don't know if you saw pictures or not, but when they were in Belize, they stayed there for several weeks and got to know some people relatively well.

I think it was a couple that they were renting from, and they were kind of on a little, cottage kind of a rental with some some trees and things around so there was some you know really nice place and towards on the last night of their stay They invited this couple, kind of the host couple, I guess, over for a meal.

Now, those of you who know us real well, what do Canadians like to do for an evening meal with friends? We like to sit around a campfire and cook hot dogs. That's one of our favorite things to do. And so they said, we'll have you over for a Canadian meal. So naturally it was going to be hot dogs over a fire.

And so my brother, again in true Canadian fashion, went out into the bush to cut some sticks to use for cooking the hot dogs over the fire. And so he did that. He made a nice bundle of sticks, carried them back to the fire pit across his arm, laid them down by the fire, waited for the guests to arrive. The guests showed up and the guy took one look at those sticks and said, what are those doing here? And got rid of them, threw them into the bush. Turns out the sticks that he had cut were Poisonwood. Anyone familiar with Belize and Poisonwood? Well, this is what Poisonwood will do to you.

So what happened is that night, Eric slept with his face on his arm, and the oils on his arm transferred to his face. And I don't know how well you can see that picture, but the whole left side of his face was swollen until his eye was almost completely swollen shut. And then his arm there is where the sticks had cradled in his arm as he carried them back. And he actually had scars on that arm for several years.

So I can move that slide on very quickly if you're disturbed by that. But it's, you know, so it was dangerous. It was, you know, if they had eaten off those sticks, cooked on them and eaten, I don't want to know what would have happened to their insides, right? And so very dangerous, but he was totally unaware of it. So unaware that he was, you know, cutting them, handling them and, you know, and didn't know the danger of what he was dealing with.

And that's what's going on with the Colossians. There were ideas that were coming into the church, and because the Colossians weren't aware of the danger, they were prone to walking right into those things. So let's get into our three questions, okay? What is Paul warning against? Why is it so dangerous? And then why do we need the same warning? So what is it that Paul is warning against?

Okay, now we've already kind of got the ball rolling here. So we know that the problem is ideas, right? Ideas that were coming into the church. But notice what Paul says in verse eight. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive, okay? So that's the danger, is being taken captive by ideas. And that word there, it's fairly well translated. It can mean to be carried off as a prisoner. But metaphorically, it has the idea of being taken in by fraud. or deceived, right? But you're taken captive by this idea. How is it that an idea can be used to take you captive? Well, it's really simple actually, right? Because what you believe determines what you do. Think about it, right?

Because every day, Tons of people give away their credit card information to people over the phone who they shouldn't give it away to. Why? Why do they do something so dumb? Because they believed what they were being told. They didn't think they were doing something dumb, right?

They believed the person on the other end of the line and they gave away, you know, sensitive information to someone that couldn't be trusted, right? And they were taken captive. And there are a lot of ideas that float around the church that seem right, but they're not. And they seem like, well, that makes sense, I think I could believe that, and we go for it, and we're taken captive by a deception. So who is the one taking you captive in this? Because it says there, see to it, that no one takes you captive, right?

Now obviously these teachings were coming through men, people who were coming into the church and had a new idea. Hey guys, let me tell you about what I know about the Christian life. And we could talk about Gnosticism and we've dealt with that a little bit in the past and that is, You know, for the Colossians, a lot of these ideas were in this Gnostic vein of thinking, and we'll touch on that a little bit more later, and that's true, right? But we're just talking about the fact that we have ideas that come into the church through people, people just like us, right?

But the thing to understand is who's behind those ideas, right? What motivates those false ideas, those deceptions, right? Because the false teachers themselves are people who have simply bought into the deception. People that believe it. They're fully engaged in this idea. This is true, guys. You gotta hear what I gotta teach you, right? Because this is the truth. It's the blind leading the blind, but who's behind the deceptions that came in the first place, right?

Who is the father of lies, as Jesus calls them? It's Satan, right? Satan is the father of lies, and as Christians, Satan is our enemy, and he's got a motive. And when we understand that, we begin to understand why he's bringing in the specific deceptions and things that he is, because Satan, in the Bible, is called the god of this age.

He's called the ruler of the domain of darkness. And we read that the whole world is held under his sway. You know, we could sing the song, this is my father's world, I rest me in the thought, da, da, da. It's a beautiful song, and it's true. God is the creator of this world, and he is the, in that sense, this is his world, but this world, this creation, has been taken captive, so to speak, by the enemy, by Satan.

And as the god of this age, he's a usurper, and we know that that won't last, right? Ultimately, he's gonna be cast down, and this world is going to be reclaimed by the rightful ruler, Jesus Christ. But at this moment in time, he is still functioning as the god of this age, the prince of the power of the air. And he does not want, Jesus Christ being put on display in this world. And so because of that, he's doing everything that he can to undermine your Christian life.

Why? Because what did we say? What is the mystery? That Christ, as the head of the church, would live his life out through us so that he's put on display, so that people see him, so that his life is manifested through you. And so Satan wants to undermine that. Right? So yes, these teachings were coming through men, but Satan is the one who is ultimately behind every deception. He is the father of lies. And Satan knows that the easiest way to keep Jesus Christ from being put on display in your life is to deceive you about the Christian walk. And so what does he do? He offers counterfeits. He's gonna give you a counterfeit.

So the risk, is being taken captive by counterfeit ideas about the Christian life. And that's why they're deceptive, right? That's why they're made to sound right. They're made to sound like something that's gonna work, right? And so let's talk about that. Why are these ideas so attractive to us? Why are they attractive to us, right? Why do we buy into them? Well, look at what they're called, okay? Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. What does that mean, right?

Well, philosophy, simple compound word in the Greek, it's a love of wisdom. A love of wisdom. Philosophy is all about trying to systematize knowledge, right? Maybe an easy way to think about philosophy is it's just a way of looking at reality, okay? And there are many different systems of philosophy, but here's the thing. We can either be looking at reality from God's perspective, which is what the Bible gives us. The Bible tells us God's philosophy, his way, because God's a systematic thinker. Philosophy is not a bad thing, okay? But we've got to have a biblical philosophy. We've got to have a biblical way of putting things together, and God gives us a logical, coherent way of putting things together truly in his word, right?

So we can be looking at things that way, or we can be looking at things from man's perspective, and that's what Paul's warning against. That's the kind of philosophy that's behind this. This is not looking at things from God's perspective. This is man's wisdom. And then empty deception What we could say here is that these are just empty promises. Something that sounds good, like I said, counterfeits, right? Something that sounds good, but it's not going to deliver, right?

It's like clouds without rain. I would say that's like Colorado, but except the last few weeks we've had a lot of rain. But, I mean, for our first ten months living here, I don't know if it rained more than twice. But clouds without rain, it's a deception.

It's an empty promise. Deception always makes some claim or some promise. And in order to be deceptive, it has to seem plausible. It has to seem like a real possibility. But it doesn't matter how much it makes sense to you, right? It's empty. It won't deliver. These are empty deceptions. So back to our question.

Why are these ideas about the Christian life so attractive to us? And number one is because they fit our natural human way of thinking. They fit our philosophy, okay? And number two, because they promise what we desire. As a Christian, you have a desire to live in a way that's pleasing to God, right? And all of these human ideas that creep into the church, they're attractive to us because they seem to promise that. But they're empty. They won't deliver.

Notice in verse eight there how Paul describes these ideas. He says they are according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of this world. And that word according to is kata. And it just tells us that there's a relationship between these two things.

They line up with each other. So the philosophy and empty deception that we're talking about are related to man's way of thinking about things. That's what they line up with. They don't line up with God's way of thinking about things, they line up with man's way of thinking about things, the tradition of men. And they're really just the natural result of looking at things from a fallen human viewpoint rather than from God's perspective. So these ideas, they make sense to us. Because they fit our mind's natural way of thinking about things. And we're attracted to things that make sense, right? So we're attracted to them.

But we gotta beware. We gotta beware because when you buy into these ideas, you're being taken captive. So Paul is warning against being taken captive by ideas, about being deceived. Now we want to answer the question, why is this so dangerous? I probably made it sound kind of dangerous, but why is it dangerous? As I said, Satan is trying to undermine your Christian life. But how exactly do these false teachings do that? And it's actually pretty simple, okay?

Like we said, they are in line with human reasoning, but notice the end of the verse, rather than according to Christ. And what has Paul been trying to tell the Colossians? He just said, in verse six, right, as you receive Christ Jesus, so walk in him.

The Christian life is lived by dependence on Jesus plus nothing. Because we can't produce the fruit of the Spirit. We have to depend on Him to do that through us. That's the only way to live a godly life. But that doesn't really fit our understanding of the way things work. That doesn't fit our natural minds. And I really don't see how just believing is going to make any difference in my day-to-day life. And Satan, he plays off of that doubt. We say, I don't see how just trusting Jesus is going to make any practical difference in my life.

And Satan comes right in and he says, you're right. That's not. That's not enough. Right? Trusting God, that sounds nice, but that's not enough. There's got to be some effort on your part. And that fits perfectly with our human reasoning, and so we just buy right into that. But the moment that you buy into the idea that your responsibility is more than faith, you've stepped off of the ground of faith, and you've made the Christian life a matter of faith in Jesus plus your work. And just like that, you've undermined your Christian life. You've made the Christian life depend even just a little bit on your effort, okay?

But if it's even the slightest bit by works, then it's not by what? It's not by grace. If we bring even the slightest element of works into the Christian life, we've denied that the Christian life is by grace. And God cannot honor that response to him, right? It's calling him a liar. It's calling him a liar. That's, you know, let's not put, you know, dress it up. That's what it is. To say that the Christian life requires your effort, your works, in addition to his grace, is calling God a liar.

And it's no different than when you received salvation in the first place, right? It couldn't be Christ's death on the cross plus my commitment to live for him. It couldn't be that. It had to be faith alone in the fact that Jesus Christ's death for your sins was sufficient to save you from the penalty of your sins, that's it.

Because as soon as you start to add something else in, like committing your life to live for him, You've got, you're on the wrong basis, right? And if you think that your salvation depends in part on your commitment to live for him, you've made it depend on works, right? So it's the same principle here. It's the same principle here. It has to be by faith alone in what Jesus Christ has done. The Lord does not produce his life, his fruit through you while you're depending on yourself to produce it. Now, you might think, well, I can do some good things, right? Well, you might produce what we could call counterfeit fruit, right? It might be good enough to fool others. It might even be good enough to fool yourself.

But God's not the one producing it. And what does that mean? That means Satan has accomplished his goal. Because when you're depending on your own effort, Jesus is not the one who's living through you. He's not the one who's being put on display. It's you. It's your fruit. It's you who's being put on display.

And it's just a bunch of religious, self-righteous externals. And they're worthless. And that's the kind of thing Satan loves. Satan loves religious external behaviors, right? The churchianity is full of that kind of thing. The world is full of that kind of external, outward religious behavior, and all it is is man's self-righteousness on parade. It doesn't glorify Jesus Christ at all.

His life is not lived that way. Now, we're gonna talk more about what those things look like in the coming weeks, because Paul's gonna get a lot more specific towards the end of chapter two. But for now, what we wanna understand is that any idea that makes the Christian life something other than dependence on the Lord Jesus is a deception. That's the core thought here.

And the danger of buying into these ideas is that they undermine your Christian life. because they always get you busy trying to live that life rather than the Lord Jesus. And it's a life you can't live, right? You can't produce the life of Jesus, right? It's not in you. It's gotta be Him producing it through you. So that's why these deceptions are so dangerous. They get me trying to live the life that only Jesus Christ can ever live through us.

So that brings us to the third question, and we've already kind of beginning to answer this, right? Why do we need the same warning? We're really no different than the Colossians, are we? Our sin nature has not changed, I say in the last 2,000 years, because that's when Colossians was written, but the sin nature has not changed since Genesis 3, when man first became a sinner by nature. We still have the same disposition, we still have the same sinful nature in us.

And Satan today, Just like when Paul wrote this letter, Satan's still seeking to get Christians to live along the same lines, right? The Jesus plus mentality. And as long as we're thinking that way, we're not trusting the Lord Jesus to live through us. And as a result, he's not being manifested through us. And we do this all the time. We do this all the time. It's our natural default to slide back to, to slip into this way of thinking. And so we need this warning as much as the Colossians did.

So we've answered our three questions, but we've only really looked at verse 8 so far. But we're going to look at verses 9 and 10 this morning as well. And here really is where Paul begins to give us the reason that we should not be deceived by these things. Verse nine begins with the Greek word hati, which is a purpose clause. We could just translate it because. So what we've got, let's just kind of string this together, okay? In verse eight, you've got this warning and this command.

He says, see to it or beware that no one take you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Why? Why, Paul? Because, and then he goes on to explain all of this. He's gonna unfold this all the way down through till the end of verse 15, which we'll continue into next week. He says, this is why.

Because in Him, Jesus Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in Him, you have been made complete. And He is the head over all rule and authority. So the reason that we shouldn't buy into all these gimmick deceptions about the Christian life is because of who Jesus is. That's where He goes here. Right? Those words are so powerful. The fullness of deity dwells in bodily form in Jesus Christ, which totally turns the whole Gnostic idea on its head. Right?

They said that Jesus is something less than deity. He's kind of somewhere in between God and man on this whole, you know, spectrum of mediaries, essentially, right? And Paul just puts that right on his head. He says, no, Jesus Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form. So he's, not only is he fully God, but he's a man. He spans that whole chasm. Right? He's not just God, and he's not just a man. He is the God-man. And so in bodily form, which Jesus is still in a body, isn't he? He was resurrected in a physical body. He ascended to heaven in his physical body. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in his physical body. He is still a man.

And he is coming again to this earth as a man, but always as God. right, the God-man. He existed for all eternity as God. When he was incarnated, he was conceived and married by the Holy Spirit. He became a man, and he will remain the God-man throughout all eternity. But in Jesus Christ, the fullness of deity, but then look at verse nine, right? How huge is this truth? In him, in Jesus, you have been made complete, right?

And so, If we're going to live, if we're going to depend on Jesus to live through us, we have to understand who he is, right? If we don't understand who Jesus is, then we're always gonna be looking for something else to supplement our Christian life, right?

That's where we get the Jesus plus mentality. We just, we don't understand who he is. And we don't understand how powerful he is. And so we're always looking for something else. We don't realize that in Jesus I already have everything I need, right? Because in him, sorry, there's your blank. I got off my notes there. If we don't understand who Jesus is and we're always looking for something else to supplement our Christian walk.

And then verse 10 where Paul says, in Him, you have been made complete. And if He is who He is, and if I am in Him, then how could I not be complete? This is the mystery, right? This is that truth of being joined to Christ in Him. When we put together verses 9 and 10, right, we understand this amazing truth that Jesus is fully God, undiminished deity, but that you as a believer have been joined to him. Right? Just like we talked about at the beginning, Jesus is the head, you are a member of his body. And as the head of the body, his purpose is to live through you.

And that's what it means to have been made complete. That word there, complete, is actually related to the word fullness in verse nine, the fullness of deity. You might say And your Bible might say that you have been made full. And the idea is that you have been richly or abundantly supplied.

You have everything you need. If you understand that Jesus is fully God, and if you understand that you are joined to Jesus as your life, then you begin to have a clue about the kind of power that is at work in you. The Creator God of the universe is indwelling you. He's filling us by the means of His Holy Spirit to supply everything that's needed for every circumstance in life. And 2 Corinthians tells us this amazing truth. It says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. You have been fully supplied, but Paul wants to be really clear about where that abundance comes from.

And if you go back to 2 Corinthians 3.5, he says, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. So you have been fully supplied. You are fully adequate to everything that God takes you through, but not because of anything in you, because you are in him, because you are joined to him. So what this means is that we don't need all of the human gimmick solutions that are offered for living the Christian life. We have Jesus Christ himself as our life, and in him, we have been filled up or made adequate for everything.

And then at the end of verse 10, Paul adds the words, and he is the head over all rule and authority. You might have the term there, principality and power. You could even translate this, every ruler and authority. He's the head over every ruler and authority. And Paul already mentioned these rulers back in chapter one, verse 16, right? He used the same term there. These refer to angelic beings. And why is it important for Paul to add these words, right? Like we said, he's doing everything he can to combat the Gnostic error, right?

And like on Brian's chart, you've got this idea of these, they're called emanations or different beings that span the gap between you and God. And we know that the Colossians, as we'll look at in future weeks, they were interested in angel worship. interest in this idea that while angels are part of this vast span of distance and through angelic beings and spiritual beings, we can reach God. And in that way of thinking, there's a vast distance between you and God. And the idea is that while you, as a person, can't really get close to God, you're going to have to go through these layers and layers of intermediary beings in order to get to God.

So let's just say, for instance, that you're facing some difficulty in your life, some trial, some hardship. Make it practical to yourself. What are you facing right now? You know that you need something from the Lord in order to be able to handle this, right? There's some need. And the question is, do you have to go through some special channels to make your need known to God? Do you need to go through a priestly order or a pastor? Do you need to go through the angels or through some saints?

No, no. There's none of that, because in union with Jesus Christ, you go right to the top, right? In Him, you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. If you are joined to Jesus Christ, there's no vast span of distance and intermediaries. You are with Him. It's not that you just, well, maybe Jesus can help me get to God. No! Jesus Christ is God. Being joined to Jesus Christ means you have a direct connection to the God of the universe.

Ephesians 3.12 says, in whom, Jesus, we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.

We have access. And that's a huge truth. That should make us think about our Christian life in a different way. We're not struggling along, hoping that God might send down a little help for us along the way. We're walking around in this world with a direct link to God the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ.

And he is ready and able in every single circumstance. That's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Peter says this, he says, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything, everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence, everything pertaining to life and godliness, no lack. It's nothing that you lack in Jesus Christ.

So let's recap what we've looked at today, okay? Paul is warning the Colossians about a potential threat to their Christian walk. And you face the exact same danger, maybe in different terms, right? And the danger comes through certain ideas about how to live the Christian life, about how to walk as a Christian. And as Christians, We have this God-given desire to live in a godly way, right? And it's really easy for us to buy into counterfeits, right? If you do certain things, or if you don't do other things, if you dress a certain way, if you belong to a certain church, et cetera, et cetera, always making the Christian life depend on my effort.

But that's human reason. God's design isn't according to human reason at all. God's provision is something that's crazy to man. To man, to the natural mind, this is crazy. That he would provide a righteous life and everything that's necessary for that by grace. not by works, not by effort, and that your only responsibility in that walk is faith, trusting God to live that life through you. That's your responsibility, and we don't wanna buy into that. It just seems impossible to us. It seems impossible to our natural thinking. But he has done everything necessary, and he has made that entirely possible by joining us to God the Son. Jesus Christ, the fullness of deity, is in us and we are in him. We are in union with him. He is the head and we are the body. We're joined.

And living according to Christ, rather than according to the traditions of men, means trusting Him about that, trusting Him that He is our life, trusting Him that He is able and willing to live through us as we trust Him to do it, rather than trying to produce that life on our own.

And that That's the whole purpose of your Christian life, right? To have Christ display his life through you so that you would be a living manifestation of him, so that the world would see him in you. And only because you have been made complete in Christ are you outfitted for that role? That's the only way you're ever gonna fulfill that role. That's the only way possible.

And like Jim said, I don't feel complete in Christ, and that's the problem. That's why we don't believe it, right? Because we don't feel that. It's true, but it's not true because we feel it. It's true because God has said it, because of all that God has done. And in the coming weeks here, we're gonna unpack especially down from nine through 15, we're gonna look at all that God has done to make that a real possibility, right? And that possibility becomes actuality as we depend on it, as we trust Him about it, that's it. trusting Him, faith, faith in His gracious work and provision.

So keep trusting Him. We've got an expression that we use in our home from time to time, don't stop trusting now. Don't stop trusting now, okay? Because the moment you stop trusting is the moment you begin walking by the flesh. And so don't stop trusting.

That's the Christian life, walking one step at a time by faith, trusting Him every step of the way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life that we have in your son. We thank you for who Jesus is, that he is the fullness of deity in bodily form, the God-man. In such a perfect way, you did that so that we could be joined to you. We could only be joined to a man because we're men. And you made that possible by joining yourself to humanity, by becoming flesh, so that there was a man, there was a head for the human race that we could be joined into so that we could have this life union with you, yourself, so that then you could in turn live your life out through us to glorify yourself through us. And Lord, we just pray that you'd bring us to understand that more and more, that we would understand that.

The Christian life is not about what we can do. It's not about what we can produce. It's about trusting you to live your righteous life through us and all those particular things, all those little details that we face day to day. And Lord, I pray that as we find ourselves in those situations where we're not trusting and we see the flesh and we see the results of it, and maybe it looks actually really good.

Often the, oh boy, I sure nailed that one, and we're walking in the flesh, but you make it clear to us in our hearts, and Lord, as we see that, that we would realize we're not trusting you, we're not walking in dependence on you, we're living this life in our strength, and teach us to come back, come back to trusting you, just to return to that simple way of walking and living the Christian life, understanding that it's not about what I do, it's about who you are and what you, can do, and what you will do through us as we depend on you for it. And understanding, Lord, that that's an eternal reality, that we're learning now what it means to be the vessels of your life, because throughout all eternity, we will continue to be the vessels of your righteous life, all to your glory. We thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen.