In light of the Colossian believers’ new identity in Christ and given the threat of being led astray by Jewish Legalists, Paul clarifies why the Colossians were to listen to his instruction and not that of the Judaizers.
Stay engaged with new and up-to-date content, including newsletters, articles, podcasts, etc. Download the Teach Me the Bible App from any app store or Apple TV/Roku device.
In light of the Colossian believers’ new identity in Christ and given the threat of being led astray by Jewish Legalists, Paul clarifies why the Colossians were to listen to his instruction and not that of the Judaizers.
Stay engaged with new and up-to-date content, including newsletters, articles, podcasts, etc. Download the Teach Me the Bible App from any app store or Apple TV/Roku device.
You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.
Tim Webb:Hello everyone, my name is Tim Webb and I'm here with Dr David Klingler for our Teach Me the Bible podcast, and our desire is helping the people of God understand the Word of God, david, and I just want to encourage them to. If they're watching through our website or if they haven't downloaded our app, they're welcome to download our Teach Me the Bible app, but as well, you can download it through Apple TV or Roku app. But with each episode you've developed a study guide and there's blog posts and articles and other information for them to gain a deeper understanding along the way, and just want to encourage everyone just to, if they have questions, to email you those questions and you'll get back to them as soon as you can, and I've had just in this, even with this last week, I've had people what do we do if we have questions? Just email, just ask away so you can go deeper in your understanding, or just clarification.
Tim Webb:You've always said that it's a story and you can understand this story, and there are certain things that you've emphasized along the way to keep that understanding growing, and so we want to remove the barriers to that understanding. So today, though, we're continuing our discussion in Colossians with Paul, and so we're in chapter two and again remind people, just read the whole whole letter as much as you can, so you can keep the flow. We're the ones that broke it up into chapters and verses, but we're now in chapter two, so you want to remind us what's going on here and just continue.
Dr. David Klingler:Paul has written apparently two letters. Well, there's certainly he wrote two letters, more than two letters, but he wrote this letter to the Colossians and then he wants them to read also the letter that he wrote to the Laodiceans. And if that doesn't sound familiar to you, probably because it shouldn't I'm not aware of a letter that Paul wrote to the Laodiceans. We don't have that letter. Many speculate that that could be possibly the letter that he wrote to the Ephesians, and when we went through the book of Ephesians we talked about that. But actually in the oldest manuscripts it doesn't say in Ephesus, it's to the saints who are, and it seems like something should go there. And so many have concluded that this was a letter. Ephesians was a letter that was to be carried from city to city. There's no, you know nothing in Ephesians that attaches it to a specific people. No greetings, Greet this person, that person. And certainly Ephesians and Colossians read almost the same. I mean, their Colossians is a little shorter, Ephesians goes into more detail, Colossians has more of a warning against the Judaizers and we're going to get into that here in chapter two, where the well, the letter we know is to the Ephesians is more general, but they cover the same material. I mean, they're almost identical. And so Paul is writing to these different groups for different purposes, and I think that we err when we read the letters for theology first, rather than trying to figure out what's he saying to those people and why is he saying it. And I think in Paul's letter to the Colossians he's writing to warn them not to listen to the Judaizers. We know a little bit of the folks that are in the Colossian church that we've gone through Philemon, and Philemon is someone who's there at the church at Colossi. Onesimus is another character that we know from this church, and so we're familiar with some of the names, and some of those names will show up again here in this letter as well.
Dr. David Klingler:But in chapter one Paul has introduced his letter, and in chapter two he's going to turn to a warning Warning to not listen to the Jewish unbelievers who will try to get you circumcised, and they'll try to get you to listen to the law. And so we wanna pay attention to the pronouns as we go through here, and I think it's pretty straightforward what he's doing when we get down to verse 13,. There's a textual problem there, and we'll talk about what that even means and how it might relate to the discussion, but anyway. So in chapter two, verse 20 says I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, for all those who have not personally seen my face, and their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding in the true knowledge of God's mystery in Christ. This is all language that he's used in Ephesians. His desire for them is that they would come to a true knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. That's back in one nine, and so Paul's ministry is making the gospel known to the Gentiles that they would come to understand the true knowledge of God's will and have all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He's gonna come through his explanation and through the ministry of the spirit that's playing out in the body, and so he has been entrusted with God's mystery.
Dr. David Klingler:Actually, back in Ephesians, he explains in chapter three of Ephesians a couple of things he says. For this reason I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me, for you, that by revelation there was made known to be the mystery, as I wrote in brief, still talking about this same mystery, and by referring to this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, in the spirit, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise of Christ through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to God's grace. Then he continues in verse eight to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and bring into a light the administration of the mystery which in ages past has been hidden. And so he's still talking about this mystery. He's been entrusted with the mystery to explain the gospel, the mystery of Christ, to the Gentiles, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Dr. David Klingler:If you have read Ephesians, that statement makes a lot of sense. If you haven't read Ephesians, that's tough to decode right. That the true knowledge of God's mystery, Christ, you know, he says that is Christ himself. It's all in italics, it's just because it's not in the text. It says the true knowledge of God's mystery, Christ, in whom, in other words, it's in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. How do, how is the body of Christ, the people of Christ, to get out of Christ all of the wisdom and knowledge that is in Christ? Well, it's in his body and in Ephesians it's revealed through the apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists, of which Paul is one, and so it makes a whole lot more sense once you know kind of what Paul is saying and kind of what he's thinking when he uses this language.
Dr. David Klingler:I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. So the reason why I'm saying this is because heads up, there are folks who are gonna try to lead you astray. For even though I'm absent in body, nevertheless I'm with you in spirit. In other words, I'm not present with you. We think in body but in spirit.
Dr. David Klingler:I'm not with you in the body, but I am with the body and spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and stability of your faith in Christ, as you, therefore, having received Christ, walk in him, having been firmly rooted and being built up in him, establishing your faith just as you are, we're instructed, overflowing with gratitude. So Paul has got them firmly grounded, planted in their faith, built, being built up, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Again, all of this language is very Ephesian language, and so he wants them to be reminded of this, so that no one takes you captive through philosophy, empty deception according to the tradition of men here he's talking about, to Judaism, the elementary principles of Christ that same language is used in Hebrews, I'm sorry, the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him y'all have been made complete. You have been filled. That complete it's from this word play you have been made full.
Tim Webb:So this is like a measure.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, you've been filled up. And this goes back to in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge reside and you have access to these. In him you have been made full. He's gonna explain how it is. It's through the words of the apostles and prophets, through the scriptures, and in him y'all also were circumcised, with a circumcision made without hands. This goes back to the Old Testament. This goes back to Israel's history that they were to be circumcised in the flesh, but they were looking forward to a time when they were to be circumcised in the heart. And so it's really a very fascinating language, just due to Romney, chapter 30, it's the circumcision of the heart.
Dr. David Klingler:Paul's gonna use this same argumentation in Romans. If you, being a Jew, are circumcised in the flesh but you don't do the things of the law, does not your circumcision become uncircumcision? And if the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do instinctively the things of the law, does that not mean that their uncircumcision of the flesh becomes circumcision, circumcision of the heart? And so, if you know the Old Testament story, if you know the discussion of circumcision, this makes perfect sense. He's saying to them y'all were circumcised with the circumcision without hands. Your heart was circumcised in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and you were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And y'all were dead in y'all's transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh or they translated win here, but actually it's not win and you literally, and you being dead in your transgressions and uncircumcision of your flesh.
Dr. David Klingler:And then here's the textual problem, textual variant he made y'all alive together with him, or is it? He made us alive together with him, having forgiven us, so that us there, the last us, in verse 13,. There's no textual problem there. Some texts, old texts, read made y'all alive together with Christ, others, olders texts, I think probably it's pretty evenly split. So he made us alive together with Christ. So when y'all being dead and y'all's transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh made y'all or us alive together with him, I think it's us. And the reason why is because he's making the point Y'all were dead, the Jews were uncircumcised. Y'all were dead in your transgressions, the.
Tim Webb:Gentiles.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, the Gentiles, but made us alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting in decrees against us. Now that decrees is the same language that he uses back in Ephesians, chapter two, talking about the law in decrees, the law of commands in decrees, and so he's talking about the Mosaic law here, and the Jews were under the law, but the Gentiles were not. Why would he be switching in the middle of verse 13? I think he's switching because he's making the point Y'all were dead, Y'all were made alive. You were now in Christ. He made us alive, first the Jew first and then the Gentile. We came to you, so don't listen to them. Right, and there's your pronouns.
Tim Webb:Yeah, there's the pronouns in action, so it's very, don't listen to them.
Dr. David Klingler:So, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting in decrees against us which was hostile to us, and he's taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross when he disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public display of them having trapped over them through him, therefore, let no one act as y'all's judge. So he's warning them see to it that no one takes you captive by empty philosophy or empty deceit. In verse eight Let no one act as your judge. In verse 16. No one deludes you with persuasive argument. Verse four this whole section is about warning these people, these Gentile believers, not to be persuaded by the party of the circumcision. So no one act as your judge. Verse 18. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self abasement right. And so in between there's verse 17. So back to verse 16,. Therefore, let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink, or with respect to festivals or a new moon or Sabbath day. Sabbath day, that's very clearly true, yes.
Dr. David Klingler:Which are a mere shadow of things. To come Again back to Hebrews language. Whoever wrote Hebrews is hanging out with Paul quite a bit. All the same language, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self abasement by the worship of angels, by taking a stand on what he's seen, inflated without cause by a fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head and of course the head is Christ, from whom the whole body and the body is the church is being supplied and held together by the joints and legaments, grows with a part, grows with the growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why is it? As if you were living to the world? You submit yourself to decrees like don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. If you've been believed in Christ, you've been raised circumcised, with the circumcision not made with hands, but circumcision of the heart. Why are you doing this, these commandments? Why are you?
Dr. David Klingler:trying to keep the law right, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men. These are matters which, to be sure, have the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and the severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. They don't deliver, they don't save, they don't sanctify, they don't make clean. What are you doing? Yeah, right. And so chapter two, much stronger. There's really in Ephesians. Paul says don't walk as the Gentiles walk. That's really the warning. But here, in his letter to Colossi, he's warning against the Jewish, the Judaizers, those who would come behind and teach them to keep the law. When we read this today, it's so unfamiliar to us because no one's coming around trying to get us to keep the law right.
Dr. David Klingler:And so it's hard to figure out what's going on here. If you know the backstory, if you know the book of Acts, if you know what Paul's been dealing with over and over and over, then this warning makes perfect sense. The Jews and we run into this in Romans, in Colossians, in Galatians, not so much in Ephesians, certainly in Philippians all throughout Paul's letters the antagonists are the Jews. There are Jewish believers who believed in Christ. We get this in Acts, chapter 15.
Dr. David Klingler:The Pharisees who had believed were trying to get the Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law. The disciples meet in Acts, chapter 15 and conclude rightly that the law doesn't save. All the law does is condemn. The law Paul talks about this in Galatians, chapter 3, was a tutor to lead Israel to Christ, and they rejected the Christ. And so the gospel has gone to the Gentiles to make them jealous, to move them to anger. If you can bring law keeping and Christ believing all together and kind of mix it all together, then it's not offensive to the Jews and the Gentiles can enter into the synagogue and then the Jews can win them over. Paul says no, no, we're keeping this separate, that you are in.
Dr. David Klingler:Both groups are in one body. Here's the great irony the Jews and the Gentiles are in one body, but the Gentiles don't become Jews to get into that body. That's how it was in the Old Testament. That's not how it is anymore, because it's a body whose head is Christ, the church of Christ, and so it's very important distinction. It's very important that we understand this as present day readers, although it doesn't have a whole lot of practical application for us. Today, in the 21st century, we're not dealing with Judaizers. We are dealing with people who want to do rule keeping, so we kind of replace the Jews with Don't we create our own law, legalism, so it becomes legalism.
Dr. David Klingler:That's really not the same thing. There are still rules, so we don't eliminate the character. But the question is how is one justified before God? And the Jew would say you're justified before God because you're a Jew, you're circumcised. Be circumcised, keep the law and you too will be justified before God. To which Paul says absolutely not. You are justified by grace, through faith, and so if by the rule keeping, legalism, we think that's how we're justified, then that's the same type of error, but certainly it's not the same, is it not the same that we're just elevating ourselves?
Dr. David Klingler:In more cases.
Tim Webb:I mean Jews elevate themselves, Outward appearance acts. What we can do. What we can do and really just kind of covering our depravity, our simple nature.
Dr. David Klingler:Well, I justify myself through fill in the blank. That's what the Gentiles did. It's what the sin that Paul talks about in Romans. It's the sin of self-justification, of being your own God, of exchanging the glory of God for the image of man and animal and justifying yourself. So it's all the same sin, but it's not the same circumstance that we deal with today.
Dr. David Klingler:So chapter two I think it's pretty straightforward Colossians there's not a lot of memory verses that people have in Colossians. There's some theology verses in chapter one, but most people don't have many memory verses, if any, in Colossians. Maybe they memorized it for their systematic theology class and seminary. He is the image of the invisible God, that type of thing in 115 and 16. But other than that, and the reason why is because it's just a letter where antagonists are Jews and it's not familiar to us. So chapter two is a warning against the antagonists, against the Judaizers. Pretty clear language there. Yeah, absolutely. And Paul's warning them. And this warning is going to continue all the way through chapter three where he's going to tell them to put on the new man. We'll talk about what that new man is.
Tim Webb:Well, david, thank you very much. Great chapter to walk through, as always. I'm looking forward to seeing how this ties continues, ties together with the following chapters and, just personally, I really like this switch on, therefore, in chapter three. It's encouraging to me Absolutely. I'm always going, oh great, okay, how do I fit in this? And what God is doing through His Word and revealing Himself and so us as the body of Christ. So thank you for today, look forward to continuing the discussion.
Intro/Outro:Thanks for listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our desire is to use the power of God's Word to change lives. For more information, download our app. Join us next week for another episode of Teach Me the Bible.