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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
What’s your philosophy for life? In other words, what’s your approach to living or your way of dealing with different situations? Earlier this month as I flew back to Austin from a continuing education class in upstate New York, I overheard some businessmen on the airplane talking about how they needed to change their “business philosophy”, their theory or attitude that guided their behavior. When most people hear the word “philosophy”, they probably think of that meaning, of a set of ideas or system of belief. Some of you know that I earned doctor’s degree partly in philosophy, understood more as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, including such famous philosophers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The only place the Bible specifically mentions any kind of philosophy is in the second chapter of Colossians, a passage I have selected for our meditation this morning, not only because of my interest in philosophy, but also because what the passage says is relevant to all of us, especially as it regards our “Walking in Christ.”
You may know that St. Paul wrote the letter to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse, a city of the Roman province of Phrygia in Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey, and you may know that St. Paul wrote the letter while he was in prison in Rome the first time. Thus, the letter to the Colossians is one of four letters written then that we call “Prison Epistles” or “Captivity Letters”, along with Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians. The church in Colosse apparently had been started by a man named Epaphras, who worked under Paul’s authority, although Paul apparently did not have direct contact with the people there until he wrote them this letter. This letter to the Colossians is sometimes characterized as the letter of Christ, the head of the Church, but its primary purpose was to address a false teaching there. That false teaching seemingly combined elements of Judaism with another false teaching that relied on escaping from the material to the spiritual by way of secret knowledge, so that people either practiced extreme self-denial or disregarded such things as sexual conventions. St. Paul wanted the people of Colosse in his day—as with us here today—to know Christ and not to be deceived by the world’s empty arguments or ideas.
Listen, then to these words from Colossians chapter two, beginning with the sixth verse:
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in it.
This is the Word of the Lord.
As you listened, did you notice the two commands of a sort that Paul mentioned? First, the Colossians and we are to walk in Christ. Paul elaborates on that “Walking in Christ” with four key phrases: having been rooted in Him, continuing to be built up in Him, continuing to be established in the faith as they and we were taught, and continuing to abound in thanksgiving. Those four things all relate to the first command of “Walking in Christ”. Also related to that first command about “Walking in Christ” is the second command: to see to it that no one takes us captive by philosophy, that is by empty deceit. Paul says that “philosophy” is an empty deceit in three ways: according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not being according to Christ. So, while there are two closely-related commands, there is really one command with many different aspects. Since Paul writes about being rooted in Christ, being built up in Him, being established in the faith, and thanksgiving in the other Captivity Letters (as we heard in today’s Epistle reading), we want to talk further about being taken captive by “philosophy”, since he mentions that only to the Colossians.
The false teachers St. Paul indirectly and directly targets in the letter may have used the term “philosophy” to claim authority for their false teaching. The false teachers apparently claimed some special insight into salvation and asserted a necessary additional foundation for their proclamation. Like the Judaizers St. Paul targeted elsewhere, the false teachers in Colosse said keeping certain rules was necessary for salvation. After the section we heard today, Paul elaborates on some of those rules the false teachers in Colosse apparently gave: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.” In Colossians, St. Paul considers such teaching to be human tradition and worldly principles.
While we all can have personal beliefs about how to live or how to deal with different situations, such “philosophies” become a problem when they claim authority in the area of religion and salvation. In some ways, we today are still dealing with aspects of the same false teaching the Colossians faced. Have you or someone you know ever claimed that special rituals were necessary for salvation? Have you or someone you know ever claimed special knowledge about God apart from what He reveals through His Church? Have you or someone you know ever looked down on those who did not practice extreme self-denial or tolerate those who disregard sexual morality? What other philosophies, or empty deceits according to human traditions and worldly principles, might take us captive today? Do we ever think that the music or other practices of the world should influence how the church worships or reaches out to the lost? Do we ever say that our human reason and knowledge should overrule what the Bible says? Since our nation has a history of treating all people fairly, do we ever give equal regard to everyone’s ideas about religion and morality? When we are taken captive by such philosophies, or empty deceits, we stop “Walking in Christ”: we are uprooted , knocked down, and disestablished from the faith we were taught, and we do not abound in thanksgiving.
We all sin in these or other ways, and so we all need to repent. We heard St. Paul write to the Colossians that by nature we are dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh. Apart from the Holy Spirit, our sinful human nature is incapable of understanding spiritual matters, and, apart from the Holy Spirit, all the things we do are sinful and displeasing to God. Even we to whom the Holy Spirit has given faith still find ourselves sinning. God calls all of us, believers and unbelievers alike, to turn away from our sin and to trust Him to forgive us for Jesus’s sake.
You see, as St. Paul describes the matter in this section of his Divinely-inspired letter to the Colossians, philosophy’s empty deceit is especially a problem because it is not according to Christ, in Whom the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Our empty and deceitful philosophies matter when they impact Who Christ is and therefore also what He has done. We know out of God’s great love for us He sent His Son to save us from our sins. St. Paul tells us that Christ Jesus the Lord is both true God and true man. St. Paul tells us that that God-man took the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands and set it aside, nailing it to the cross. (We are hearing so much in the news these days about our national deficits and debt, but our debt of sin is infinitely greater, and Jesus paid that debt of sin for you and for me.) St. Paul tells us that we who were dead are made alive by God forgiving all our trespasses through faith, faith in all He did in Christ for us. We die to the elemental principles of this world. In short, St. Paul tells us that in Him, Who is the head of all rule and authority, we are filled. Lutheran commentator R. C. H. Lenski puts it this way:
When we are connected with a Savior in whom all the fullness of the Deity dwells we are certainly made full to the limit, not a single need remains for human philosophy and human schemes that are built in accord with the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of this world, so that thereby we may be really and completely full. Christ as the God-man does not fill us merely in part and leave something to be added by means of philosophy so as to fill us to the brim.
Lenski’s comments reminded me and may remind you of the old advertising slogan, “Fill it to the rim, with Brim.” That slogan appealed to people who would not drink a full cup of caffeinated coffee but could drink a full cup of the decaffeinated Brim.
Of course, it is not through coffee that God fills us up, although He does use means. Today’s reading from Colossians specifically mentions circumcision as one of those means of grace. By “circumcision”, St. Paul is not indicating the Old Testament circumcision, which was the external sign someone stood in a covenant relationship with God, but St. Paul is indicating Holy Baptism (this Colossians passage is unique in that it makes clear how Baptism replaces Old Testament circumcision as the New Testament entrance rite into God’s Kingdom). Through Holy Baptism we are both buried with Christ and raised with Him through faith. Christ in water and word gives forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe. Moreover, we who are baptized also are invited to handle, to taste, and to touch Christ Jesus the Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar. There bread is His body and wine is His blood, given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of our sins. Despite what the philosophies of some might say, just as deity and humanity are united in the one person of Christ Jesus the Lord, so His body and blood are united and are really, physically present in the Sacrament’s bread and wine. We who so receive Him in faith also receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. And, there, in the Eucharist, most of all we abound in thanksgiving as we are “Walking in Christ”.
At the beginning of our passage from Colossians, St. Paul gave the command regarding “Walking in Christ”, and he gave the closely-related command regarding not being taken captive by empty and deceitful philosophies not according to Christ. At the end of our passage from Colossians, St. Paul refers to Christ disarming the demonic rulers and authorities of this world (taking them captive, as it were) and putting them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross. Yet, we do not see that triumph with our human eyes right now. Rather, we continue to struggle with sin in this world, and we live in daily repentance and faith. Human traditions and worldly principles continue to appeal to us. So, we pray with hymnwriter Nicolaus Selnecker, as we did a moment ago:
Restrain, O Lord, the human pride / That seeks to thrust Your truth aside
Or with some man-made thoughts or things / Would dim the words Your Spirit sings.
Stay with us, Lord, and keep us true; / Preserve our faith our whole life through—
Your Word alone our heart’s defense, / The Church’s glorious confidence.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
