Colossians: Cheats, Deceits, and Traditions

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Talk intro:

We’re continuing our journey through the book of Colossians today, and we’re picking up where we left off two weeks ago.

Paul has been writing to this new group of believers to help them understand 2 important truths. He is telling them who Jesus is and what difference He makes in their life.

In this he is trying to help them see that Jesus is above all things including their gods and religious systems and in this verse Paul is driving that point home.

Turn with me to Colossians 2:8 and let’s read it…..

In virtually all religious systems there is a natural focus on the our self, or to say it another way, we are driven by the notion of making our eternity more pleasant or securing a better place for ourselves through good works.

Unfortunately most people who profess to be Christians have the same misguided thinking and the reason they feel compelled to do good things is so that they can earn God’s favor, or basically keep Him happy so that when judgment day comes they’ll have an easier time of it.

But that’s not the way we’re supposed to think. That’s the result of what Paul writes in vs. 8 – being cheated through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men.

Paul did not want them to get sucked back into a different form of the same old religious traditions and philosophies. If all they did was swap their other god’s for Jesus and went on doing the same old things they used to do they wouldn’t be any better off than they were to begin with.

We can’t to earn God’s favor through religious philosophies or traditions.

We can’t put new wine into old wine skins it just doesn’t work. When we have Jesus He makes us new creations and when we try to start earning God’s favor through any other way we are making the sacrifice of Jesus of no effect for us.

Jesus has already secured God’s favor for us through the cross. He is all sufficient for us and in Him we have everything we need for salvation. We don’t have to try to earn God’s favor through empty philosophies and traditions.

In the gospels there are only two times when the Father speaks audibly and in each of those times He calls Jesus His beloved Son and says He is well please in Him.

One of the things that we need to understand is that applies to us too. Since we are in Christ and the Father is pleased in Him the Father is well pleased with us. That means that we can throw off the bondage of wrong headed thinking and live knowing we’re in His favor.

This is good news! We don’t have to try to figure out what will please God. We are already a pleasure to Him because Jesus is in us and we are in Him.

That doesn’t mean He won’t discipline us or correct us when we stray, be assured that He will because He loves us and doesn’t want us to wander away from Him. It’s like a loving parent will correct and discipline their children to help them mature and to keep them safe from harm.

When we get this deep in our souls it will change the way we think and how we respond to God and His commands. When we serve Him it will be out of love and gratitude rather than as a way to escape punishment or trying to appease Him.

There’s real freedom in that. When we can live in God’s favor knowing that we don’t have to earn it. We can rest and enjoy the relationship we have with Him in and through Jesus.

Why would we ever want to go back to philosophy and empty deceit, according to the traditions of men?