Let’s go with Pastor J Mark to Colossians 2 for today’s lesson.
Last week, we began exploring Paul’s teaching in Colossians 2:1 to 7, “God’s Treasure Chest.” As we resume our study, here is the Scripture text.
1For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4 I say this so that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6 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.
The Next Priceless TREASURE (found in God’s Treasure Chest) is,
Full Knowledge
Paul warns his son in the faith, Timothy, about intellectual knowledge in 1 Timothy 6:20, 21. “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.”
Grasping the great mystery of Christ in you calls for the complete and balanced exercise of all your mental powers. As I said earlier in this series, knowledge and faith are presumed by unbelievers to be mutually exclusive, but that just isn’t so. We have Scripture after Scripture that tells us to pursue knowledge and understanding in both the Old and New Testaments. Yet those same Scriptures alert us that some things can only be grasped by faith.
The knowledge Paul wants his readers to embrace is experiential; it results in a changed lifestyle, a different way of living than the way of the ungodly. Then, he makes a statement that many people react to. He says, “ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ!” Not a few, not some, but ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So, any search for these things outside Christ is doomed to fail.
That is not to say that Jesus and the Scriptures address every possible subject. If you pursue knowledge without having Christ as the focal point, you will discover and learn many things, but they will have no eternal value.
Paul said these treasures are hidden in Christ. That means they can only be uncovered by diligent search. I once read a book on the Klondike gold rush that took place in the closing years of the 1800s. Tens of thousands in North America sold everything they owned, left their homes, and flocked to the Yukon territory of northwestern Canada in search of gold. The hardships and trials some of them endured were almost beyond imagination. Many died, either on the way or searching for the elusive gold. Many more returned home, physically broken and penniless. Are you and I willing to be that devoted in our pursuit of the knowledge of Christ?
Paul wants his readers to experience this fullness of assurance and knowledge so they are not deceived by false reasoning that sounds believable. Someone once said, “The art of persuasion is the height of oratory, but it easily degenerates into trickery and momentary and flashy deceit.”
But there’s a more dangerous form of deceit; it comes from those who profess to know Christ yet twist Scripture to make it mean what they want. One author I read said that his method for healing people’s physical ailments would only work if you used the King James Version of the Bible. I have no disrespect for the KJV; I’ve used it for many years, but that comment is ridiculous.
Paul told his readers that truth is knowable. He wanted them to use their powers of reasoning and intellect to understand and apply it to life. Genuine love and full knowledge lead to the final item in God’s treasure chest.
The Final Priceless TREASURE (found in God’s Treasure Chest) is,
Growing Stability
Maybe you question whether growing stability is a treasure. If you do, I can only say that you need to be more alert to what is happening in our world and the church. The very foundations of our faith are under concerted assault from forces outside the Church and forces within, much like Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20.
Even though Paul had never met these Believers personally, they were never far from his pastoral heart. He rejoiced in their “good order and the steadfastness of [their] faith in Christ.” Paul is fond of military analogies, and he uses two right here. Good order is a military term that means to “close ranks” around Jesus Christ. This term is used for troops moving closer to each other in formation, closing up any gaps in the line. They are united in purpose.
Steadfastness is another military term meaning “the massing of the line.” This presented a formidable obstacle to the enemy. There were no gaps in the line, no weak points for them to exploit. Faith is pictured as an armed host, drawn up in full array. Strange doctrines do not readily carry away Christ’s followers who embrace the treasures of genuine love and knowledge. They are unyielding in their allegiance to Him and engage false ideas before they enter the ranks!
Notice how, once again, in verse 6, Paul emphasizes being IN Christ as part of this growing stability. In the same way you embraced Christ for your initial salvation, continue in Him. In other words, you must continue to appropriate the truth personally through faith.
That reality of making the truth personal leads Paul to change the analogy from military order to walking. Being a Christ-follower is a walk of faith. So, Paul counsels his readers to walk in the teaching they had received and apply it to their lifestyle choices. Romans 8:1 speaks to this very idea. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not [continue walking] according to the flesh, but [continue walking] according to the Spirit.”
As we move to the final verse of our text, Paul has another analogy. He moves from walking to being rooted and then to a building. Let’s examine how these add to our understanding of this treasure of growing stability.
First, rootedness implies that a tree, or person, is rooted so that the rootedness will remain. In other words, “having been rooted (past tense) with the present result that you are firmly anchored.” In Ephesians 3:17, Paul uses this same analogy. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love… may be able to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge…”
A pastor once visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was parched, and some of the trees were beginning to die from lack of water. The man giving the tour then took the pastor to his orchard, where irrigation was used sparingly.
“These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks,” he said. “I frequently kept water from them when they were young. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil for moisture. Now, mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.” Being firmly rooted in Christ will contribute to the treasure of growing stability.
The final analogy is that of a building under construction; the process is ongoing. This house is made of stone, with each layer continually growing until the building is complete. In his writings, Paul uses this metaphor numerous times to refer to individual believers and the church.
Peter encourages us to “[Come] to Him [Christ] as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Paul ends with a final admonition to the Colossian Believers to continue being established in the faith as they had been taught. The exercise of faith strengthens both belief and practice. As someone has so succinctly stated, “Right doctrine must result in right living.”
Finally, pursuing all these treasures is to be done with a spirit of profound and overflowing gratefulness. You and I have no right to these treasures. As Paul writes in chapter one, verse 21, we “were alienated and enemies in [our] mind by wicked works…” Our right, if you want to call it that, was eternal death! God, in His grace, has given us Life!
Have you discovered these treasures and taken the appropriate steps to make them your possession? Are you discovering the treasure of genuine love in your relationship with Jesus and others? That will only happen if you have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as the only acceptable payment for your sin. Genuine love is impossible to experience outside of Jesus Christ!
And then, are you growing in the treasure of complete knowledge, the knowledge of experience? Are you seeking wisdom for hidden treasures like those Klondike gold-seekers I mentioned earlier? Are you meditating regularly on the Word of God? Are you daily living out what you learn so that others may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven?
Finally, does your life give evidence of a growing stability? By the grace of God and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, can you detect and reject the false teachings so prevalent in our world today – and, sadly, in the church, too? Can you continue building up your faith and the faith of those around you one stone at a time?
To experience all that and do it with the overflow of a thankful heart is a measure of how deeply you and I have dug into the richness of “God’s Treasure Chest.”
Thanks, J Mark, for sharing these thoughts from Colossians 2. I had to think about the things I value. What are my treasures? As J Mark explained these things from God’s treasure chest, I see I have some work to do. So quickly, my heart is drawn away by temporal things, and then I value those way more than I should. Since you are human, I am guessing you also are familiar with this struggle. May we ask God to give us a heart like His, so we value the things he values.
If you have any questions about today’s teaching or want to contact us, here are a few ways to reach us. An easy way is email; our email is [email protected]. You can also message us online; our website is heraldsofhope.org. Once there, click on “Contact Us,” which is on the top right. And of course, there is always a pen and paper. Our address is Hope for Today, Box 3 Breezewood, PA 15533. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Lord willing, we can be together next time as we study the rest of Colossians 2 and learn how we can be complete in Christ. Let’s love the things God loves and allow our hearts to be broken by those that break His. Paul said it well in Ephesians 5: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ has also loved us and given Himself for us.”
*This episode is an exposition by J. Otis Yoder, re-recorded by J. Mark Horst, with an opening and closing by Arlin Horst.
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