Read the Bible in a Year (12DEC19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, December 12’s Bible reading is Colossians 1-4.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, December 13’s Bible reading is 1 Thessalonians 1-5. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.

 

COLOSSIANS’ Introduction

Colossians is named after the city of Colossae in which the church is located. Epaphras, a convert to Christianity during Paul’s three-year ministry in Ephesus, took the gospel to Colossae and a church was birthed there. Unfortunately, it came under attack which became known as the Colossian heresy due to false teachers trying to have the church submit to the ceremonial laws of dietary restrictions, circumcision, and Sabbath and festival observances as a way for salvation to be obtained instead of the grace-by-faith message that Paul taught. They also came with heresies composed of Judaism, Christianity and pagan elements which was an early form of Gnosticism. It denied God’s creation of the universe, advocated a worship of angelic beings, held that matter was evil, and promised secret knowledge for salvation to be received. It set aside Jesus as being the Creator and did not hold any merit to His death as having any value. This led Epaphras to make a trip to see Paul where he pinned the letter to the church in Colossae.

Scholars have debated as to when Paul exactly wrote this letter, but the general consensus would have it written around 60 A.D. during his imprisonment in Rome. Paul’s theme in this letter was to exalt Christ and combat the Colossian heresy. He made it clear that Christ and in Him alone was there completeness of all things without humans’ flawed philosophy. The believer could be confident in Christ’s fullness made perfect in the work that He did on the cross. 

COLOSSIANS MOMENT – (12DEC19) “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17). The Apostle Paul had to constantly battle against the false teachers who wanted to come into the churches and undo the work that he and other true followers of Christ had done. It became so bad that Epaphras made a special trip to see Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome to inform him about what was taking place in Colossae. There were those who were bringing in doctrines of Gnosticism which totally went against Christ, His divinity, and the work that He did on the cross. They desired to teach philosophies of men and cause believers to return to the ceremonial laws in order to be saved. The heresies that were being introduced were demonic and Paul’s goal in his letter was to reaffirm what they knew to be true based on the teachings of being saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and nothing more.

Paul admonished the church to believe in the completeness of the work that Jesus did on the cross as He was also their Creator and Savior. They did not have to return to the ceremonial rituals from which Christ had set them free. God wanted circumcision of the heart and not of the flesh. As for the dietary laws, Jesus said: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them” (Matthew 15:17-20). The false teachers were going from church to church to undo the message of grace that was being taught. They wanted the church to believe that they had to still observe certain Sabbaths and religious festivals, asceticism (extreme self-disciplines), Gnosticism (possess secret knowledge) as well as worship angels to obtain salvation. Paul dispelled such teachings and encouraged the church to stick with the straight gospel of Jesus Christ through whom they had been saved.

Many people are still being taught similar things today as a means of “earning” salvation. The Bible, nevertheless, lets us know that there is nothing that we can do to earn salvation, but we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I used to be a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) and we were taught that you had to attend services on Saturday, eat according to the Levitical laws, not wear makeup and jewelry, etc. To not honor such things meant that you were not saved especially if you failed to observe Saturday as Sabbath. Unfortunately, I learned to be a legalist and did not truly know what it meant to have a relationship with God until I left the SDA church. This is not to bash those who are in the SDA teaching because there are some true Christians within their denomination. This, however, is to say that we must study the Word for ourselves so that we do not allow the doctrines of men to impose things that are contrary to the freedom that we have in Christ on us. One such thing is the doctrine of being under the tithing curse that many churches still continue to teach.

Jesus took the curse for us and we are no longer under the curse of tithing and many pastors know this but fail to teach. The Bible says: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’ ” (Galatians 3:13). Many pastors beat their members in the head with Malachi’s curse to scare their members into giving instead of exercising faith themselves. How can we be bound under that which Christ has set us free from? In the case of giving, the Lord wants us to be freewill givers and not to adhere to Old Testament tithing laws by thinking you will be cursed if you do not stick to a strict ten percent giving ritual. What did the Apostle Paul tell the Galatians? Paul wrote: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” (Galatians 3:1-2). Jesus came to free us from the curse of the law, for if our works could save us, He never would have had to come and die. We are free in Christ and no works can save us, but because of our salvation, good works will overflow to others. Something to ponder….