Colossians 2:1-7, “Full Assurance, Firm Faith, Fixed Walk”

Ken MacLeod

Colossians • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

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I love walking through the woods. It clears my head and calms my soul. But this time of year, it can be challenging to keep your balance and stay on the path to not only reach the end but enjoy the walk along the way. This week the elders took a walk through the woods near my house. And I won’t mention any names, but one of us was thrown severely off balance and got a little soaked in the process. Life is like that.

Paul’s letter to the Colossians is an encouragement to the church to continue to live by the gospel that they received. The gospel is that God rescues us from the kingdom of darkness and gives us new life in the kingdom of His beloved Son. We can live fruitful lives with the hope of glory to come as we remain in Christ. But life has a way of trying to throw us off the path and off balance. And there are even other people who will try to lure you onto other paths that might seem easier but end in destruction. How do we live fruitful, joyful, hope-filled lives and become complete in Christ? There isn’t a formula, per se, but today Paul will show us how the pieces God provides us fit together. We will see that full assurance that we know Christ and a firm faith in Him result in a fixed walk in Jesus. We can walk through life with confident faithfulness if we remain in Christ.

Encouragement + Love = Full Assurance

Colossians 2:1 (ESV)

For 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,

Colossians 2:2 (ESV)

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,

Paul’s whole purpose in telling them how hard he works for the church is that their hearts would be encouraged to follow his example. That their hearts would be knit together in love.

What does that image tell you about the way we should love one another?

When I have invested myself, my time, my resources, my energy in your life, and when you have done that in mine, our hearts are knit together in love. When we serve each other in big and small ways, we are following Paul’s example, but more than that, we will have full assurance that we truly understand and know Christ.

We have to be honest. Sometimes it’s hard to be a Christian. There’s a scene in the movie, “Waking Ned Devine”, in which a boy named Maurice tells the interim priest, Father Patrick, “You’re doing a good job, Father.” And Father Patrick says, “Thank you, Maurice. How about yourself? Have you ever considered the priesthood?” Maurice says, “Does it pay a lot?” Patrick answers, “The rewards are of what you might call a more spiritual nature.” Maurice says, “I don’t think I could work for someone I had never met and not get paid for it.”

Maybe that’s how it feels sometimes. We give our lives to follow this person we can’t see or touch. And He tells us to do a lot of hard things, like give without expecting anything in return and love my enemies, and carry other people’s burdens. And as it turns out, the rewards are of a spiritual nature. Anyone that tells you that following Jesus will make you healthy and wealthy is selling you something that isn’t Christianity. All this makes faith in Jesus hard. So, it would be encouraging to know that I truly do know Jesus and I haven’t made all this up in my head.

How do I know that I truly know Jesus? Jesus said,

John 13:35 (ESV)

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Anyone can claim that they understand and know Christ. Many people do make that claim and want you to listen to them, buy their book, join their cause. As we follow Christ, how do we know which leaders to learn from and follow? Use the simple test you use for yourself. Do they love as Jesus loved? Whether for our own assurance, or assurance in our leaders, it’s the same. So, what does it look like in someone’s life?

How does Jesus love?

Paul tells us something else. He links this path of love leading to full assurance that we understand and know Christ with His wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:3 (ESV)

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There are a lot of smart people around. But there is a kind of wisdom and knowledge that are only found in Jesus Christ. It is wisdom from above, that demonstrates meekness, that is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere (James 3:17). In other words, it is the kind of wisdom and knowledge that looks like love for others. It isn’t the kind that puffs you up with pride and selfish ambition. It is the kind that trusts in Jesus to be our teacher and guide.

In fact, Paul goes on to say that when we love one another as Jesus loves, we will

Colossians 2:2 (ESV)

reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

And this full assurance that we really know Jesus is going to give us stability and bring order to our chaotic lives.

Full Assurance + Truth = Firm Faith

Paul goes on to add another dynamic to help us be sure we’re walking the right way. He says he wants them to have assurance of their knowledge of Christ so that they will have a firm faith in Christ. And this happens as they stay true to Jesus when the culture around them offers them alternative paths.

Colossians 2:4 (ESV)

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

The words he uses here are descriptive. The word for delude is the word for an argument or reasoning that you lay alongside your own for comparison. And when it has the connotation of delusion, you could picture a salesman who lays his product alongside the known and trusted brand product and says, “See, it’s pretty much the same thing.” When it isn’t the same thing at all. And he might use persuasive arguments or words. Why pay more? Why make life harder? Why be so zealous? Take it easy with all that die to self and love your enemies stuff.

In the case of the Colossians, they were in a Greek culture. Greek culture loved philosophy. And every philosophy was looking for an organizing principle to life, often called logos. Some of these philosophies argued persuasively that you could have spiritual enlightenment, wisdom and knowledge, without all the sacrifice and having to love others. The organizing principle of life was to deny all carnal desires and complications of the physical world and seek spiritual enlightenment. One of those philosophies was still in its early phases of development when Paul wrote this letter, but you can see ways he is already arguing against it in this letter. It later became what we know as gnosticism.

If you boil it down, this philosophy says that the creation of this material world was a mistake by a lesser god, other than the One True Godhead who is spirit and can’t be fully known in this world. The purity of spirit was corrupted by this material world and that’s why we have pain and chaos. We can attain enlightenment and salvation from the pain and chaos of this world through a path of secret knowledge that will help you deny all your carnal desires and re-unite you with the true godhead.

There were enough elements that looked like Christian belief when you lay them side by side that some Christians could be deluded to stop trusting in Jesus as a member of the true Godhead and stop loving their neighbors or caring for their physical needs. The differences might seem small but they had significant consequences. For example, if it doesn’t matter what you do with your body or others’, you would be led astray from love and from Christ who, though He is God, took on a human body.

Paul says, I rejoice to see that the full assurance that Jesus Christ is the logos, the organizing principle of life, and the full assurance that Christ in you is your hope of glory, is bringing order to your chaos and firmness to your faith.

Colossians 2:5 (ESV)

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.

How does firm faith in Jesus Christ bring order to your chaos in life?

Paul concludes this encouragement with application.

Full Assurance + Firm Faith = A Fixed Walk

Colossians 2:6–7 (ESV)

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

The words Paul uses seem contradictory. I should walk in Christ, rooted, built up, and established. Walking implies movement. Rooted, built up, and established imply a fixed position. But as I get older, I’ve noticed that even a simple movement like walking can become harder because we develop balance issues. So, what do we do? We focus a little more on strength training. Being built up can strengthen my footing as I walk.

Life will throw unforeseen obstacles in our path. The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly trying blow us off course. But if we are rooted, built up, and established in the faith, we can walk without being blown around and thrown off balance.

Paul says the best way to do this is to walk in Christ the same way we received Christ Jesus the Lord.

How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord?

What are practices we can teach one another that root, build up, and establish people in Christ?

Why is thanksgiving key?

When I am consumed by my problems and failures, I grow restless, irritable, and discontent, and this leads me back into chaos and sin and more problems. But when I abound in thanksgiving, it takes my eyes off what I don’t have, onto what I do have in Christ. I find my sufficiency in Him. He brings order and peace and joy.

Paul really wanted this church filled with new believers in Christ to continue in their faith until they are completely mature in Christ. To live powerful, fruitful, joyful, hope-filled lives that demonstrate their knowledge of God through good work done in love. It is the same hope I have for us.

This will be realized in us to the degree that we continue to walk in Christ. The Christian life is a fixed walk. We are immovable in our assurance that we truly know Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the truth of our faith. But that same assurance and faith move us out into the lives of others to love them with the love of Jesus. So we continue to walk in Him. In a world that is filled with delusions and half-truths, and alternative paths that might be more comfortable, but less powerful and interesting, we can walk faithfully with full assurance that our path ends in glory only to the degree that we are rooted in Jesus Christ. Who He is and what He has done.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

Where are some places you like to walk and why?

How would you describe your walk with Christ right now? If you were to encourage someone in their walk with Christ, how would you do that?

How does Paul encourage the Colossian church in our passage? What or who is the central focus of his encouragement?

What do we learn about Jesus in this passage?

What are challenges to being knit together in love as a church? How do we overcome those challenges?

Why is full assurance that we understand and know Jesus so important? What are the results for someone who lives in full assurance?

What are some “plausible arguments” that could delude Christians these days? How can we help one another remain firm in the faith so we aren’t deluded?

What does it mean to “walk in Christ Jesus the Lord”? How do we teach one another to walk in Christ? In what ways do the words, rooted, built up, and established inform the way we teach?

What does a church look like when they are knit together in love, fully assured that we know Jesus Christ, firm in the faith, and walking established in Christ? In what ways can we grow in this?

How will you respond to this passage this week?