Pastor’s corner - "Real Hope and Change Through Christ"

The Colossian church, found in the New Testament, had been taught the Word of God by their faithful pastor.

They were on the road to spiritual maturity when disaster struck.

A group of false teachers, Gnostics, began to teach that ‘real hope and change’ in their lives did not come through obeying the Bible teachings but rather through their Gnostic (cultic) ideas about God, salvation, eternal life, and experiences.

These false teachers mixed their ideas with Christianity thus creating a false, hopeless, theology.

Christianity cannot be mixed with any philosophy of the world and remain pure.

The problem was that their approach was intellectual and logical which impressed some of the Colossian believers.

Paul warned them not to listen to their man-made philosophies ( Colossians 2:8).

The apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians to correct their false ideas, challenge the Colossians, and present the truth that “Christ is all and in all believers” ( 3:11). Paul takes the offensive and is bold in his attack upon the four groups of Gnostics.

Paul attacked the Docetic Gnostics who taught that Jesus did not have a real human body but rather was a phantom.

Paul reminded them of their salvation in Christ and their spiritual walk with Him (Col.

1:3-8) and that they had been rescued from the “domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13-14).

Paul taught that Jesus was the ‘image of the invisible God (deity) and the firstborn of all creation’ ( first to be resurrected from the grave).

This reminded them of the perfect sinless humanity of Christ.

Paul also explained that Christ is the Creator of the “heavens and earth, of thrones and dominions, of rulers and authorities, indeed all things have been created through Him and for Him” (1:16-17 ).

Therefore, there are no other gods that can be placed before Him and no other explanations about Him are acceptable outside of the Bible.

Paul attacked the Cerenthian Gnostics who taught that Jesus was human but that an Aeon (divine spirit) came upon Him at his water baptism in the form of a dove and left him at the cross. They denied the deity of Christ at the virgin birth. Paul taught about the eternal deity of Christ to prove them wrong ( Colossians 2:9).

The Ascetic Gnostics introduced their legalism and rituals to the Colossians and claimed that this was the way to rid the soul of evil matter and flesh influence. They taught that “the only true reality is what you think.” Paul attacked them in Col. 2:16-23. Paul emphasized a personal walk or daily fellowship with Christ is the way to both fill one’s soul with truth and to avoid evil. No ritual can do that. Furthermore, it is what God thinks that is important and our goal is to come into full agreement with His written Word.

Finally, the Libertine Gnostics believed that to rid the soul of evil matter influence one must live lasciviously engaging in wild parties. Paul attacked this type of thinking by asking the church why they should return to a lifestyle that condemned them in the past. They had been delivered out of the wild life into a personal relationship with Christ. (Col. 2:8-15).

If we read the book of Colossians carefully and prayerfully it becomes clear that the only real hope and real change in our lives occurs through a personal obedience to Jesus Christ through His written Word, the Bible.

We cannot create our own religions, rituals, and philosophies and expect God to accept them because they are always in direct contradiction to what He has written in His Word.

Nor are we to accept of the worldís religions, philosophies, nor rituals as a substitute for a daily fellowship with Jesus Christ which takes place by reading, believing, meditating, and applying the Bible to our personal lives.

If we will do this then our real hope will be in our salvation God has given to us through Christ and real change occurs as we adjust our thinking to Christ’s thinking.

Chaplain Ron McMurray,

Whitman County Sheriff’s Chaplain