Rooted and Edified in Christ I. Base Text: Colossians 2:6-7, 9-10 II. Context and Interpretation A. Paul’s letter to the Colossians written ca. 59-60 CE from prison in Caesarea (Colossians 1:1-2) 1. Colossae is a city in the Roman province of Asia 2. Paul did not actually preach in Colossae; work of evangelism done by Epaphras (cf. Colossians 1:6, 2:1, 4:12-13) 3. City destroyed by a massive earthquake in 61 CE B. Context of Colossians 2:6-10 1. Paul commends Colossians and their hope in prayer, prays for them to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, walking worthily of the Lord, bearing fruit, thanking God in Christ (Colossians 1:3-12) 2. Paul maintains an extensive discourse on how God has worked in Jesus and Jesus’ standing, authority, and nature (Colossians 1:13-20) 3. Paul then speaks of their salvation if they remain in the Gospel they heard; he speaks of his work in ministry (Colossians 1:21-29) 4. Paul continues by setting forth his striving/wrestling/anxiety (Greek agona) for the Christians in Colossae and Laodicea so they may know the mystery of God in Christ, the true treasure of wisdom, and not deceived by flattering speech (Colossians 2:1-5) C. In Colossians 2:6-10 he addresses his dual concern for the Colossians 1. Paul desires for the Colossians to walk in Christ as they received Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in faith, abounding in thanksgiving, for in Jesus the fullness of divinity (theotetos) dwells in bodily form, head of the arches (principalities, rule) and exousias (power, authority), and the Colossians are made full in Him (Colossians 2:6-7, 9-10) 2. Paul also warns the Colossians to watch lest anyone attempt to come in and “make spoil” (sulagogon) of them by means of philosophy and kenes apates, “vain” or “empty” deceit, according to human tradition, the stoicheia, “elements” or “rudiments” of the universe, and not after Christ (Colossians 2:8) D. Paul will go on to speak of how the Colossians were redeemed in Christ, and seems to warn them regarding both “Judaizing” and proto-Gnostic teachings (Colossians 2:11-23) E. Paul therefore wants Christians to avoid the seductive philosophies of this world; instead, he would have them be “rooted in Christ,” “established in their faith,” “as they were taught,” “with thanksgiving”, because He has all authority; He is the fullness of Deity in bodily form; and we are only filled in Him F. It is one thing to say and command such things, but what does that look like in the 21st century? How can we be rooted and edified in Christ? III. Rooted in Christ: Jesus the Foundation A. First and foremost, to be rooted in Christ, one must be “in” Christ! B. Root, erizomenoi, involves grounding and stability; it is an appropriate choice in light of Matthew 7:24-27 1. Jesus is to be our foundation, that upon which we build our lives 2. And so, in a real way, Jesus is to be our worldview; He is to inform the basic assumptions and beliefs which govern our lives C. Such is well and good, but how can we make sure that Jesus is our foundation? D. We must hear and do His words! E. Hear Jesus’ words 1. In Biblical times, many were illiterate; they received messages through hearing them 2. Even those who could read had to still speak out the letters to make sense of them in Hebrew or Greek; thus, even “reading” is “hearing” 3. Jesus’ words are to be read/heard, accepted, and thus “be in” us (Colossians 3:16) 4. If the message is “in” us, it can transform our thinking and thus feeling and acting to align with God’s purposes (Romans 12:2, Hebrews 4:12) F. To “hear” demands a significant interplay of mind, emotion, and soul far beyond mere comprehension 1. The communication process is much more than just transmitting information 2. We receive a message and we have both mental and visceral reactions 3. It is akin to a chemical reaction: the message we receive is interacting with our worldview, our beliefs and assumptions, and they are engaging with each other! 4. Many times we feel resistance to the message; that resistance is coming from those philosophical assumptions and what we think we know about the world 5. If left unchecked, we reject the power of the Word of God if we prefer those assumptions over what God has made known (e.g. Matthew 13:1-8)! G. Challenging Fundamental Philosophical Assumptions 1. In Christ we must challenge many of the basic assumptions we have been raised to accept 2. Our world does not believe in continued divine agency, and yet Scripture reveals that the creation is presently sustained by God’s active work (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3): will we repent and continually depend on God’s sustenance? 3. Likewise, if all things are sustained by God continually, then any inquiry about the way the universe works ought to be done in the context of glorifying God and understanding more about Him (Romans 1:19-21) a. In Christ we are to understand that we understand anything only because we are made in God’s image, He has made a comprehensible creation, and He has made Himself known in the revelations of the creation and through His Word (Romans 1:19-21, Hebrews 1:1-3) b. Thus, if it is true, it is because it is either explicitly made known by what God has communicated to mankind, or it is in alignment with how God has made the universe c. Much will be beyond what we can understand (Deuteronomy 29:29, Isaiah 55:8-9), but what God has made known we can understand 4. And so we can grant the claim of skepticism that we, in our own understanding, cannot be certain of anything; the only truly certain thing what is true of God in Christ, and the only certain truth of what God has made known in Christ (John 14:6) 5. But the ground of empiricism is shaken: we cannot prove anything beyond provisions of what we can understand; if something is true, it is because God has made it known in the creation or in His word 6. Thus, God’s revelation is all that is certainly true; everything else is only true inasmuch as it accurately reflects that revelation 7. And so truth is not dug up through human effort in “objective” environments, contrary to rationalism; it is not as if all truth is relative, as in postmodernism; the expert will be made a fool, and we must trust not in earthly authorities or worldly philosophies but in what God has revealed in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:18-31) 8. Furthermore, we can never truly master the Word of God: as we learn more about God’s Word, we recognize that we have not mastered it but the Word masters us (1 Corinthians 13:11-13): not for nothing does God make mankind and put him in a garden, a place he can never master but can savor the delights of what God has accomplished (Genesis 2:3-3:22) 9. And so we have Colossians 2:9-10: Jesus embodies the Godhead; He is our model; He has all authority, and therefore we only can find fullness in Him, not in ourselves, not in our strength, but in His power! H. This process is not static or all at once; as we challenge fundamental assumptions and develop a more Christ-like way of looking at things, we will find another layer of assumptions to challenge, and restore other ways in which we view ourselves and the world around us as Jesus would have us I. Doing Jesus’ Words 1. It is not enough to just hear and understand; we must also do what Jesus says 2. Do we automatically do if we know? No! a. The whole premise of the Enlightenment involves knowledge and ignorance: we do not because we do not know; if we know, we can master, and then we can do b. God in Christ makes known to us, however, that such is fallacious: we know and yet we do not do; we do what we do not wish, and do not do what we wish (Romans 7:4-25)! c. Thus, we can neither divorce hearing from doing nor can we just assume that if we have right knowledge, right practice invariably follows! 3. Is knowledge separate from doing? No! a. We cannot separate mind from soul and body in terms of learning; knowledge and experience go hand in hand (Hebrews 5:12-14) b. Understanding and doing cannot be so easily disassociated: as humans, we learn by doing, and so it is in Christianity (James 1:22-25) c. It is worth pointing out that Jesus did not merely say His words were truth, but that He was the truth (John 14:6); Paul and John do not tell us merely to listen to Jesus’ words, but encourage us to walk in Him (Colossians 2:6, 1 John 2:6) d. It is an unfortunate legacy of the Greek philosophical mind that we have thus separated ideas from reality, as if the ideal form can be disassociated from reality on the ground: we must seek to embody the ideal in the real, as Jesus embodied God in the flesh (Colossians 2:8-10) 4. Thus, no matter how much we know, we must also do, and in the doing we continue to learn, continue to grow and mature, and deepen in our understanding and connection with God (Hebrews 5:12-14, 2 Peter 3:18) 5. That doing can be summarized in so many ways a. Manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, avoiding the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:17-24) b. Being conformed to the image of the Son, walking even as He walked (Romans 8:28, Colossians 2:6, 1 John 2:6) 6. And yet the lessons we learned about God’s sustenance of the creation come to bear on our practice: we are who we are in His strength, and therefore we are to above all things submit to His will and work in our lives (Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:12-13) a. In short: Jesus is Lord, and so we are not; we do what He says to do b. And so Galatians 2:28: we do not live for ourselves, but for Christ c. We are no longer slaves of sin but slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:15-23) d. We are to treat others as God has treated us; we are to reflect Christ in our personal character and walk and in all of our relationships (Luke 6:30-31, Ephesians 5:22-6:9) 7. We must pray, as Jesus did, not my will, but God’s will be done (Luke 22:42) J. All such things can contribute to being rooted in Christ: the deeper we explore our fundamental beliefs and assumptions, the more we study, the more we practice, the more we do, the more we submit, the more connected we are to Christ! IV. Edified in Christ: Encouragement A. It is not enough to be founded in Christ; we must also be built up, or edified, in Him (Colossians 2:6) B. And so we have 1 Corinthians 3:9-15: even as we build on Jesus, we must build up our faith C. This edification process certainly includes the practices we have already mentioned D. Nevertheless edification also speaks to encouragement 1. 1 Corinthians 14:26, Hebrews 10:24-25: assembly functions 2. Ephesians 4:11-16: functions of apostles, elders, teachers, preachers, and the church E. Whatever we may do as individuals to be edified in Christ, in Scripture much edification is derived in participating in the faith with the saints F. The Assembly 1. In the assembly we divorce ourselves from worldly concerns and share in spiritual activities to strengthen and build us up in faith (1 Corinthians 14:26) 2. In the preaching and teaching of the Word we seek to learn and apply the message of God to life today, working through the above processes (2 Timothy 4:1-5, etc.) 3. In praying and singing we speak to God and to one another, reminding each other how much God has blessed us and how dependent we are on Him, encouraging one another in deep ways with spiritual messages (1 Corinthians 14:14-17, Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16) 4. In the Lord’s Supper we remember the Lord’s death on the day of His resurrection, commune with each other, embody the Body of Christ, and continue to tell the story of God’s saving work in Christ, finding our place in the story of the people of God (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 11:17-34) 5. In giving we are reminded that all blessings come from God and are to be used for His glory and purpose, and we jointly contribute to the work of God in the local church (1 Corinthians 16:1-3, 2 Corinthians 8-9) 6. Christians assemble frequently because they are the ekklesia, the people of God, and they must be together if they will embody and reflect the Body of Christ and effectively work together (Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-28, Galatians 4:11-16) G. The edification process reminds us that we are part of something greater than ourselves: our true identity is in Christ and by necessity in His Body, with its other constituent members; our primary loyalty is to the Kingdom and to our fellow people of God; we are to strengthen and be strengthened in turn (Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-28, Galatians 4:11-16, Philippians 3:20-21) H. It is the American worldly ideology which exalts individualism and independence; if we would be built up in Christ, we must trust one another, depend on one another, and identify with one another, or we won’t make it (1 Peter 5:6-9)! I. And so it is that we must recognize our dependence on God, on Christ, on the Spirit, and on the Body of Christ, the people of God; we cannot be fully rooted in Christ if we are not built up as a functioning part of His body! V. Conclusion A. Paul provides important exhortations to the Colossian Christians B. Much of the challenges that come in following Christ are on account of the spiritual war with the forces of darkness, and worldview and basic assumptions about reality are an important battleground in that war C. We must turn away from the philosophies of this world D. Yet, in order to do so, we must instead turn toward and root ourselves in God in Christ E. We must be founded in Christ, subject ourselves thoroughly to Him, and allow Him to do His work through the Spirit in reforming our thoughts and thought processes, feelings, and behavior, following Jesus and doing what He said F. We must be edified in Christ, identifying primarily with the people of God in the Body of Christ, assembling with them frequently, and jointly participating in the spiritual practices and disciplines which have continued to nourish and sustain the people of God together for generations, incorporating them into the story of the people of God G. May we strive to be conformed to the image of Christ, no longer conformed to the image of the world, and obtain the resurrection of the blessed! H. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him (Colossians 2:6). Paul is concerned about the spiritual welfare of the Colossian Christians. Many would deceive them by worldly philosophy. He encourages them to walk in Christ as they received Him. Our life in faith is dependent on Jesus; in short, we must become like Him. We must think, feel, and act as Jesus did. May we walk in the ways of the Lord Jesus! 2: Rooted and builded up in [Christ], and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:7). How can we walk in Christ? We must be rooted and built up in Jesus. We must ground our thoughts and how we think in Jesus and in His ways. We must build our lives on the foundation of Jesus. We must participate in the Body of Christ and strengthen it. We do so thankfully because God has redeemed us. May we become more like Jesus every day! 3: For in [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). How can we know anything? We are fallible humans; we cannot be absolutely certain of anything on our own. But God is our Creator, and He is not fallible. Paul assures us that Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is the truth and the model for our ideas, feelings, and practices. We can be sure that we are in the truth if we are in Christ. May we look to Jesus as truth and follow Him! 4: And in [Jesus] ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10). Jesus is God and Lord. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, we submit to His authority and subject our will to His. Only in Jesus can we be made full; nothing else in this life can satisfy. May we come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and abide in Him for eternity!