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I. FULLNESS IN CHRIST (1-15) 1. What warning does Paul give them? (8a) What is Paul’s view of philosophy and what is its basis? (8b) 2. What lives in Christ? (9a) How does it exist in him? (9b; Jn 1:14) What have we been given in him? (10; 2 Pe 1:3,5-7) How is it possible? (9-12)? What is the circumcision done by Christ? (11,12; Ro 2:28,29) 3. What was their former condition? (Eph 2:1-3) Who made them alive and how? (13b-15) In what sense is the cross of Jesus triumphant? [Here, “powers and authorities” mean the power of Satan, and “public spectacle” means victory over the enemy.] II. EMPTINESS IN HERISIES (16-23) 4. In light of verses 13-15, what does “Therefore” mean? (16a) [Verses 16,17 refer to Jewish legalism, verses 18,19, to angel worship, and verses 20-23, to asceticism.] How should we respond to the judgment of false teachers? (16a) What are some contemporary forms of legalism? 5. What are the dangers of worship of angels? (18) What is the fundamental problem of angel-worshipers? (19) 6. What are the teachings of athleticism? (21) Why should we not submit to its rules? (20) What are the problems in these teachings? (22-23)

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We have learned that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God. God became a man with God’s nature in him. He died for man’s sins and rose again from the dead. He is the mystery of God, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So Paul said that knowing Christ is the surpassing greatness (Ph 3:8). May God help to continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him with the strength of faith and overflowing thankfulness. In today’s passage fullness in Christ and emptiness in heresies make a contrast. May God help us clearly know this contrast and pursue full life in Christ. First, hollow and deceptive philosophy (8). Look at verse 8a. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.” After exhorting the Colossian Christians to continue to live in Christ, rooted and built up in him, now Paul brings up their present concern. Here he mentions philosophy as hollow and deceptive (empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense). Philosophy is in Greek, “philosophia” meaning “love of wisdom.” Philosophy deals with the basic problems of man’s life, and it is for those who love wisdom. It teaches us that man is different from animals which just eat and drink and die. It raises questions about man’s fundamental issues of life, the meaning of man’s existence and purpose of man’s life. But it does not provide the answers. It talks about emptiness, void, meaninglessness, death, and fear of men. But it does not solve any of those problems. In Paul’s days philosophers traveled here and there and just killed time by trying to prove something that did not exist. They tried to take people captive through many beautiful words and expressions. But it was nothing but hollowness and deceptiveness. So Paul gives a warning, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Human tradition is not necessarily bad. Tradition seems to maintain human life. However, it is centred on human, who is both good and evil. The phrase “the basic principles of this world” refers to the basics of all human teachings. It includes all of philosophy and Judaism and worship of angels, and asceticism. False teachers at Paul’s time taught that these things were very profound. But they were nothing but the elementary principles of this world. The basic principles of this world also include astrology which was the king of all sciences at that time. Astrology studied stars and predicted future of men. Astrologists believed that man’s happiness depended on stars. If a man was born under a happy star he would be happy in his whole life. But a man was born under an unhappy star he would be unhappy throughout his life time. In this way, people were slaves of stars in those days. They thought that they could change their future determined by stars through memorizing some kind of special secret formulas. The basic principles of this world seem to make the world kept and maintained. But it is translated as “evil powers of this world” (NLT) or “the elementary spirits of this world” (NASB). All that does not depend on Christ turn out empty, non-sense, false or evil, however attractive and fascinating. We must watch out not to lose our faith because of hollow and deceptive philosophy and the basic principles of this world. Second, fullness in Christ (9-15). Then verse 9 says, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Deity is “divine character or nature of the Supreme Being.” In 1:19 God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. Now it is described, “…in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” This time Paul used the broader term, “Deity,” with the capital letter, “D,” so that even pagans might understand and know that Christ is for all people of the world. All the fullness of the Deity lives in him. And it is in bodily form. At that time some people (Gnostics) who were unspiritual intellectuals denied the presence of the physical body of Christ (the Incarnation of Christ), claiming that body is evil and therefore God cannot wear bodily form body. But “the Word became flesh”: it is the undeniable truth of the Bible. This is the mystery of God. The invisible God became visible in human form. “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”: All the holiness, righteousness, power, wisdom, love, compassion, faithfulness and eternity dwell in Christ. According to John 1:14, he is full of grace and truth. Now look at verse 10, “…you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” Wow!: “Being given fullness in Christ”, not partiality. What does it mean? According to Ephesians 1:3, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every blessing in Christ. In Romans 8:32, when God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, he gave us all things. We can understand the fullness in Christ, when we think of the fullness in evil. Romans 1:29 describes a society without Christ: “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, and deceit and malice.” The fullness in Christ is opposite of this. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Peter 1:3,5-7 says, “3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness…5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” We have been given fullness in Christ. (It is like Jesus’ giving 10,000 Giga byte computer). 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” In Adam we lost all the blessings of God. But in Christ we have the fullness of God’s blessing, such as God’s full love, joy, peace, and rich fellowship with Christ. How could it be possible? In verses 11-12 Paul talked about circumcision. Circumcision is literally to cut off the foreskin of a male. It was originated from Abraham, who repented of his self-centred human desire and accepted God’s great desire and will for him through having circumcision. It was a painful operation and became the sign of God’s chosen people. Once the whole Israelites’ soldiers were circumcised in a field before fighting to occupy the promised land. But when the circumcision became habitual losing the true meaning, the circumcision of the heart was emphasized (Dt 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ro 2:28,29). Here verse 11 says, “In him you were also circumcised in the putting of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ.” For those who put their faith in Christ Jesus, circumcision was done in the cutting off the sinful nature. It was done by Christ, whose body was cut off and torn apart for our sins. And verse 12 says, “having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power God, who raised him from the dead.” This is what happened in the spiritual realm for those who accepted Christ Jesus the Lord. Through his death and resurrection, they were buried with him in the sinful nature and raised with him through faith. According to Roman 6 our old self was crucified and we have a new life in him. Our new life is like Christ being raised from the dead. We are united with Christ in his death and in his resurrection. We must always remember the circumcision in the cutting of our sinful nature done by Christ and renew the heart circumcision each day. In verses 13-15, Paul wrote more about what God had done for us through Christ: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross…” God made us dead sinners alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins by canceling the written code (no effect) that was against us and condemned us day and night. Not only did he cancel the written code, but he took it away by nailing it to the cross. It was like paper shredder, shredding all the documents of our sin-record thoroughly. For when Jesus died on the cross, we also died to the law. The demand of the law was fully met in Christ Jesus through his death on the cross. Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” So in Christ the written code of the law has no effect on us. Now we are free from accusation in Christ. We have nothing to be accused of in Christ Jesus. So Romans 8: 1 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He brought us from the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:13). Paul writes more. Look at verse 15. “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Here, “powers and authorities” mean the power of Satan, and “public spectacle” means victory over the enemy (Roman generals). When Jesus died on the cross, our enemy Satan became totally powerless like disarmed soldiers. When God’s Son Jesus was nailed to the cross and killed, Satan seemed to win the victory. But in fact, the accuser was totally defeated by the cross of Jesus, because now he had no one to accuse and condemn. When Christ died, he died once for all. One died for all, and therefore all died (2 Cor 5:15). Condemning or accusing a dead person is of no use. The cross of Jesus is the wisdom of God; it is the power of God. Christ Jesus triumphed over Satan and all the powers and authorities by the cross (not a cross of defeat but the cross of victory). He is our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). We must renew our faith in what God has done through Christ and claim the triumph of Christ by cling to the cross of Jesus and lovingly taking up our own crosses daily. Now we see that we have been given fullness in Christ through the triumph of the Christ. In the full blessings in Christ, we have a victorious life over sin and Satan. Being released from the law, what once bound us, we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code (Ro 7:6). Christian life is living by the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25). The mind of sinful man is death is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Ro 8:6). And in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Ro 8:37). He showed his full love for us. We have this blessing of victorious Christian life for the present and the blessing of the glorious hope of the kingdom of God for the future. It is because we are God’s sons and daughters in Christ. We thank and praise God for the fullness in Christ through Christ’s triumph over Satan. Third, no value in Jewish legalism, angel worship and asceticism (16-23). In verses 16-23, Paul wrote about Jewish legalism (16-17), angel worship (18-19), and asceticism (20-23). Paul warned the Colossian Christians to watch out all these. Look at verse 16. “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” “Therefore” means complete transition was made through the cross of Jesus. Jewish people did not eat certain things, regarding them as unclean. When Jewish Christians ate everything, they were judged. But the Jewish Christians had to know that the judgment was wrong and had not to be bound by that. Reality is found in Jesus (2:17). When reality comes, the shadow disappears. We don’t need a shadow anymore. Jesus declared that all food is clean; people’s hearts are unclean. The problem is not food, but the heart. Our God is the holy God; he wants his people to be clean in heart. Those who are in Christ should let other people’s judgment work in them by guarding the heart with the shield of faith. The important thing is that whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God. There is a danger of any legalism. People try to pile up their own self-righteousness by keeping certain rules or accomplishing this and that in this world and fall into legalism. But any legalism takes away from us the freedom in Christ Jesus. We should not store up our own righteousness. We must watch out legalism. St. Augustine said, “Love God and do all you want.” In doing all things what matter is the motivation, not the result itself. It should be to please the Lord and for the glory of God, not my own. “A religious festival, the New Moon celebration or the Sabbath day” refers to all the sacred days of the Jews. “A religious festival” was in almost every month. Among them the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles are major festivals that all the Jews must keep. Romans 14:5 says, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike.” What is important is do it to the Lord with full conviction. God wants us to daily live a life of faith to the Lord. On Sunday we worship God to the Lord. Verses 18 and 19 is a warning against the worship of angels. Those who worship angels claimed that man could not approach God who is holy and almighty Creator God, and that he needed angels as his mediator. In this way they nullified Christ’s role as the mediator. It seemed that they were humble. But they were in false humility and went into great detail about what they had seen, and their unspiritual mind puffed them up with idle notions. In this way they lost connection with the Head, Jesus Christ. The one whom we need all the time is Christ who is the Head. When we hold on to Christ as our Head, we receive spiritual nutrition from Christ and grow as God raises us. Verses 20-23 are a warning against asceticism. Dualism claims that spirit is good, but the body is evil. Dualism gave birth to hedonism which claims that one can freely seek his pleasure. It also gave birth to asceticism which claims that we must beat our body because it is evil. Those who believe asceticism made all kinds of rules and regulations such as "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!", in order to control their bodily desires. (21) But since we died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, we should not submit to its rules. (20) Life of faith is not life of asceticism. The bible teaches “Monism”. It means that everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. (1Ti 4:4) The Bible does not see man’s body as evil. But rather man’s body came from God, and therefore it is good. So believers should use it for the glory of God. (1Co 6:19,20) We should not abuse our body nor should we protect it too much. Since our body is the temple of God where God dwells in the form of the Holy Spirit we must be pure and offer our bodies as the instruments of righteousness. (Ro 6:13) It means that we need to live as stewards of our bodies. Asceticism is man-made. Such regulations of asceticism indeed have an appearance of wisdom but their harsh treatment of the body lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (22,23) We thank and praise God for Christ, in whom all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form and in whom we have been given fullness. May we pursue and enjoy full life in Christ with the triumph of the cross

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