See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and
empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Colossians 2:8
The world
says that Christ is not enough and that the Bible is fairytales and a bunch of
stories that poor, delusional Christians use to placate themselves. Their
methods are philosophical and full of empty deception. Philosophy means to
“love wisdom” broadly speaking and when Col. 2:8 says “takes you captive” it
literally means to kidnap, or to be carried off as booty or spoils of war. That
is the goal of this present world, to carry us off with deception. Satan knows
he can never have our souls, but he can ruin the productivity of our lives
while we are here.
It is an
imperative or command of Scripture that we do not buy into what the world’s
wise philosophers are peddling. Often they offer Christ plus something else as
necessary for salvation, they twist and pervert the Word of God into saying
things is doesn’t say. They are deceivers and want you to believe that Christ
and the Bible are not enough!
The danger of being lured
away by worldly philosophies grows larger by the day. They cause us to focus on
temporal things, and to lose our desire and vision for God. Since we have
Christ, should we bother with this nonsense?
My Pastor says, “Once we
lose our vision for God, who He is, what He has done through His Son Jesus
Christ, we get a vision for something else. God is put on the shelf, an
abstraction. Christ’s work on the Cross becomes a footnote in history that has
application when I die but is irrelevant now.”
Has this ever happened
to you? Have you lost your focus on Christ and begun to look at temporary
situations as all there is? I want to redirect you today from focusing on
yourself, and your situation, the things that get you down, and cause you to
feel bad to focusing on Christ in the Bible.
Remember that we are born
with that God-shaped void in our spirit. We were born sinners, spiritually
dead, without life, unable to do anything about it at all. We were helpless,
and as hard as we tried, our good deeds were insufficient and incomplete. Who
else in the history of all the world can make a person complete? No one but
Jesus.
When we are complete in
Him, we are also immediately positionally secure. This means that no matter how
we feel about it God says that we are secure. Jesus knew exactly what was
needed to rescue us and He went the whole distance. He did not stop short of
the necessary sacrifice to secure our eternal destiny. This is why as he hung
on the cross he cried, “It is finished!” because all that needed to be done was
done.
He made Him who knew no
sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
(NASB)
We cannot add or
subtract from that in any way because we did not do it! Our salvation was
monergistic meaning it was a work done by One. We are passive in this process
because we have been saved by someone else. There is no other
Name under heaven by which we can be saved, Christ for He is our rescue.