(Col. 2)
THE. Lord can bring good to His people out of any evil. These Christians at Colossae were in danger of not “holding the Head,” that is, of slipping away from the consciousness of being in Christ, through getting beguiled into subjection to ordinances. To meet this the apostle urges them back, showing them how the believer has everything in Christ, and nothing out of Christ.
In result we get much precious teaching as to the fullness of the Head for the body, as well as solemn warning against practical separation from our standing of union with the Head, through the allowance of religiousness in the flesh. Everything is based on union with Christ risen and glorified. But then, if here, as in the Epistle to the Ephesians, we get this great truth as a basis, the Colossians are addressed on somewhat lower ground than the Ephesians, who were standing fast in the faith of it, and could profit by teaching which unfolded to them the whole extent of the Church’s privileges, inasmuch as they have to be got up to the point from which the Christian’s thoughts and feelings should ever flow—his standing and privileges in Christ. The epistle to each is perfect in its place. The steadfastness of the one, and the failure of the other, have both been made to subserve the blessing, of the Church in all ages.
The moment we look to ordinances, as it regards position before God, we are slipping away from Christ: something is brought in between us and the Head. God’s thought of completeness is Christ: if, therefore, I have the thought of not having already all perfection, everything I need in Him, I am leaving Christ.
“Ye are (it is not said, ye shall be) complete in Him” (ver. 10).
If there is anything for me to obtain, there comes in at once the thought of some means of obtaining it. If the body is united to the Head, or (which, in respect of the individual, is the same thing) if I am one with Christ, I have in Him all I need. I may have to be taught about it, and to seek grace to manifest it, but the moment I think I have to obtain what is in Christ, a subtle form of self-righteousness is at work—I must do something. No matter what shape this may assume, prayer, or works, or anything else, I am not “holding the Head.” One in possession of an estate may have to see about that estate, but were he to say, I must get possession of it, he would be all wrong. Christ is revealed to the humble soul. Intellectual attainment is not in question here, it is no matter of great learning or of philosophy.
“The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:1212Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)).
The most transcendent mind could never discover the ways of God; we may get effort, but never success in attaining to that which the simplest Christian knows—things “hidden from the wise and prudent,” but “revealed unto babes.” How painful the efforts of man in arriving at darkness! “What is truth?” asked Pilate, and crucified Christ. Christ is the truth, and the humble, simple soul of a poor sinner, taught of God, has it perfectly; he may not have realized it, but he has it all there, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” in the mystery. Christ is the righteous One, and we are made “the righteousness of God in Him.” Do we need life? In Him is life, and He is “our life.” As to all that is divine and eternal, there is nothing out of Christ.
At the commencement of the chapter, the apostle speaks of the great conflict he had had on behalf of these saints that their
“hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God [and of the Father, and of Christ].”
“And this, I say,” he continues, “Lest any man should beguile you with enticing words [pretending to bring you a mass of wisdom and knowledge in all manner of things that are not Christ]; for though I be absent in the body, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” (vers. 4:5).
It is all well to have Christ for Christianity, a man may come and say, but is there to be nothing else besides Christ? No, nothing. We cannot deal with the plants of this earth without dealing with that which belongs to Christ; and if we deal with them without Christ, we sin. We are exiled from Paradise, and have forfeited everything.
Forgetfulness of all that had taken place, thorough blinding of heart and hardening of conscience, marked the way of Cain, till at last, when driven out from the presence of the Lord, he sought to make that world, into which God had sent him forth a fugitive and a vagabond, as agreeable an abode as practicable apart from God—the very name of the place in which he dwelt, “the land of Nod,” means “the land of a vagabond.” And all that man is now doing to inherit the earth without Christ, he is doing according to Cain, settling himself down as a poor sinner in a world like this. The Christian acknowledges that he has forfeited everything; he cannot talk about “my rights”; in using anything for himself, he would be using it as a poor guilty rebel. He “trusts in the living God, who giveth us, richly all things to enjoy”; he “eats his meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God”; whatever he does, “in word or in deed, he does all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him.” To him there is nothing outside Christ, all belongs to Christ, and it is, as a Christian, that he enjoys it. Let us not suppose that this “mystery of God” is some great knowledge. Where the soul has so owned itself a sinner, and everything to be in Christ, it has owned Christ as center of all; it has received Him for forgiveness, and it has all in Him.
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (vers. 6:7).
Everything I have I get from God’s love.
“Beware lest any man spoil you”— i.e., despoil or cheat you of your blessing— “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
(To be continued.)