Tag: religion

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Colossians

The only One we need

Colossians

The Colossian church was facing some kind of false teaching that was slipping in among them. What exactly that teaching was is not clear.

But one thing that seems to be clear is that people were teaching them that Christ is not enough. That they needed something more.

That there were perhaps ranks of angels that they needed to go through to reach God, and that these powers were worthy of worship.

That there were “mysteries” that they had yet to learn, and could only do so through these false teachers.

And that there were certain rituals and religious practices they needed to follow in order to truly be right with God.

And if there is one thing that Paul seems to emphasize in Colossians 1:15-29, it’s this: Christ is the only One we need.

Why is Christ all that we need?

For one thing, he is the preeminent one over all creation. That’s what it means by “first-born of all creation.”

Not that he was created before all other things as the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach (even so far as to insert, “other” several times into this passage.)

But that he is the one who is supreme over all creation. His rank and position is high over anything that was created. (15)

Why is Jesus the preeminent one over all creation? Paul tells us. Jesus was the one who created all things. All things were created through him and for him, including all the angels and other heavenly powers, not to mention us. (16)

On top of that, he existed before all things, and all things hold together through him. We can’t even hold the atoms that make up our body together. Nothing in this world could hold together without him. (17)

God also placed Christ as the church’s head, not angels or anyone else. And he was the example for all the church in that he died and rose again. (18)

If that weren’t enough, all God’s fullness dwelt in him. Because of that, he is the very image of the invisible God. If we want to know who God is, we need not look any further than Christ. (15, 19)

And it is through him and his death on the cross that we are now reconciled to God. We need no other mediator. And through him, we are made holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (20-22)

And as for mysteries of God, THE mystery has already been revealed. It was a mystery that had been hidden for ages and generations, but now is revealed.

What is that mystery? That through faith in him, Christ now dwells in us. Whether Jew or non-Jew, Christ dwells in us and we are now one body, one church in Christ, shining God’s glory to the world. (25-27)

So what need is there for anything or anyone else? None. And so Paul emphatically states, “We proclaim HIM, admonishing and teaching everyone about HIM.” Why? Because we are only made perfect in Christ. (28)

Yet so often, we live as though we need more than Christ in our lives. We start pursuing religion instead of Christ. We start pursuing “spiritual experiences.” Or we start pursuing the things of this world to fill us.

But these things will not bring us “fullness,” as the Colossians seemed to be seeking. Only Christ can.

How about you? How are you seeking to become complete? There is only way, and that’s Christ. He is truly the only One we need.

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Galatians

Abolishing the offense of the cross

Galatians

I mentioned not too long ago that many people find Christianity narrow-minded. They take offense at the idea that it is only through Christ’s work on the cross that we can be saved. Paul calls this, “the offense of the cross.”

And it was this offense of the cross that the Judaizers were trying to abolish, though perhaps for different reasons than the people who try to do so today.

It seems the Judaizers were most concerned with how the other Jews perceived them.

The other Jews were offended by the message of the cross because it welcomed anyone into God’s kingdom who came to Jesus by faith. No longer was circumcision or rigid obedience to the law required.

These Jews were probably offended for a couple of reasons. First, they took the Mosaic covenant and all its laws very seriously. It set them apart as God’s people.

But now, Paul was saying that through faith in Christ, and totally apart from trying to keep the law,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

In short, the law they took such great pride in no longer set them apart as God’s special people. Rather anyone who came to God through Christ would now be declared as God’s people.

This was something the Jews simply could not accept, particularly because of their pride.

And that was the second reason they took offense at the cross: the Jews took pride in their identity as God’s chosen people.

They were proud of how much more “righteous” they were in the eyes of God than the other nations because of the law God had given to them. This despite the fact that they never could keep it perfectly.

In the same way, pride is the great barrier to people coming to Christ today. Pride in their own religion. Pride in their own “righteousness” before God.

And so for Christians to say, “Your religion is not sufficient. Your ‘righteousness’ is not sufficient,” is offensive to them.

But by clinging to these things, they don’t draw closer to God, they actually cut themselves off from God. Paul said of those who taught the need for circumcision,

The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.

As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! (Galatians 5:10,12)

Paul had said earlier that those who taught a false gospel were under God’s divine curse. (Galatians 1:8-9)

Here he repeats that, and then he gets very sarcastic and says, “If you’re going to get circumcised, you might as well go all the way and castrate yourself.”

That would have been shocking to the Judaizers because getting castrated would get them cut off from the Jewish congregation. (Deuteronomy 23:1)

But Paul was saying, that’s exactly what you’re doing if you let yourself be circumcised, you’re cutting yourself from God’s people.

That’s true of anyone that rejects the cross of Christ and tries to obtain salvation through their own religion and own righteousness. You’re cutting yourself off from God and his people.

And if you dilute the cross of Christ to please them as the Judaizers did, you risk cutting yourself off as well.

The cross is offensive to many people. But we cannot be concerned about trying to please them. We need to preach the gospel, no matter what flack we catch from people because of it.

The question you need to ask is, “Who am I trying to please? God or people?”

Remember the words of Paul who said,

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10)

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Galatians

Going back to worthless religion

Galatians

Many people wonder why Christianity is so “narrow-minded.” Why can’t all religions be considered equally valid ways to God?

I will admit that most if not all religions have some good in them. Most preach avoiding evil and doing good, although there is some difference in the definition of those two terms.

(But not as much as you would think, as C.S. Lewis has pointed out in Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man).

The problem is that all religions and their rituals are mere pictures of who God is.

In the case of Judaism, it’s a pretty good picture, as God specifically gave the Jews their laws and rituals as a picture of himself and of Christ.

In the case of others, the pictures are much more distorted, many to the point where you can barely recognize God for who he truly is at all.

Because of this, none of the laws and rituals they present can in any way bring us closer to God.

Even in the best of them, namely the Jewish laws and rituals, they are not the reality of Christ nor of salvation.

The Jewish rituals, sacrifices and festivals, wonderful pictures of Christ and his sacrifice on the cross though they are, are not Christ himself. They are not his sacrifice on the cross itself.

As a result, they have no power to save. And if these rituals, sacrifices and festivals, ordained by God himself, are powerless to save anyone, how can the rituals, sacrifices, and festivals ordained by other religions be any more effective?

And so Paul says,

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

But now that you know God–or rather are known by God–how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?

Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. (Galatians 4:8-11)

Paul speaks specifically here to the former gods and religious practices of the Galatians.

And he says, “Before you were saved, you were slaves to things that were not gods, forced to follow rituals and religious celebrations that could not save you.

But now you know better. You actually know God now. And he knows you. You are in a real relationship with him as his beloved children.

Why then are you going back to what is weak and powerless?

Oh, sure, you’re not going back to your old gods and religious practices. Now you’re turning to Jewish religious practices to save you.

But these are just as powerless to save you as your old religious practices were. They were just the ABCs of getting to know God. Helpful in their own way in that they help you see your own sin and need for a Savior. But they can’t actually save you.

All they can do is make you miserable because you see you can’t keep the rules perfectly and deserve to be condemned.

You know this! Why go back to them?

He then says, “Look, I became like you. When I’m with you, I eat with you, eat your food, and break all kinds of Jewish customs.

So don’t be afraid to be like me. Stop living by the rules of religion, but by faith in Christ.”

And that’s Paul’s charge to us. Let’s get away from the pictures of Christ.

That’s all the Jewish laws and rituals were. They have no power to save in themselves.

So let us come into relationship with Christ himself. And let us rejoice in the relationship we now have with God as his children because of what Christ has done for us.

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Isaiah

Empty religion

Isaiah

One thing that God is not impressed with is empty religion.  We saw that in Micah 6, and we also see it here.

Here the Israelites complained to God,

‘Why have we fasted, and you have not seen it?  Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’  (Isaiah 58:3)

And if you had looked merely at their outward appearances, you’d might have thought that they had a case.  After all,

day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. 

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. (Isaiah 58:2)

But God doesn’t just look on at our times of prayer, fasting and the other religious rituals we do.  He looks at our whole life. 

And he told the Israelites,

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.  Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?  Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? 

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  (3-7)

In other words, God says, “In those moments you are praying and fasting, you seem so spiritual.  But those things are meaningless if the rest of the time you’re living for yourself. 

There are so many people hurting around you, and yet you ignore them.  As long as you live this way, your fasting and prayers mean nothing to me. 

But if you reach out to the people around you,

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I…

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. 

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  (8-11)

For many people, they are “Sunday Christians.” 

They show up for church on Sunday, but live for themselves the rest of the week.  The Israelites treated the Sabbath the same way.  Even on the Sabbath, they did their own thing. 

So God told them,

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,  then you will find your joy in the Lord.  (13-14)

That’s how we should treat our Sundays.  Not just as another day to live for ourselves.  But as a day to honor to God.

How about you?  Is your religion empty?  Or is your life filled with your love for God and for others. 

God isn’t so interested in your religion, as he is in your love for him and the people around you.

What kind of religion do you have?

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2 Kings

Out of patience, low on faith

2 Kings

The respite that the Israelites gained from the kindness they showed to the Arameans didn’t last long. 

Once again, the king of Aram led another assault on Samaria, the capital of Israel, laying siege to it.  As a result, no food was coming into the city, leaving the people starving.

Things got so bad, that one woman complained to the king about a horrid agreement she had made with another woman:  She cooked her own baby and they ate it, agreeing to cook and eat the other woman’s baby the next day. 

But the second woman hid her child, and so the first woman brought the case before the king, asking for justice.

What did King Joram do?  He placed blame on God and the prophet Elisha, saying,

May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today. (2 Kings 6:31)

He then went in search of Elisha to kill him.  When he found him, he told Elisha,

This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? (2 Kings 6:33)

In other words, “Elisha, I’m out of patience, and low on faith.  Why should I follow God any longer when things are going so badly?”

Yet one wonders what Joram was doing long before this? 

Had he sought Elisha’s advice before?  Had he sought the word of the Lord before this? 

In all probability, he hadn’t.  Instead, he had tried to handle his problems his own way, and in his own wisdom. 

Now that he realized that he couldn’t handle things, he still didn’t seek God.  Rather, he tried to place blame on God once again for his bad decisions. 

(You remember he did this before when he led an attack with Jehoshaphat on Moab in chapter 3 of 2 Kings).

When Elisha told Joram God would take care of the situation, Joram apparently took his word for it, but one of his officers had also apparently run out of faith and muttered to the king his doubts concerning Elisha’s words.

So Elisha basically told him, “You will see God’s deliverance, but you will not get to enjoy the benefits of it.”  (2 Kings 7:2)

God did deliver the people, and while Joram’s officer stood at the gate watching the people rush out of the city, he got trampled and died.

What can we learn from this? 

How much faith do we have when things aren’t going well?  Do we just give up?  Not only on the situation, but on God? 

Or do we keep trusting him, even though we can’t see how he could possibly deliver us?

It’s easy to believe in God when things are going well. 

Do we continue to believe in him when things are not?

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1 Kings

The one who is truly God

1 Kings

And so we come to one of the great confrontations in the Bible, Elijah and the prophets of Baal (and Asherah — funny how that often got lost every time I heard the story as a child).

Elijah, starts, however, not by confronting the prophets, but the people of Israel. 

Apparently, they had continued the practices started under Jeroboam, not totally abandoning the worship of Yahweh, but mixing it in with the worship of other “gods.” 

And so Elijah challenges them saying,

How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.  (1 Kings 18:21)

I kind of wonder if the people had started to doubt God’s existence. 

Perhaps the reason that they worshiped both Yahweh and Baal (and Asherah) is because they wondered if either really existed. 

At any rate, when Elijah challenged them, they said…nothing.

Then the contest began.  The prophets of Baal started to dance around, praying, cutting themselves, desperately trying to get their god’s attention. 

Elijah started mocking them, asking them if perhaps Baal was asleep or using the bathroom.  And so they got even more frantic in their prayers. 

But as the Bible says,

There was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.  (29)

Finally, Elijah had enough.  He rebuilt the altar of God, put on the bull, had the people even pour buckets of water over the sacrifice, and then he prayed. 

The moment he finished praying, fire came down from heaven and completely consumed the sacrifice. 

As a result, the people cried out,

The Lord–he is God! The Lord–he is God! (39)

And so he is.  He is not a god formed out of wood or stone.  He is not the figment of our imagination.  He is a God who sees, who hears, and who acts.

If there was any doubt in Ahab’s mind left, God dispelled it by sending rain in torrents as Ahab was going home.  It was the first time in three years that rain had fallen.

And yet, he refused to follow God even then.  Instead, he continued to live on in his wicked ways.

How about you?  There is only one God.  But do you follow him?  Or are you like the people of Israel, doubting his existence?  Are you like Ahab, who despite all the evidence refused to follow after him?

Let us not live in doubt.  Let us not live in rebellion.  Rather let us live in faith, trusting and following hard after God.