GOD IS NOT MYSTERIOUS - Colossians 1
& 2
The Apostle Paul was an evangelist, a teacher, and a
pastor. He would plant the seed of God’s Word, follow it up by teaching his
converts, and then be a shepherd to them. As he would move on from places, he
physically could not always be there, Paul would write letters to encourage and
build up the believers through the written word. The church at
Often the reason Paul wrote letters was to bring
clarity to their new found faith and also combat false teaching. Paul had not
met all the believers in
Paul begins to address some of these issues in
chapter 1 where he challenges them to make Christ pre-eminent in their lives
(1:18). Then he mentions that in the past God was like a mystery to the ancient
generations but now the mystery of God was revealed through and to the
believers as they put their faith in Him. In fact in verse 27 he writes, “To
them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the
glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. One of the
false teaching points that circulated at that time was these false teachers
presumed they had access to the “mysteries of God”. They were putting
themselves on a different playing field regarding their understanding of God
and His purposes. Paul, with the help of Timothy, said the ultimate source of
who God is came in human form through Christ. The old way of understanding God,
through prophets or visions which was often reserved for special individuals
had been done away with by the coming of Christ. Through the life of Christ
people could know the character and the mind of God. In chapter 2:2-3 Paul
writes “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to
reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of
God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.” One of the key evidences of false teaching is when people claim
they have a special knowledge of God in comparison to others. Paul cautioned
the Colossian believers by saying that Christ revealed in them was their true
hope. If anyone, Paul could have claimed to know more than others, due to his
vocation as a rabbi and his knowledge of languages, not to mention the fact
that he had experienced a personal encounter with Jesus- yet he didn’t make
these claims.
So what can we learn from all of this? In verse 4 of
chapter 2, Paul comments, “I say this in order that no one may delude you with
plausible (deceitful) arguments”. In verse 8 he says “See to it that no one
takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ”.
Succinctly said, God is not hiding some deep mysteries about His character or
His purposes in the future. He says “believe in Me and
I will forgive you and give you hope”. Get to know Christ and you will be able
to discern who is telling the truth and who isn’t!
By: Pastor David
Jones