Colossians

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Hey everyone, and welcome to another podcast.

I'm Luke, and I'm joined with Peter.

So the hardest things about this podcast, you would say, is coming up with like, you know, a little intro, a little discussion point, you know?

Yeah, you most of the time would just leave it without it.

Yeah, exactly.

So, you know, but this week, we wanted to talk about something that probably everyone is talking about, you know, girls, guys, you know, everyone, no matter what.

And that's the Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Yeah.

We just wanted to talk about it, to be brutally honest with you, Peter.

We've been talking about it all night, so this is just us recording like 30 seconds about it.

But really, really good movie.

Hashtag restore the Snyderverse.

This is so bad.

People are skipping this, but we don't care.

It was a great film.

There was an amazing scene.

Moving on, because if we talk about this anymore, but I don't even know what term you just used there about the Snyderverse.

Let's move on.

Peter, what are we talking about?

We're so sad.

What are we talking about?

Well, hopefully, well, the movie was four hours long, so hopefully the podcast don't feel that long.

It's Colossians.

Yes.

Okay.

Another book of the New Testament, written by Paul, I believe.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

So this is a part of the Epistles written by Paul.

Also alludes to Timothy being there with him.

So, you know, again, that idea of a mentor-mentee relationship.

Paul addresses what many perceive to be just contemporary issues relevant today that is Eastern religions and what they offer to a Christian.

So it's very, very useful.

So what Colossians is talking about is very applicable to today, basically is what we're trying to say.

I buy Eastern orthodoxy and different religions and different ideas that are infiltrating.

So what else?

Any other context?

Well, probably best to say it was written around 60 AD.

It's where most scholars put out, which is about, again, about 25 years after Christ's ministry and the whole expansion of the church.

Well, the whole beginning of the church.

So it's around there, like most of the letters.

And then, so Colossians is written to the church in Colossi.

So again, like most of the letters of the New Testament, Ephesians is written to the church in Ephesus.

Corinthians is written to the church in Corinth.

So Colossians.

Yeah, we were talking about this.

You were like, come on, like you should know that.

This would be a better opening than what we wrote.

No, stick by the opening.

So basically, that's something I was like, Corinthians, Ephesians, why are the letters described these titles in MPSD?

It's to do with geographical location.

So it's the letter literally written to the place.

Yeah, I could believe you didn't know that.

Well, there you go.

And there's a lot of people who didn't know that now, and now they know.

Ephesians, Ephesus, Colossians, Colossia.

Colossia?

Is that how you pronounce it?

It's Colossi.

Oh, my parents just made me a North Irish.

I don't know.

I'm not going to stand with them.

One or the other.

It once was an important trade route, but now the context of this letter is written to a very...

Colossi was a small town.

I'm just going to keep calling it that.

It's like the Al-Malik genocide.

Colossi, there was a large Jewish colony, so there was this idea of a constant influx of ideas and doctrines from the east of Colossia, infiltrating this area.

It is being scribed as scholars, as a fertile ground for religious speculations and heresies.

Okay, and then because of that, it's much like today, where we're just being bombarded with all these new ideas, philosophies, the whole idea of post-modernism, where there's just tons of new ideas out there, and there's no absolute truth.

Like, what is the truth?

Or so they say, anyway.

Yeah, so the emergence of progressive Christianity as well, quote unquote, so how they come up with different interpretations that deviate away from sound, sound doctrinal teaching.

So, Colossians is really helpful and amazing in addressing the above issues, as we've highlighted.

So, it gives us an insight into how to approach people who differ to us, how do we approach to people who espouse what is not biblical, and how we respond.

So, Paul presents the threat of a pluralistic attitude and the threat of syncretism, which is basically this idea of amalgamating emerging religions, which is really just something that society loves to do.

You know what I mean?

This is a good idea, this is a good idea, this emerged them.

A lot of compromising going on.

So, this is the environment of Paul and the context of Paul's writing in.

So, it's really helpful for us today, I think.

So, chapter one, Peter.

Yeah, so we'll start with this verse.

It says, in the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

So, this is just an example of how we knew the church was expanding.

Like, this is the period of rapid expansion.

You get, I think it's three, is it 3,000 or 5,000 in the day of Pentecost were saved and baptized and added to the church?

I'm going to go 3,000, just Liam conservative in that one.

Okay.

But that's not-

And I'll widen the net, I think 5,000.

Okay, there you go.

Because I don't know.

Okay, but that's just the day of Pentecost.

And then all those people think about it, those were all Jews coming from all the lands for the festival of Pentecost.

They were all sent back out to all their hometowns and home countries.

And then they were able to share the gospel there.

So, even regardless of the persecution as well, that was where the rapid expansion was at.

We're talking about around 33 AD was Jesus, and then now this is 60 AD.

So, it's very interesting that the church is literally growing throughout the whole world in 30 years' time already.

And then we see that it just goes from strength to strength, even despite the constant persecution and repression of the religion.

It's now one of the largest religions in the world.

Yeah, and even today, the place, the country where Christianity is growing the quickest is China, where you could argue persecution is the worst.

Yeah, yeah.

So, another verse that is in chapter one is, you learned it from Peter.

Epaphras.

Epaphras, thank you.

Our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the spirit.

This is a common theme that I find throughout reading Colossians.

There's this idea of camaraderie, brother-ship, admonishing one another, encouraging one another, spurring each other on in what actually matters, and that is advancing God's kingdom.

So Paul does this a lot, and we'll see that in the last chapter as well.

But we don't have Paul writing for us, encouraging us.

We should have other believers.

But even at that, you might think, I just don't think I have anyone in my life like that.

The reality is we all do, and that is the Father.

And we read of this in Hebrews 6.10.

For God is not unjust.

He will not forget your work and the love that you show him by caring for others and continuing to do so.

Or 1 Corinthians 15.

Be strong and movable, doing everything enthusiastically for the Lord, knowing that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted.

It's just a fundamental reality that God is always there, seeing everything that we do for him.

And I was reading, well, we were studying in our community group last night in Acts chapter six, and it talks about the, so the disciples were too busy preaching to deal with an issue that come up in regards to feeding all the people equally, especially the widows.

So they had to appoint men to take this role and just basically feed people and spread the food equally.

But if you look at the actual requirements in Acts six, it's like they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with wisdom and all these things.

Like they're literally just giving out food.

They're like glorified chefs, essentially.

They're not even cooking the food, probably.

And they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and all these other things.

So it's just like, you have to be faithful and ministered to those around you and then encourage them as well and fill them in to these rules.

Yeah, amazing.

More verses on this are, giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

What do you think of that, Peter?

I guess a lot of the issues around, this might be a bit abstract, I don't know.

This is just kind of what came to mind.

Just so you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Just go for it.

I think a lot of the issues around mental health is we're not actually joyful for what we do have.

So you can, I very easily look at the world and say, and I'm probably guilty of this as well, I'd rather have this, I'd prefer something more.

But if you're just thankful for what you actually have and give thanks to the Father, then you will become more grateful in any circumstance you have.

Yeah, like we're speaking from personal experience in our life, it's just, I find that in positions or times of sadness, what really helps me is to actually look and be thankful of what God has given me, and to rejoice and be joyful, and give thanks to the Father, and then just talk about how we get to share in the inheritance of the kingdom of God, which I feel like you have to say versus like 10 times, true to understand the gravity of what we're actually being offered here, mere humans.

Sorry, before you continue, I've heard a bit this way today, actually, it's for those who aren't saved, earth is their heaven, but for those who are saved, earth is their hell.

So if you're a Christian, this is the worst it could possibly get for you.

But if you're not a Christian, this is the best it could possibly get for you.

That's just a way of putting it, depending on your point of view.

Yeah, I get you.

And so we read on about how he has rescued us from the, that is God, has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

Again, Paul is just alluding to the gospel message.

It's just central in everything, our forgiveness of sins, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us, and how we've been offered eternal life.

And it's something that we should honestly just never get exhausted by hearing.

You know what I mean?

Like these guys are going, oh, they're talking about the gospel message again.

Yes, and we will continue to do so, because it is literally unblakable on Paul Talks by the nearly never-impressed stuff, about just how mind-boggling it is.

Yeah, so the next verse would be, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

It's a lot of profound theology in that verse, but what do you take from it, Luke?

Well, basically, in one verse, it seems to refute religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

So is that talking about the other religions in our day that may have influenced the Church?

Exactly.

So Paul is definitely writing in a lot of time, where there's a lot of different views upon Jesus and his body, and whether it was truly physical or whether it was all spiritual.

And Paul is responding to these heresies the same way we need to respond to the heresies of today, such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, whereby basically they perceive Jesus as not as God as in one.

They see Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, say that Jesus is a God, and that Mormonism also say that Jesus is not God.

So it's the ideal.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

It literally just says it there and then, amongst so many other passages such as Philippians 2 and John 1.

Yeah, okay.

And then verse 19 says, God was pleased to live in Christ.

So what do you take from that?

Yeah, so basically, there was a religion that was really widespread at this point called Gnosticism.

And they had an emphasis on really just talking about how Jesus didn't have a physical body, how it was entirely spiritual.

And Paul had a real emphasis not only in this, but in Galatians as well, about how God lived within Christ and how Christ was a tangible figure.

He was human.

And it's that whole idea of we need both humanity and God to restore humanity to God in order for us to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Even in the lesser level, like just in the personal level, I think Gnostic thinking had kind of influenced my thinking, like unbeknownst to me.

I always thought once you go to heaven, you're just a spiritual being.

That's just, there's no more physicality.

But whenever you read on the Bible, you realize the ideal, even in Eden, was actually that we'd be spiritual and physical beings as one.

So Gnosticism where you try to, I think you can correct me if I'm wrong, because you did an A-level already, but it's not the idea that we need to break free of our physical.

Yeah.

There's this eradication of the physical.

Yeah.

But God's ideal is that we are both physical and spiritual beings.

Yeah.

And if you even think of, again, so Paul's defending it towards Gnosticism and the religions at that time, but even today, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other more, that deal with the mysticism or spirituality as in becoming one with the universe as such through meditation, and this idea of nirvana, self-extinguishment within Buddhism.

So that idea of eliminating yourself and just becoming completely absent with earthly material things.

Yeah.

So Paul's obviously speaking against all of that.

Don't do that.

There's an emphasis on the physical.

And Paul also says that we are to be holy and blameless.

Paul also says to continue to believe in this truth and stand firmly in it.

Don't drift away as in be immovable for Christ.

Yeah.

So that's just like, we need to be...

Truth is uncompromising.

We can't compromise on truth at any point, regardless of who we might have found, because that's the most important thing, especially truth about the gospel and about Christ.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I think we'll actually move on to Chapter 2.

Happy enough.

So what do you think of Chapter 2 whenever you're reading it?

Anything stand out?

Chapter 2, again, we'll just go through a few verses here and just talk about those.

So verse 2 is actually addressing Colossia and Laodicea, which is another city, look, nearby?

Yes.

I'm pretty sure it's adjacent to Colossia.

Okay.

But it says, I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love.

Sounds a bit lovey-dovey, look.

Again, there is strong expressions of love, but again, you have to define how there's a gap, unconditional love, storgay, protective love, filial, etc.

And what Paul is emphasizing is here is that you've got two different towns or even cities in later passages.

Cultures as well, probably.

Yeah, pistols.

And God is talking about how we need to be knit together in strong ties of love.

There's an emphasis for the church to be unified and to be one body.

Psalm 133 says, brothers, should live in unity together.

Or Romans 15, may the God who gives strength and encouragement also give you a spirit of unity.

And then also amazing passages, John 17, which says, Jesus is saying, just as me and the father are one, that is the Trinity, so you should be the church.

And yeah, whenever we look in today's, in Paul's environment, when he's writing, there was divisions going left, right and center.

And in today, there's divisions constantly.

And there's that idea that we should be unified in God's love alone.

That does not then mean that we then compromise on truth.

They walk hand in hand.

So we try to unify as much as possible when it comes to the uncompromising.

The things we don't compromise on, then that's when we sit down.

Yeah, of course, we unify together, but unity comes through truth.

Yes, of course.

We can't unify if we don't even do the same things.

They're synonymous, they're synonymous, yeah, of course.

And then verse four talks about well-crafted arguments.

So even we realize in this time, there's people who are coming up with so-called well-crafted arguments, things that seem very logical or reasonable.

And even today, we've got a lot of modern thinkers who would say, okay, the Bible is wrong for these reasons, and they're able to present their opinions very eloquently, but we need to actually look at the truth behind those ideas.

And like we talked about the start of the first Peter 3, Paul talks about Peter talks about defending your faith.

Yeah, exactly.

So, and again, verse 8 reiterates this.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

Again, so often in that society, people were embellishing the truth, people were deviating away from the truth, and people were coming up with their own philosophies, their own human ideas, their own traditions, and they were treating these as the objective.

That's incorrect, Paul is saying.

And as today, we hold on to what God's truth is, and we hold on to that alone.

Yeah.

And then verse seven says, So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

So that's verse.

Yeah.

To continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.

So to me, that was, I like that imagery, and I thought it was referencing or alluding to John 15, where Jesus says that he is the vine god, the vinedresser, and how we are to abide in him.

We are the branches.

And it's basically talking about being rooted in Christ, then you cannot be shaken.

You can't be what James says, to be like a wave tossed by like an ocean.

So again, you're getting the same principles here about these Eastern orthodoxies coming in and infiltrating, okay?

But Paul was saying, no, don't drift away.

Be strong and movable for the faith.

Stick to the gospel.

Yeah, exactly.

And God was telling us to hold to the truth.

That's one of the central themes, I think, in Colossians.

What else do we have?

Again, key verses are, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.

These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body.

But they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Yeah, what's that talking about?

Does that talk about like in terms of legalism or?

Yeah, Paul's addressing like, within two verses, Paul's addressing legalism, pietism, mysticism, ascetism, isms, every ism you can think of.

I have no idea what legalisms are.

He's basically just like, for example, whenever you think of Jesus teaching against the Pharisees and the Sadducees, this idea of legalism, pietism, Jesus is saying you're missing the central message of why the law was given in the first place and how it was infused with love.

And God was saying how love and unity, this is the central issue, and these rules and regulations and human traditions that you, the human, are coming up with, they're so unnecessary.

They perish.

Christ is the fulfillment of the law anyway of the Old Testament anyway.

Exactly, and we see that within, again, the context that Paul's writing, there was so much ascetism that people were coming up, like Montanism was another religion.

Basically, the idea of subjugating yourself to strict ascetism, imposing the idea of fasting, serious amounts, the idea of restraining yourself in various different aspects and ways.

But the problem was they were saying that this was contingent for salvation, this was contingent for having a relationship with God.

And Paul's saying, no, no harsh treatment of the body, none of these.

They're just false humility.

They're just wrong.

And so Paul's again addressing in strong terms that this is heresy.

These are human traditions that are completely incorrect.

So what do you think of chapter three?

So that's chapter one, two, three.

What do you think?

Yeah, so three opens up.

It says, think about things of heaven, not things of earth.

And then some supporting passages where this is Hebrews 12, Philippians 4, Proverbs 4.

But I think that's just a good way to be.

If you're constantly bogged down with things of earth, you're going to get real depressed pretty fast.

It would be hard to be hard to realize.

So things of heaven, even just Christ in general, you want to think about those things.

So perspective.

Perspective, even in terms of suffering and things like that.

We'll hopefully have a bigger conversation of suffering later down the line.

But you can always look at things through a heavenly lens or an earthly lens and just see things hopefully from heaven's perspective, which isn't always possible, but we can do our best, as Paul says.

Yeah, so that's an amazing verse as well.

And verse five talks about, But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.

Peter.

Well, I've heard some people try and say that the Bible doesn't actually talk about bad language and how we shouldn't swear.

Yeah, but I just think this is an example of how it is.

Like Paul wouldn't say don't say the S word because they wouldn't have the S word back in the day after whatever.

He's just saying as Christians, we should be the standard of what it is to be good.

Well, obviously Christ is, but we should be examples of what Christ is like.

So when it says filthy language, and I remember I think of like a movie and it's really 15 because there's also swear words in it.

If the world and the culture of the world is saying that's bad thing, I'm pretty inclined to take that as they say it because their standards are usually a lot lower than the Bibles.

Yeah.

So that's, I mean, do you agree with that Luke?

Yeah, of course, we got to understand that, as you said, the language that they have today is completely different to the language they had in 60 AD.

And we do have to understand that there's a social weight that sort of determines what we can and can't say for various things, especially when it comes to language.

For example, there's something that could have been acceptable 200 years ago that is not acceptable now with regards to swearing, for example.

And so if I want to be a good witness and I know that if I say that, that is going to be perceived by society's loose standards as something that is not good to say, then that's the whole idea of that society is then determined that that would be filthy language.

And so I need to rid that of myself.

But there's, you could literally unpack that so much, but we don't have time to do so.

Yeah.

And then we've got all the other ones as well, not to mention anger, rage, malice, slander.

Like you've got these things, which in themselves are hard enough not to do as well.

It's where I used to get angry and people's drives.

So I think everyone needs a driver at some point to experience real rage of some kind, so.

Yeah.

There you go.

And there's also, do not lie to each other since you've taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

So what do you think?

Like again, these are just...

Yeah, just again.

Verses are just infused with so much.

Yeah, it's hard to break down really.

Just be like Christ.

Be like Christ.

Do not lie.

Like literally if you take that verse and you were not to do any of those things, your life would be transformative.

So that's how much content is in one verse.

Yeah.

Again, you can literally use Galatians 5.

Talks about putting on the fritz of the spirit, Ephesians 6, putting on the armor of God.

Again, ridding yourselves of these things and putting on that which is actually true and holy and blameless and right.

Yeah.

And then you go, verse 16 says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach to admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs of the spirit, singing to God with gratitudes in your heart.

Yeah.

I mean, I personally thought this was an amazing passage because there seems to be doctrine.

So, so important.

And we love, we love the Bible.

But in equal measure, praise is held in such a high regard by God.

And Paul is acknowledging this, saying that in psalms and in hymns and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And I personally can't sing, but.

Neither can I.

But I think we should just enjoy to give praises to the Father and worship him in our bodies, in how we, in how we sacrifice ourselves, in our words, and ridden ourselves of those things, as what it was talking about.

But also by just singing praise to him, because we can sing his praises all day long, and we can not sum them up.

Pretty sure that Psalm 71 sort of alludes to that.

Cool.

And so, yeah.

Yeah, and then chapter three just ends up closing out about some family dynamics.

And so we'll just read them, but maybe not have too much time for discussion because these are kind of big topics as well.

But it's just simple things that go by.

It's just why submit to your husbands as it is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Children obey your parents and everything for this please of the Lord.

And fathers do not embed your children or they will become discouraged.

So any quick thoughts on that before we move on?

No, again, it's just talking about the framework that is given to us for healthy marriages and for healthy relationships with our children.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

So chapter four, it says, devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Yeah, so first lesson in Lillian's five also reaffirms this by, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God for your life.

So throughout Colossians, we've seen that there's all these Eastern orthodoxies and religions and new ideas and philosophies.

And Paul constantly throughout says, don't fall away to any of these and be strong in your faith.

And he gives us and equips us with how we can respond to these and Paul talks about all of these good things that we should rid ourselves of or bad things that we should rid ourselves of and good things that we should equip ourselves with.

And in equal measure, Paul is saying just in, as he closed in the last verse in chapter 3, about how we should sing praises to God and sing all day long.

Again, devote yourselves to prayer and be watchful and thankful again.

So reading God's word, praying, singing praises, these are all ways of equipping ourselves from, and will help us not fall away.

Okay?

Okay, here's a good verse as well.

Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders.

Make the most of every opportunity.

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Yeah, again, that's just reaffirming what Peter says in 1 Peter 3.

Just always have an answer, and make the most of your opportunity, which is, again, how do you define even opportunity?

Because if you want to bring the gospel up in conversation, you can do that pretty easily.

Like, you can always negotiate that way, so.

Yeah, and of course, there is difficulty, and we would like to do a podcast on this about how evangelizing.

It's something I struggle with a lot.

Yeah, about how evangelizing.

And Paul is basically saying that although it may be difficult, the principle truth remains the same.

Take every opportunity.

And I mean, to me, I'm trying to saturate my thinking in this, or create this type of environment, whereby if I go into a shop, if I go into a restaurant, if I go into my work, my football, every opportunity, I'm praying that God will give me a chance to share the hope that I have within me, which Paul is encouraging us to do, encouraging the church and Colossia.

Yeah, very good.

And then Paul concludes by just acknowledging who else the letter's to, and who's in that area at the time.

So he says to Luke, is that the same Luke that's-

Yep, me.

He's talking about me.

No, I'm pretty sure that's Luke, as in the one who actually wrote Luke.

Okay.

Because I'm pretty sure it says the doctor.

Tychicus, Orchidicus, Epaphrus, and others in the community of togetherness.

So it's the name game again, just trying to pronounce those great names.

You said those names well.

Just to confirm, our dear friend Luke, the doctor.

Oh, so that is the same Luke, then?

So yeah, it's the same Luke.

Well done on those names.

Yeah, it sounds like Doctor Who, the doctor.

Yeah, I bet you can't even say it after you've spoken Tychicus.

I always say Tychicus.

I always.

Anyway, those guys, those people, again, there's the community and togetherness and unity and love and admonishment and advancing for God's kingdom.

And I just find that amazing.

I think if we had that in our church today, that despite the craziness, despite all these new philosophies, stand firm together and advance God's kingdom.

Together in truth.

Together in truth.

Yeah.

So that's Colossians this week.

Thanks very much for listening and see you next week.