Colossians 2:6-8

“As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:6-8).

Comment:

Paul is writing to the church in the small town of Colossae because he has heard they were listening to teachers whose understanding of the message of Jesus Christ was markedly different from his. We don’t know exactly what the “false” teachings were, but we have in this letter Paul’s strong urging that the Colossians stay true to the teachings as he (Paul) expounded them. What remains important to us today is his warning against religious traditions and rituals (“philosophy and ... human tradition”) that are not centered in Christ awareness. The message of Jesus—the Christ Presence in each of us and our intimate, personal relationship to the Divine—overthrows all previous teachings and understandings in Paul’s view—especially religious traditions rooted in earlier beliefs of weakness and separation. The effort to fit this new understanding into old forms and practices is futile—as Jesus emphasized in teaching that new wine cannot safely be put into old wineskins.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed