False Teachers Who Kidnapped Converts

Topic: Warnings
Passage: Colossians 2:8–15

September 6, 2022

Commentary

This section of Paul’s letter is built around three warnings:

  1. Don’t let anyone deceive you. (vv. 6-8)
  2. Don’t let anything take Christ’s place. (vv. 9-13)
  3. Don’t let anyone cause you to deny Him. (vv. 14-15)

The false teachers in Colosse did not go out and win the lost. They “kidnapped” converts from churches just like the cults do today. The reason is that they are ignorant of the truths of God’s Word. The false teachers in Colosse did not ask the believers to forsake Christ. They asked them to make Christ a part of a new system. This new system was made up of mysticism, astrology, philosophy and Jewish legalism. It is the matter of legalism that Paul deals with in this section.

The false teachers did not go out and win the lost any more than the cults do today. They “kidnaped” converts from churches of one denomination or another. These false teachers told the believers that if they were circumcised, watched their diets and observed the holy days they would become more spiritual. Unfortunately, we have people in our churches today with similar ideas. They depend on some religious ritual, such as baptism or the Lord’s supper to save them. Paul makes it clear that the Christian is not subject in any way to a legal system. Neither can it do him any good spiritually. Jesus Christ is sufficient for our every spiritual need.

Application

I must never depend on a form of godliness or even a head full of Bible knowledge but on a close relationship with the God of the universe through His Son Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:8– 15 (NET)

8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.