Colossians 1 verses 15 to 29

Paul’s letter to the Colossians was partly written in order to combat false teaching. The church at Colossae had been infiltrated by what is called syncretism which is the combining of different, often contradictory beliefs, and seeking to mix together the practices of various schools of thought.

Some at Colossae were trying to combine ideas from Greek philosophy, paganism and Judaism with Christian truth.

So the Colossian Christians desperately needed direction and guidance as to what was actually true and reliable. They needed to know the truth about Jesus and the gospel - and so God inspired Paul to write this letter partly as a response to this confusion of beliefs.

And of course this is very relevant for us today because numerous ideas about God and spirituality abound, and there are thousands of books claiming to offer spiritual truth and guidance.

But there is only one book on which we can rely totally - and in which we can we find the absolute truth about God, life, and the world we live in – and this of course is the bible – God’s written word.

The bible is God’s revealed truth for mankind and as such we can place our faith and trust in it and believe it. We can take it to heart because it is the inspired word of the living God.

And if we do this, we’ll actually find that it leads us to God – because His Spirit and presence - inhabits and rests upon its pages.

We speak about the Canon of scripture – the books which go to make up the bible and are considered the authoritative Word of God. The word "canon" comes from a Greek word meaning a "rule" or "measuring stick".

In the ancient world a canon was used by builders to check and see if the walls they were building were straight. This rule or measuring stick had a perfectly straight edge and builders would lay it alongside what they were building to make sure they weren’t straying off course.

A modern equivalent would be something like a plumb line. And scripture – the bible - is our canon – our plumb line – our reference point for what is true and reliable about God and life and death and the world we live in.

If we’re unsure about whether some teaching we’ve heard is correct, we need to lay it alongside scripture – and if it is in line with what the bible teaches – then we can place our faith and trust in it.

Let me give you an example. Before I became a Christian I used to believe in re-incarnation. But is this a valid belief? What does the bible say? Well the writer to the Hebrews tells us that people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

This tells me that re-incarnation is a false belief. Of course I then have the choice to believe or reject what the bible says - but as a Christian I choose to place my faith in the inspired word of God.

So, getting back to Colossians – God through Paul was adding to the Canon of scripture. He was countering false beliefs and setting believers straight on what was true and reliable about God and Jesus.

And in today’s passage Paul specifically addresses some of these false beliefs. The first false belief was that spirit was good but that matter was evil and therefore God would not have come to earth as a true human being in bodily form.

However Paul asserts in these verses that Jesus is both human and divine. Jesus he says is the image of the invisible God and in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell – verses 5 and 19.

And he tells us that Jesus died on the cross as a human being – in his fleshly body verse 22 – to provide a way for us to be reconciled to God.

In short Paul tells us plainly that Jesus is God made flesh – God with skin on.

Another false belief was that God did not create the world because he would not have created evil. And there is a similar type of belief around today.

Lots of people - like Stephen Fry for instance - say they don’t believe in God or reject Him, because they see evil and suffering in the world – and blame Him for it.

However Paul tells us that Jesus is the creator of all things – both in heaven and on earth – things visible and invisible.

This includes not just human beings and all the plant and animal life we see around us - but also the invisible angelic and demonic beings who inhabit the spiritual realm – the thrones, dominions, rulers, and powers listed here in verse 16

But what we need to understand is that although God created the world and everything in it – He didn’t create it as evil. When God first created both human and angelic beings – they weren’t evil.

The evil that we see in the world originated with Satan. In the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel we read about how – before the world was created – Satan became corrupted by pride and conceived sin – and became the source of all the evil.

And then in Revelation chapter 12 we read about a battle in heaven – between the angels who remained loyal to God and those who rebelled with Satan.

We are told – “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

And just as the angelic beings weren’t created evil, God didn’t create mankind to be evil.

On the contrary when He first created Adam and Eve – they lived in perfect harmony with Him and each other and the world around them. As we are told in the first chapter of Genesis – God saw everything that He had made and it was very good.

It was only after Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan that sin and death entered the world and God’s perfect creation was spoiled.

So yes, God allows evil and suffering in the world but He didn’t initially create the world to be like this. His perfect creation was spoilt by Satan who spread the rebellion he’d lead in heaven – to earth – and corrupted mankind.

And of course the reason for Jesus coming – was to start to put right everything that had gone wrong with the world. So Jesus came to make it possible for humans to be reconciled to God.

As Paul says in verse 20 – through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things whether things on earth or in heaven by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And Jesus came to establish peace. He came to teach us to love God and to love each other - so that we could start to live again as the humans He originally intended us to be.

You see in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, when Adam and Eve were first created, they loved God and each other perfectly. They weren’t selfish or cruel or bullying. They didn’t fight or lie or cheat. 

They were kind and generous and loving. They were humans as God intended humans to be.

And in the Lords prayer we pray “thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In Heaven where God’s will is perfectly established there is no suffering or pain or strife.

In an imperfect world where evil exists there is bound to be suffering and although this side of heaven we will never fully understand why God allows it – we can be sure that He takes no pleasure in it. On the contrary He works to alleviate it.

So rather than blaming or rejecting God for all that is wrong with the world   - it is far more constructive to acknowledge our own sin and rebellion against Him and then seek with His help to extend His kingdom on earth.

Another false teaching in the Colossian church was that Jesus was not the unique son of God – but rather one of many intermediaries between God and man.

And today many people share a similar belief and think that there are many intermediaries between God and man and many paths to God.

I used to believe that all the major world religions were paths to God and that God had raised up various great religious teachers around the world at various times – whose teachings about love and peace were essentially the same.

In my mind all these religious teachers were sons or representatives of God.

But Paul affirms in verse 15 that Jesus is the unique Son of God. He is not only the creator of all things but he is also the “firstborn over all creation.”

The phrase “firstborn” means “heir or owner.” Firstborn is a title of honour or position.

It means that no one comes before Jesus or indeed anywhere near him -and that he is the exalted one over all creation because He is the Creator.

And as Luke tells us in the book of Acts – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

Jesus is the only one who can reconcile us to God – because he is the only person ever to have led a perfect life  – and to have offered his perfect life on the cross for us.

He is the only one to carry our sins in his body on the cross and to shed his blood on our behalf – so that we could be forgiven and restored to a relationship with God.

Another false teaching in the Colossian church was that people could only find God through special or secret knowledge – rather than through faith in Jesus

Again I held a similar sort of view. I used to believe that the more loving and kind we became the higher we ascended spiritually and the closer to God we’d get.

But what I’d completely failed to understand is that the main problem for all human beings is our sinfulness – that however kind or loving we may sometimes be – there is always a part of us that is capable of malice and hatred and evil.

As Paul says in verse 21 - you were once estranged and hostile in mind – doing evil deeds – or as another translation puts it - You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things.

Every human however nice or seemingly good they may be, has within them the capacity to sin – to think and do evil things.

And this is our fundamental problem because it separates and cuts us off from relationship with God.

If we are to be restored to a relationship with God – our sin needs to be atoned for – and this of course is why Jesus died for us on the cross.

Because he loves us – he took responsibility for our sin himself and was punished and died in our place. And by doing this, as Paul says in verse 21 he has made it possible for us to be reconciled to God.

But in order to avail ourselves of everything that Jesus has done for us we need to make a choice.

Like Stephen Fry we can decide to reject God and blame Him for the mess in the world - or alternately we can decide to invite God into our lives and allow Him to direct and guide us – and then with His help - work to make the world a better place.

 And this is what repentance means. It means choosing to cease rebellion against God and choosing instead to co-operate with him – and to seek to live in obedience to Him.

But our repentance must be genuine. Some people assent mentally to Christian beliefs and believe that Jesus has died for them - but then continue to live to please themselves. They don’t truly surrender their lives to God and seek to live under His direction and guidance.

They want to be forgiven but they don’t want a God who will make any demands on them.

But  if we truly repent Jesus will – at our invitation - come into our lives and make his home with us. His spirit will come to live in us. 

This is what Paul is referring to in verse 27 when he talks of Christ in you – the hope of glory.

And then with God’s help we can start to use the gifts and talents 

He’s given us to play our part in extending his kingdom and helping the world to become a better place.

In the name of the living God. Amen.