Opposition to the claims of Christ is nothing new. In verse 4, Paul talks about people using persuasive arguments to delude believers into denying Christ. In verse 8, he points to deceptive human philosophies which focus on the principles of this world. This sort of thing is still very much with us, because we all want things to make sense. We naturally focus on the things of this world, on things that we can touch and taste and see. And the fact is that Jesus’ example of self-sacrificial, unconditional love just doesn’t fit with our understanding of how the world works.

But if we prefer to be guided by our reason or our experience, we will miss out on knowing Christ. For no matter how little sense it makes to us, verse 9 reminds us that all the fulness of God is in Him – so only by knowing Him can we ever hope to know what God is really like. And that necessarily means what verse 10 says – that all authority in Heaven and on earth lies in His hands.

And if we don’t know Christ, we will also miss out on all the benefits that flow out of a relationship with Him. If we cling to reason and experience to make sense out of the world, we won’t know the encouragement and the love that verse 2 says are found in the fellowship of believers. We won’t have access to the true wisdom and knowledge that only Jesus understands. We won’t be rooted in our faith as verse 7 says, having reason to overflow with gratitude for all God’s gifts, especially the forgiveness and new life God provides to all who trust in Him (v. 13).

So today, let’s not be deceived by what this world thinks is real. Let’s let Christ determine our reality, and let’s live in Him and for Him.

Colossians 2:1-15 (ESV)

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
2 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,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 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.
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.