Christocentric 5 – Losing (vain) Religion

Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words... Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him... So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths... Let no one cheat you of your reward... These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and the neglect of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:4–23)

Jesus alone is the focus of our faith—everything else that pulls our eyes away from Him is a counterfeit worth losing.

The Frustration of Being Deceived

Magic is the art of deception. It can be one of the most frustrating things to watch a talented magician or illusionist, especially when you are the focus of the trick and surrounded by people watching you. The frustration is compounded when something is on the line. If a person says, "I'll bet you ten dollars I can guess your card," and you can't figure out how they did it, that's frustrating.

I remember the frustration turned the other way once. I was having lunch with Pastor Josh on the east end of town when Left Eddie—a North County character with a glass eye from a high school shop accident—walked up wanting to show us magic tricks. Every time Eddie did a trick, Josh said, "I can do that." Finally Eddie sat down, picked up a knife, and went ding, ding, ding against his glass eye. "Yep," Josh said, "I can't do that one."

But what if the frustration involves something greater than ten dollars? The Apostle Paul was frustrated by the cunning, deceitful trickery of our adversary, the devil, and those swayed by him, as he wrote Colossians 2.

A Letter Against False Teaching

Paul was in prison in Rome when word came to him about the church at Colossae, a city about a thousand miles away. Although he had never met them, his heart was with them because the man who planted and pastored that church had been a disciple of Paul's ministry. They were the fruit of his work.

He heard that false teaching had begun to come into the church—what we would call unorthodox doctrine or heresy—that was shifting the focus away from Jesus. Any teaching that moves the focus away from Jesus is heresy. So Paul was gripped with righteous indignation. He was angry that the enemy had gotten into another church and was moving them away from the truth.

I am grateful 2,000 years later that he wrote this letter, because the same problems the Colossians faced are the very ones the church has faced ever since. The enemy's tactics have not changed. In this passage Paul gives four cautions to the church—cautions for us as well.

Caution One: Don't Be Deceived

The first caution begins in verse 4: "Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you." This word deceived means to be deluded or cheated by false reasoning. The Greek word is paralogizomai—para meaning "in the vicinity of," and logizomai meaning "logic." It's something in the vicinity of logic. It seems logical but isn't. It's so close to truth that it's deceptive, and the enemy is so good at this.

This is what we'd call a counterfeit—something made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intent to deceive or defraud. There's not a week that goes by that my spam folder doesn't fill with offers for Ray-Ban glasses for $12.95 and Oakley sunglasses for $11. I guarantee you they are Folkleys, not Oakleys, but they look just like the real thing. Counterfeits are so close it's hard to tell the difference.

How Not to Be Deceived: Firm Faith in Christ

How can we avoid being defrauded by persuasive counterfeit arguments? The easiest way would be to have your own pocket apostle—the man who wrote Romans standing right there to object. But none of us has that. So notice verse 5: "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ."

To not be deceived by the counterfeit, you must have a firm faith in Jesus Christ. Writing to the Ephesians around the same time, Paul said, "We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine... by the trickery of men, by the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting" (Ephesians 4:14).

This last summer my oldest son Ethan, now seven, started to venture further into the water at the beach. You know how it is watching a small-framed person pushed around by waves that only come up to your knees. It's not until you've had a few more Thanksgivings under your belt that you can stand strong in those waves. As followers of Jesus we should no longer be tossed to and fro. There are deceivers who would spread destructive teaching—even doctrines of demons—to remove our focus from Christ and fix it on something that seems good, logical, and religious.

Know the Authentic So Well You Spot the Counterfeit

Our confidence in Christ needs to be so steadfast that we know the authentic so well that the counterfeit is instantly recognizable. Years ago our church ran a coffee shop on Grand Avenue called His Place—I met my wife working there, and so did Pastor Nick. One day our manager Jason was counting twenties for a deposit, flipping through quickly, when he hit one and said, "Whoa, that one didn't feel right." It looked identical to the others, but it felt different. It was indeed a counterfeit.

Or take the smell test. Around the holidays you pack leftovers into Tupperware, push them to the back of the refrigerator, and later open one—"Whoa, that doesn't smell right." We need to come to a place in our walk where we can tell something's off because it doesn't pass the smell test. You may not have chapter and verse ready, but you sense it.

When someone says, "God helps those who help themselves," you go, "I don't think that's in the Scriptures." When someone says, "God will never give you anything you can't handle," or "If you're a follower of God, nothing bad will happen to you," or "If you had more faith, you wouldn't be sick"—it doesn't pass the smell test. A research group once found that a vast majority of Bible-reading Christians thought the Bible actually says "cleanliness is next to godliness." If something is said enough times and you add a thee or a thou, we start to think it's in the Bible.

Point One: Be Strong in Your Faith

To not be deceived, Paul says in verse 6: "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." If Jesus is Lord in your life, walk in Him, find your root in Him, and grow by His Word, by worship, and by fellowship with His people.

Be strong in your faith and you won't be deceived. There is an enemy, and he preys on the weak. He goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour—going after the young or the immature in the herd to separate them. So we must be strong, rooted and built up in Him.

I work hard that this would be solid biblical teaching, but even I listen to solid biblical teaching all week long through podcasts and great teachers, and I encourage you to do the same. That's how you come to the place where, when someone knocks on your door and reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was a god," you can say, "Wait—that doesn't seem right," because you've read John 1 so many times.

Here's the thing: you can be religiously strong and weak in faith. You can do all the right religious things—stand and genuflect at the right time, be baptized the right way—and still have a weak faith easily swayed by persuasive words. Paul is encouraging us to lose our religion and strengthen our faith.

Caution Two: Don't Be Cheated

Verse 8: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit." The word cheated means to be seduced, carried off, or led away. The New Living Translation puts it beautifully: "Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ."

What is this vain, deceptive philosophy? Paul answers in verses 9–10: "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him." So high-sounding nonsense can be summed up as any teaching that says Jesus is not enough—that what He did on the cross is insufficient, that you're not complete unless you have some other thing added to Him.

Three Forms of Empty Philosophy

Paul cites at least three examples in verses 11–15. The first is circumcision. To us in a Western culture this may seem odd, but for the first twenty years of the Christian faith nearly every follower of Jesus was Jewish, and circumcision—rooted in God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17—was central. When the gospel reached the Gentile Colossians, a group followed on its heels saying, "We're glad you put your faith in Jesus, but you also need this to be right with God."

The principle remains today: "I'm glad you put your faith in Jesus, but unless you've been baptized in this church, your hope is not secure"; "unless you take communion this way"; "unless you worship on this day." Now the focus shifts from Christ to something else. If you're told you must perform some religious rite to be right with God, that is vain, high-sounding nonsense. It's either Christ alone or it's nonsense.

The second is asceticism—self-denial and self-discipline framed as making you not merely righteous but more righteous. "If you really want to be a good Christian, deny this pleasure, this hunger, this appetite." We love that, because we love to be better than other people, and religion is really good at making us feel better. It deals with the consciousness of sinful failing and lets us look down on others, and we get a bigger, fatter head.

The third is legalism—works righteousness, an obvious and continual false teaching over 2,000 years of church history that teaches that by rules, regulations, rites, and rituals you will be made more righteous.

Point Two: Christ Is Enough to Make the Unrighteous Righteous

Christ is enough to make the unrighteous righteous. So much so that I can stand here and say, "I am righteous." Not because of any religious thing I've done, not because of how I was baptized, not because of my prayer life or Bible reading or fasting, not because of where I was born or what car I drive or what church I attend. I am righteous today because of Christ.

It is not pompous or arrogant to say "I am righteous" if you've found your righteousness in Christ. In Christ alone my hope is found. I can't say, "In baptism alone my hope is found," or "In the Eucharist alone," or "In Cross Connection Church alone." In Christ alone.

Caution Three: Let No One Judge You

Verse 16: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths." The word judge means to condemn, censure, or call into question. Don't allow anyone to call your faith into question because you don't keep or you do keep the Jewish dietary rules, the feast days, a liturgical calendar, or a Sabbath day.

Keep or don't keep the Sabbath—others may judge you, Jesus does not. Keep or don't keep Christmas—others may judge you, Jesus does not. Every year when we decorate this place I get an anonymous note telling me Christmas is a pagan holiday. In 36 years I have yet to meet a person who celebrates the winter solstice; when I do, I'll assume they have dreadlocks and smell of patchouli oil. Everyone I've met who celebrates Christmas does so because it's the birth of Christ.

People say you can't bring a Christmas tree into your home—don't you know it's a pagan symbol? I don't care what it was originally; I know what I teach my children. Jesus is the light of the world, given forth on a tree, the cross of Calvary, and we light up our tree to remember that. Eat pork or don't eat bacon—others may judge you, but Jesus does not.

Holy Days Don't Make You Holy

If that thing—the Sabbath, abstaining from a food, observing Christmas or the Feast of Trumpets—directs your worship and focuses your attention on Jesus, God bless you. But if it becomes your focus and you start defining yourself by it, there's a problem. As soon as you judge someone else for their observance or non-observance, you've made yourself Lord and become a legalist.

Are these religious things bad? No—not if they bring you closer to Jesus. Paul even says in verse 17 that these things "are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." What was the purpose of Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles? All of it was Jesus. He is the focus.

Point three: Holy days don't make you holy—Jesus does. None of us is holy apart from Christ, and none of us will ever make ourselves holy by keeping a dietary restriction or observing one day over another.

Caution Four: Let No One Cheat You of Your Reward

Verse 18: "Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels." This is a different Greek word than in verse 8; here it means to declare one unworthy or to rob of the prize. Don't let anyone rob you of your joyful reward in Christ because you don't do the religious or spiritual things they do.

Paul speaks of overstated humility, which connects to the worship of angels. It presents itself as feeling so unworthy to come before God that one must go through an angel, a priest, or some other medium. Paul calls that false humility. Yes, you're an unworthy, wicked sinner in need of grace—but Jesus is the mediator between God and man. He clothed us in His righteousness, not our own, and made the way open for us to have access to God.

Such spiritualizers put their faith in their spiritual experience rather than in Christ. Verse 19 says they are "not holding fast to the head"—to Jesus, "from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God." Jesus is the head of the church; we need nothing else.

Point four: Don't be defrauded by spiritual frauds who seek to rob you of the joy and the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ.

The Law Exposes Sin but Cannot Cure It

Verse 20: "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—do not touch, do not taste, do not handle?" These regulations won't make you more right. We love religion, but even Paul wrote in Romans that the law of God is holy, just, and good—yet it cannot make you holy, just, or good. Its purpose is to reveal how lost we are, and it is incredibly good at that.

Many of us early in our faith walked through a season of legalism, trying to make ourselves more right with God through law-keeping, and we came to the dreadful conclusion of Romans 7: "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" The law was given that sin might abound and become exceedingly sinful, so we'd realize how lost we are.

My oldest son, now in first grade, has become my constant conscience in the car. Three times a week he asks, "Dad, how fast are you going?" I look down—45. "Didn't that sign say 35?" Yes. Yes, it did. The law shows you just how sinful you are and how much you need a Savior.

Point Five: Invest in What Is Truly Valuable

Verse 23: "These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility, and the neglect of the body, but"—circle that word—"are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." Notice Paul doesn't say they have no value at all; they have no value against the indulgence of the flesh. They may be good for drawing you closer to God, but if you think they will deal with your unrighteousness, you are sadly mistaken.

Point five: Invest your efforts in that which is truly valuable. If your religious efforts are for the purpose of making you look or feel more spiritual, then it's vain religion and not a Christocentric faith. I beg you to lose your vain religion.

Paul's Own Example

This is exactly what Paul experienced. In Philippians 3 he writes, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." If anyone had grounds for confidence in the flesh, Paul did—circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, blameless concerning the righteousness in the law.

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ." He came to see those things as vain religion and left them to gain Christ. "Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord... that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ."

How might we attain the resurrection from the dead? Not through religious law-keeping, not through observing feast days or fasting. Through Christ alone our hope is found. He is our strength; He is our song. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father God, Your word is good, and it challenges us. It reveals the areas in our lives that are so out of order—not so we can fight harder or work better to conquer them in our own strength, but so we will fall before You and ask for Your grace and mercy. I thank You that Your mercy is new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. I need Your mercy and grace today, and my brothers and sisters need it as well. I pray that we would walk in that grace and in the truth of Your word, that our focus would be on You, and that any religious things we do would only serve to exalt You higher over our lives. We thank You, Jesus.