Commenting on this morning’s sermon, someone said, “You have to live life with your head up.” That is, you have to live life always aware that there may be an incoming attack to entice you to move away from Christ.
The philosophy of the world is always attempting to delude the believer so that he will be like Demas and love the world (2 Tim. 4:10). The world will propose that man is supreme to all things, or that the flesh and pleasure are supreme, or that legalism and external perception and image are supreme or that self and self-knowledge are supreme, or that asceticism and humanistic rituals are supreme. The world system proposes that anything is supreme, as long as God is not supreme. Anything will be tolerated as long as God and His Word are minimized, marginalized, and rejected.
The longest war in the history of the world is the war against God. It has been waged since the fall of Satan from heaven and the fall of Adam into sin (Gen. 3). Every ungodly proposal, every deceptive philosophy, every fleshly enticement is the effort of the world system to supplant the authority of God and the supremacy of Christ.
The battle being fought by the world is a losing battle since Christ has already defeated Satan and all his minions at the cross (Col. 2:15). And that victory will be demonstrated with final clarity at the enthronement of Christ in the Kingdom (Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 19-21).
But as the believer awaits that final victory, how does he fight the battle against worldly enticements and philosophies? Embrace Christ. Love Christ. Be consumed with Christ. Meditate on Christ and His work.
This was Paul’s antidote to the toxic venom of worldliness that was infiltrating the Colossian church. That’s why Colossians is one of the most Christological books in the New Testament. Paul’s purpose was to fill the minds of the believers in that church with great and exalting thoughts about Christ. Here, in part, is what Paul reminded his readers of Christ’s work:
- Christ (and not we ourselves) rescued us from the domain of darkness (1:13)
- Christ (alone) is the image of the invisible God (1:15)
- Christ was supreme to create all things (1:16)
- Christ is before all things…He is the Head…H has first place in everything (1:17-18)
- Our message is Christ (1:28) and the purpose for all men is to made mature in Christ (1:28)
- All the treasures of wisdom are hidden in Him (2:3).
- In Christ all the fullness of deity dwells (2:9)
- He is the head over all rule and authority (2:10) — He is sovereign
- He has been raised from the dead (to never die again, 2:12)
- He canceled the debt of sin (2:14)
- He disarmed all the (Satanic) rulers and authorities and triumphed over them (2:15)
- He is the substance of life and all that is to come (2:17)
- He is the head of the church (2:19)
- He is seated at the right hand of the Father (3:1)
- Our life is in Him — He is our life and what we live for (3:3-4)
- We are conformed to Him (3:10)
- Christ is all (3:11)
- It is Christ’s Word that is to rule us and rule in us richly (3:16)
- All we do is to be done in His name and for His glory (3:17)
- Wives submit to their husbands and children obey their parents because it pleases Him (3:18, 20)
- Slaves serve masters and masters care for slaves, cognizant that they work for Christ (3:22ff)
- Our ministry and our lives are received as gifts from Him (4:17)
When we succumb to worldly suggestions, this is what we are giving up in exchange. We are trading trinkets and baubles for riches beyond the treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones. When we give up these truths about Christ we are demonstrating that God is inconsequential to us, that God is resting inconsequentially on our souls. He is insignificant to us.
The way to fight the impulses and temptations of the world is to live with our heads up — to think clearly about what is being offered. But even more, living with our heads up means embracing the Christ who is better than it all; He is the pearl of great price and the treasure hidden in the field.
You live in the world. But you were not redeemed to have the world live in you.
Do not be deceived. All the treasures of life are in Him, not the world.
Words of Grace 