BIBLE STUDIES ARCHIVE.....Colossians 2: 1-10: A Depth Teaching

When I read this Scripture, I immediately thought of the great respect I have for others.  I considered this passage in the context of myself talking with them, to encourage and exhort them in their labors.
 
“For I want you to know what a great conflict (struggle) I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
 
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
 
I come to encourage you, to continue to work together, knit in love, hearts connected to hearts in deep relationship, to reach, or attain the riches of understanding.  In the Greek, understanding is defined  as “sunesis” – which is analyzing and discerning; a way of putting two and two together.  This discernment gives insight, some might say revelatory insight, into the mystery of God, where the ultimate treasure chest is found and unlocked.  It does not open to material gain, but rather to the true treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  1 Co. 1:30 describes these treasures a little more in depth, declaring that we who are in Christ Jesus have access to the revelation of wisdom and of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption – all of which the Lord is.  As He is Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness (Jer. 23), we who believe on Him are His  righteousness (2 Co. 5:21 and Rom 3:22).  Righteousness is a legal term, taken from the courts where all charges pressed against us have been paid for and we are acquitted.  The wrong, or sin, has been righted, by Jesus’ death.  He is also Jehovah- mekoddishkem, the Lord our Sanctifier (Ex. 31:13).  As he sanctified Israel, He sanctifies us today, calling us a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a chosen people (1Peter 2:9).  Sanctification is a temple term, describing how we are set apart and made holy in His sight.   And He is our Redeemer. Israel was redeemed by God in the book of Exodus, and the book of Ruth elaborates on the role of the kinsman-redeemer.  Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer, for redemption is a term to describe the enslaved who have been redeemed.  Boaz redeemed Ruth.  Jesus redeemed us through His shed blood upon a cross.  We are His redeemed, the sanctified, and the righteous – all because of Calvary.  It is grace and we get to wear it, and share it.  It is what I have witnessed you do in your work.
 
Now I say this lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
 
Understand your identity and position in Christ, as many will come along and try to deceive you with flattery, false praise, trickery, and cunning schemes.  (Rom. 16:18 and Eph. 4:14)  You have already witnessed this in your life, yes?  Beware the deceiver and remember Satan is a liar. 
 
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
 
Although I live a distance from you, and see you infrequently, I am with you in spirit, praying for you and praising God for the perseverance you show in your walk and in your work to help the needy, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and care for the ill.
 
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.
 
So I encourage you to continue to walk in Him, be rooted and established in Him.  You are like a building, being fitted together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph. 2:20-21)  This suggests the knitting together of hearts we began with, and a shared  vision, for without vision the people perish.  And as you walk in Him, abound with thankfulness, which is to be thankful in excess.  We can think of it as excessive thankfulness.  When we stop and really consider it, can we ever truly be thankful enough for the gift of grace, of salvation, of eternal life?  I think not.  But oh to try.
 
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.
 
Are we to listen to the ways of this world and falter, for they are not the ways of God.  Humanism and secularism tells us church and state have been separated.  Man-made laws ban us from “proselytizing.”  Let me remind you friend, the Word of God cannot be chained and the Holy Spirit will roam where He chooses to roam.  Once freed, why would we return to the bondage of sin, whose wages are death?
 
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”  Amen.
 
Let’s focus for a few minutes on this very interesting word, “dwell.”  It is fascinating with its meanings.  Dwell in the Old Testament Hebrew had as its root the word Shekinah, as in the Shekinah glory of God.  This glory covering, if you will, walked with the Israelites during the wilderness journey, possessing the land, and continued until the days described in Ezekiel, Chapter 10, when God forlornly departed from the temple.  The removal of His presence and His glory was a result of the continued sin of His people.  Yet even then God promised through the prophets that His Glory would one day return.  In Zech 2:10 it was prophesied that “I am coming and I will dwell in your midst.”  We can refer to this dwelling presence as Jehovah-shammah – the Lord is there.
 
The word was partially fulfilled in Jesus, as “the Word became flesh and dwelt among them”.  (John 1:14)  Now we see the Greek term dwell used, which translates as “tabernacles.”  He tabernacled in the hearts of those who received Him as Lord and Savior, indeed He was Jehovah-shammah – the Lord was there.  Yet Jesus was rejected by those He desired to gather to Him, and so He too departed from the temple (Matt. 23:27) and removed His presence as Son of Man, but in so doing promised us a Helper, the Holy Spirit.  We have access to the Holy Spirit today and we await the returning Lord.  When He returns again as Jehovah-shammah, all Old Testament prophecy will be fulfilled.  He will come again. 
 
What an exquisite picture and promise!  We are complete in Him!  Rejoice.  And He is the head of all principality and power, which means all powers are subject to He who sits at the right hand of the Father.  When I call out His Name, I call out the head over all.
 
The Lord, in all His fullness, which I can only understand in part, has pitched a tent in our hearts and we get a glimpse of His Shekinah glory as He tabernacles within us. We are complete in Him – do not be deceived or misled.  Ask the Father for new discernment, so that the treasure chest of wisdom and knowledge might be opened unto you.  Display a spirit of excessive thankfulness for what the Lord has done, is doing, and shall do.  Walk in Him, be rooted in Him, be firmly established in Him and ask for the Holy Spirit to help you, so that you might grasp how wide and how high and how deep and how long is the love of God.  (Eph 3:18).  May the Lord bless you with peace and love in your hearts.