Colossians 2:6-8 Taken Captive by the Philosophies of the World
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: October 4, 2020 Colossians 2:6-8
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 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.
(Understanding the Text) Okay, now I begin to see the heresy that Paul is fighting against. In this chapter, he is telling them not to depart from what they had originally received. He touches on the Jewish circumcision issue, but he harps on the falsity of philosophy and elemental spirits. It looks like some of the Colossians had begun trying to mix philosophy with their belief in Jesus. This is backed by the fact that this was what happened throughout the church later when the Jewish Christians’ influence was negated. Here was the beginning of apostasy that Paul was fighting against and had warned the Ephesian elders about in Acts 20.
(Revelation of God) Paul’s first piece of advice is to keep living with Jesus as the center of your life. Walk in Him, be rooted in Him, be built up in Him, have faith in Him. This is what you were taught: Jesus is the beginning, middle, and end. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Only Jesus brings salvation. It looks like the Colossians were trying to worship spirits or angels in addition to Jesus. They were trying to apply Greek philosophy and mystical visions. In short, yes, this was an early form of Gnosticism. I think the devil was trying it out with the Colossians first.
(Application) We need to remember that we need to not only receive salvation in Jesus but also grow in Him. We need to follow Paul’s advice about how to be Jesus’ followers. We need to walk with Jesus. That means keeping Him in our decisions and priorities. We need to be rooted in Jesus. That means studying the word and knowing Him in any way we can. We need to be built up in Jesus. That means allowing Him to transform us and develop us. We need to be established in the faith. That means that we have settled into an ongoing trust in Jesus. And we need to be full of thanksgiving. That means we look at our blessings and not focus on negatives. We need to see how Jesus has changed our lives and brought us close to Him and made us better than we ever could have been ourselves, and we need to thank Him for His love.
The next advice is still good today. Don’t let people imprison you with their ways of thinking and assumptions and lies about life and pseudoscience. Be free of those philosophies and viewpoints that come from the devil to deceive us. To the law and to the testimony is the standard that we need to hold up to our own cultural beliefs and others’ arguments. There is a lot of pressure to believe a certain way and if you don’t, there is mockery and cynical put-downs. People want to pigeonhole you into a box that they have defined: science-denier, liberal, redneck, hater, no earthly good, etc. Even when they don’t have a name for it, they will make judgments about you and let you feel the pressure of their disapproval because of your ideas. Paul says not to let them affect you with their philosophies based on human reasoning, and many of which don’t come from humans at al but are devil-sent.
Jesus’ philosophy and way of life are in total contradiction to the philosophies and ways of life of the world, no matter how much one side claims to be Biblical in their ideas. We are not to try to meld together worldly philosophy with Biblical ideas. We are to accept the kingdom of heaven in its entirety, not trying to fuse it to the world. Any corruption is total corruption. Only pure kingdom of heaven living is acceptable. We may fail to live by its rules and be forgiven, but we can never change its rules. Only unselfish love and giving are acceptable. Only the commandments of God, especially as embodied in the ten commandments are applicable to us. Anything else is not an essential way of life and should not be part of our belief system. We may have to live with other rules such as paying taxes that go to something we think is wrong or voting for the lesser of two evils, but we should not ever accept that this is the norm. It is not private spiritual and public secular. We are not to have two lives. We live the spiritual life in a secular world, but the secular should never become part of us or have any dominance over our allegiance to God.
(Prayer) I am permeated with the Colossian heresy, and the only One who can untangle me is You. I pray that You live in all of me and that I will not have philosophy fused in with belief. I pray that my cultural ideas will fall in the face of the kingdom of heaven. I pray to mature in You alone.