Colossians 2:8-12 Buried and Raised from the Dead
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 5, 2020 Colossians 2:8-12
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.
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. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 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, 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.
(Understanding the Text) Paul is emphasizing the beginning of salvation. In the beginning, the Colossians accepted Jesus as their Savior. At that point, everything changed. They were no longer Gentiles. They had become God’s people. He circumcised them as surely as if there were a physical cut to mark them as belonging to His people and not Satan’s. They no longer belonged to some god or goddess that they served. They were now Jesus’ people. They were buried and dead to the old life through baptism and raised back into new life through faith that God was working in them just as surely as He raised Jesus from the dead.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul says that Jesus had the power to be their Lord in everything. They did not need anything or anyone else. Paul tells them that Jesus was totally God even while being a man and that He had filled the Colossians to the brim. Jesus is the ruler of all things on earth and outside of earth. Jesus should be their ruler in all things, so they should not allow ideas and human traditions and lies to in any way replace Jesus in their lives. Jesus is the be-all and end-all. There is no extra necessary.
(Understanding the Text) They had been cut away from the herd of humans and marked permanently, just as surely as circumcision made a permanent mark. They were different now and that difference was Jesus filling them. If they tried to bring back in some of the old ideas, the ideas would not fit. This is true for all believers. Rather than freeing us to expand our minds by trying to fuse the old ideas to the new ideas, the old ideas would hold us captive, drawing us back to a worse captivity than before, negating our freedom in Christ, and marking us as traitors to our Lord.
It all comes back to faith. We are raised up through faith. We have faith that Jesus really died and was resurrected for a reason–for us. We have faith that Jesus will continue working in us to bring us to maturity. We shouldn’t believe that He can’t make us better and then try to help Him along with our own ideas. Instead, we trust Him that He has the power and the desire to keep working in us and that He is enough for us. We don’t need to try to hedge our bets by trying to take the world’s ideas and Jesus’ ideas both into ourselves. One is enough if it is Jesus.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that You have marked me as Yours, so I should never doubt that You want me and that You are working in and with me. I should never try to help You along by using worldly ideas. Instead, I should immerse myself in You and trust that You are God and can and will work powerfully in my life so that I will not be a servant of the devil and his ways.