Colossians 2: 6, 7
There is great skill in knowing when to come to the point.
The advertiser will go a long way to engage our attention, kindle our curiosity,
and insinuate information, before he reveals that he merely wants us to buy his product.
Children learn to do the same thing.
"Mommy, you know Betty who lives down the road?
Well, she told me that her cousin, Mary, was on vacation with them, and was playing with a ball in the house
where they were staying, and she broke a window and she was so frightened; but nothing happened.
Everybody just laughed, and no one was mad at all. She was lucky, wasn't she?
Mommy, what makes people lucky, like that?"
Mommy carelessly says, "I do not know. Why do you ask?"
The little girl replied, "Mommy, I just drop one of your china tea cups."
It is something that every mother knows.
It is also something that every good preacher should know.
He should know when to come to the point, when to postpone it, and prepare for it.
Paul comes to his point, plainly and sharply:
"As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him,
and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." (2: 6, 7)
Paul is a stranger to his readers, but he was well-prepared for them, and his point is sharp.
He leads up to it with warm greeting, complementary thanksgiving, glowing report,
and a nice commendation of their minister.
His prayer for their enlightenment had led him to a wonderful exposition of the greatness of Christ
touching closely the strange ideas abroad in Colossae, but he had not implied that anyone there
had succumbed to that teaching.
And, he had summarized their spiritual experience as sure, deep, and significant.
Even after all that was said, Paul has not yet said why he is writing to them at all.
Instead, he pauses to explain his deep pastoral interest in this church which he did not found.
Only then, does he venture this firm and forthright appeal:
"As therefore you received Christ... so live in him, rooted... built up... established...
just as you were taught."
The new philosophy being taught at Colossae made large claims and offered large promises.
The new philosophy offered greater wisdom, marvelous divine secrets,
deeper spiritual satisfactions were available, if men would worship angel beings,
avoid certain foods, accept the hidden, occult mysteries about the universe which visions
or advanced intellectual doctrines could impart.
It also offered a so-called, higher version of Christianity for the elite, the highbrows,
the spiritually superior -- and few fools can resist that sort of snob appeal.
So, some were tempted and became critical of the church, skeptical of the simple gospel,
dissatisfied with their present level of spiritual experience.
And they played with heresies as, so many modern Christians do,
chasing after any new sect, or cult, or strange medley of religious ideas
that calls itself a new revelation.
They listen avidly to any slick door-to-door salesman delivering ancient heresies long exploded
because their Christian lives are superficial, unsatisfying, and disappointing.
The surest, safest prevention against all sub-Christian deviations is a full experience of the fullness of Christ.
What dissatisfied Christians think to discover in the various extremes and tangential sects,
exists already for them in the gospel they have received from Christ,
if only, they had been properly instructed, and led to comprehend
the length and breadth, the height and depth, of Christian salvation.
The sure antidote to all the misrepresentations, exaggerations, and perversions of the gospel
that clutter Christiendom, is to be "rooted... built up... established" in Christ,
just as we were taught.
That is Paul's point!
"What more do you want then you already have in Christ?"
He is the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead,
the beloved Son and King and Redeemer; in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
What can any other teacher, or doctrine, or ritual offer that Jesus Christ has not already procured for us?
Stand fast on what we know!
Explore the faith we have!
Grasp to the full all that there is in Christ for you, and you will find all you need of wisdom,
challenge, ideas, hope, power, and blessing.
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find..."
That is why this text is the point and focus of the entire letter to Colossae:
"As you received Christ Jesus, so live in him... rooted... built up... established...
just as you were taught."
Notice, that Paul looks back to something that has happened in the past,
and then, he urges something for the present because of what happened in the past.
What happened in the past was this, you received Christ Jesus the Lord,
just as you were taught.
Paul has already recalled how wonderfully these Colossians responded to the gospel.
There had been great times in Colossae; many lives were changed, and the gospel bore fruit.
Later, Paul will remind them gently what kind of people they had been and contrast that
with the kind of people they are, and still can be, now.
Out of a dark and superstitious paganism full of fear, they had been translated into a kingdom
of light and love and joy.
That total life transformation turned upon two simple events.
On the one hand, there was something they had been taught.
Epaphras, a good man, had brought from Ephesus news which had spread from Jerusalem,
from Galilee, and from Bethlehem.
The news implied a message, a teaching, a pattern of thought and of living,
and it broke upon them with conviction and promise and great power.
Even their teacher, Epaphras' life had changed, and had given weight to the teaching.
That is how the good news comes to all of us.
It comes as an exciting, revolutionary, illuminating reinterpretation of all we have ever known
or thought or felt, stemming from the story of the Baby in a manger, the Boy in the temple,
and the Man upon a cross.
The good news comes framed with reverence and affection in the lives we most admire
-- of parents, teachers, friends, and pastors, who led our earliest steps toward Jesus.
Remember, says Paul, how you were taught, and do not be disloyal -- do not let down those
who were among the best people you have ever known.
On the other hand, there was something they had received.
We cannot keep on believing just because we are told.
The time must come when what others say becomes our own:
"we received Christ Jesus the Lord."
The message has for us the ring of truth.