Encouraging others to live out their faith is important. How much more accountable would we be if, from time to time, we knew someone was going to ask us about our faith walk? Questions like:
- Are you praying regularly?
- Have you studied the Bible today?
- How are you keeping your faith active?
- How are things between you and Jesus?
Paul’s encouragement was his way of holding the church in Colosse (and Laodicea) accountable to their faith. How would we react if someone said, “I was so encouraged when I heard about what you are doing for Jesus. It makes me want to keep going in my faith. How’s your faith walk been lately?” Paul is regular with this type of encouraging accountability. He knew how to approach the negative through the positive. Jesus was like this: stone her if you do not have sin; walk on water just keep your eyes on me; follow me and you’ll never thirst or hunger again. If He is your Lord, how have you been demonstrating your faith lately? Are you continuing? If not, how can you get going again?
When we are rooted, we get our strength form Him (and He is more than enough). When we are built up, we are achieving greater goals than when we were without Christ. As we are strengthened in our faith, we can readily take on what the world throws at us and this is a great reason to be “overflowing with thankfulness.”
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8 (NIV)
One thing the world will throw at us is empty theory about philosophy. Their “hollow and deceptive” arguments hold people captive to one train of thought. For example, I read an article the other day from a science blog that said that atheist and liberals were more intelligent than others because they are able to tap into their evolutionary history (genes). It said the passé belief in religions create a 6 point lower core in an IQ test! What makes me think that this test was performed on college students?
If we just want to be smart about earthly things, then we still fall way short of what God created us to be. If you are satisfied with traditions and basic earthly principles about life then bay all means become an atheistic liberal. Otherwise, God has a lot more to offer than someone’s theory about intelligence – He offers life in abundance.
I have nothing against college students (I graduated from a university) but most radical viewpoints about life come from liberal students. For example, the young atheist group at the University of Texas in San Antonia decided that the Bible is smut and offered to trade sexually abusive pornography to students who would give away their Bibles. That’s one of those intelligent things. Who scored more on the IQ test? The bottom line: don’t fall for hollow and deceptive philosophy. Don’t believe something is true just because a professor said it is.
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Colossians 2:18-19 (NIV)
Abundant life comes through Christ and starts in us when we are circumcised from sin. God’s fullness is added to us completely. Our faith walk began with the fullness of Christ. It progressed in the defeat of sin’s power over us. It is expressed in water baptism’s symbol of death and resurrection – believing in the power of God to raise the dead as He raised Christ.
The beauty if this new life generated through Christ is in how sin’s power was nailed to the cross. That power died that day as He freely extended His forgiveness. Satan’s powers and man’s rules and regulations were squashed by the death of Christ. He belittled their significance as His actions increased His significance.
Those who seek to keep man in sin’s habits, are the one’s humiliated by Christ’s power, who still offer false humility in an attempt to discredit those saved by God’s grace. They try to tie Christians down with guilt by ridiculing common practices like eating or celebrations. They are so-called followers of Jesus who are so puffed up by their self proclaimed spirituality that many still fall for their deceptions. This is why Paul spends so much time on the necessity of being firm in one’s faith. False teachers are disconnected from Jesus.
One test of faith comes in examining our motives in worship and in everyday life as compared to the life and words of Jesus. The principles of the world are basic and serve selfishness, pride, envy, and lusts. As in the “intelligence” example, seeking to follow just the basics is a self serving, egotistical view of life. All the “do nots” in the world will never satisfy a person’s soul.
This doesn’t mean we fly out and commit whatever sin we wish. Sin still destroys and doesn’t belong in the life of those who follow Jesus. This means that with Christ we have the power to say no to sin without regulations governing our actions – the Holy Spirit does this. If we are relying on obeying the rules to keep us righteous we fail because the rules and regulations only show us how guilty we are – they cannot make us right with God. Only God can give us power over sin, and we forsake that power when we try to remain righteous on our own merit.
- Do you have someone you rely on to keep you accountable in your faith?
- How do you keep sin out of your life?
- Have you faced “hollow and deceptive” philosophy” lately?
- How do you respond the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
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