May 9, 2010
Background Scripture: Colossians 2:1-19
Devotional Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

Because Colossae sat astride the east-west trade route connecting Ephesus and Mesopotamia, it has been described by scholar Dwight E. Stevenson as a city with “a polyglot population” in the midst of a “pandemonium of faith and philosophies.”

Although we don’t know precisely what was going on in Colossae, it is obvious that Paul is aware of a variety of faiths competing with the gospel. His references to “wisdom and knowledge” (2:3), “beguiling speech“ (4), “philosophy and empty deceit” (8), “food and drink” (16) and “visions …” (18) all point to the danger of ideas that could tempt Colossians to either abandon or adulterate the Good News of Jesus Christ.

This may seem an ancient problem that is irrelevant to us today, but it is no less a threat now. A Christian missionary in Japan was told that fewer than 1 percent of the Japanese people were Christians, but was also told, “We have no doubt that millions would become Christians if they could do so without giving up Shinto and Buddhism.”

An inside job

Here, however, where Buddhism and Shinto pose little or no threat to Christianity, there are alien faiths that either attract us from the gospel or, with values and beliefs in direct contradiction with it, subvert the Church from within. It happens so gradually that many are unaware there is a vital difference between the gospel and that lowest-common-denominator-religion in which Christ is but one voice among many.

Unlike the Japanese, we are able to have both our cake and eat it, too: Christianity and other religions all tied up in a bundle of vague and undefined belief in a god-of-some-kind.

For example, to whom do we turn for our economic and financial values? Jesus? I think not, for when Jesus and The Market are in conflict, the public usually chooses the latter.

I respect free enterprise and profits, but I do not have faith that The Market will ultimately “take care of itself” and the nation, and I am deeply disturbed when people speak of it in the deferential tones that should be reserved for the Lord alone. The Way of the Cross and Wall Street often lead in different directions.

Former Federal Reserve Chair Allen Greenspan has acknowledged that he was wrong to believe the highest economic public good would automatically be served by people pursuing primarily their own selfish interests.

Faced with a choice, I believe in  free enterprise, but I am committed to the Christ who said, “You cannot serve God and mammon?” (Lk. 16:13) and “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal …” (Mt. 6:19).

The ‘fullness’ of Christ
Again, where do we turn for our response toward those who have wronged us, whom we regard as society’s “unclean,” the convicts in prisons, the poor and people of different political convictions?
When we deliberate going to war, do we first consult Jesus? When we conduct campaigns for political office, do we champion truth or act as if deceit and outright lying is not only accepted, but expected?

Knowing that Colossae was filled with those who claimed to know the divine mysteries and the wisdom necessary for salvation, Paul wanted the Colossians to realize that they did not need Christ-plus-this-or-that, for in Christ we are confronted with all the fullness of God:
“See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity  dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him …” (Col. 2:8-10).

Today we are besieged by those who claim to possess the Truth that is supposedly hidden from most of us. So, how can we discern who has the Truth?

The test: If they are in effect saying, “I have the truth and you do not,” they do not possess it. For when Truth is encountered and embraced, the result – always – is not Pharisaical pride, but humility. And that is the truth about the Truth.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.