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Colossians, part 8, Spiritual Maturity

Colossians 1:28, 29 says,

²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. ²⁹ For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power [energeia], which mightily works within me.

To proclaim the pleroma of Christ is to proclaim Christ Himself in His full capacity, His authority, and His plan for individual believers and for creation as a whole. The purpose is to give believers a greater understanding and comprehension of the wisdom, power, and love of Christ. His wisdom is set forth in that He devised a plan by which all creation would be subjected to His authority; He has the power to ensure the success of that plan; and He has the love to motivate Him to restore all things to Himself.

Though man was given authority (which he abused), God always retained sovereignty. Hence, man’s authority is limited, and his rebellion and sin is likewise limited to a season. In legal terms, a man could incur an unpayable debt by the strength of his authority, and thus he could be sold into bondage for that debt (sin). However, the law of Jubilee limits all debt to a certain season, and then cancels all debt in the Year of Jubilee.

Likewise, in the land laws of the Bible we read in Leviticus 25:23,

²³ The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.

Adam was formed from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and hence, mankind is part of the land that God owns by right of creation. A man can sell himself to the devil, if he wishes, but such a sale is always temporary, because no man truly owns himself. Therefore, he lacks the right to sell himself “permanently.” In the end, God owns all that He created, and exercising the rights of a laborer, He claims it all. Man’s authority cannot infringe upon God’s sovereignty.

Paul’s Labor and Reward

Paul’s calling was to proclaim the sovereignty of God and the authority that the Father delegated to Jesus Christ, giving Him the right to rule all of creation (1 Corinthians 15:28). Because most believers have only a limited understanding of this, Paul was “admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom.” To admonish is to bring correction in men’s thinking and in their actions, so that they might know the mind of Christ and “present every man complete in Christ.”

The word “complete” is from the Greek word teleios, “brought to an intended end, goal, fully developed, mature, complete.” Just as Christ will fill the pleroma of creation, so also all men in the end will be brought to complete spiritual maturity, which is Christ’s intended goal. This is why Paul labored, exerting all of his energy to bring about the intended goal of Christ Himself.

Colossians 2:1-3 continues,

¹ For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Paul implies in verse 1 that he knew personally those believers in nearby Laodicea, but that he had not met personally the believers in Colossae. Nonetheless, all should be “encouraged” by Paul’s labor, for the reward (wage) was the hidden “treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” These treasures were not monetary or tangible, but “hidden” (apokryphos, “hidden, secret, stored up”).

Job 28:20, 21 tells us that wisdom is God’s hidden treasure:

²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place [storage unit] of understanding? ²¹ Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky.

So Jesus said in Matthew 6:19, 20,

¹⁹ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…

True wealth, then, is not monetary but is measured by wisdom and understanding. Wisdom, in turn, is set forth in the laws of God, for Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:5, 6,

⁵ See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶ So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom, and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

Both Moses and Paul were called to teach the people to understand the wisdom of God, and if America should ever do the same, they could truly Make America Great Again.

Having Stable Faith

Colossians 2:4, 5 says,

⁴ I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. ⁵ For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

“Stability” is from stereoma, “steadfastness, confirmed, that which has been made firm.” Stable faith is a mark of spiritual maturity, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:13, 14, 15,

¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness [pleroma] of Christ. ¹⁴ As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; ¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

Children are those who are still “tossed here and there” by various conflicting doctrines from different teachers. Their beliefs are yet untested in the crucible of experience. At some point, however, they must know the truth for themselves. “Faith comes by hearing” the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Stable faith comes when revelation is acted upon, tested, and confirmed by experience.

Colossians 2:6, 7 continues,

⁶ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Evangelism is good, but it is only the beginning. If there is no follow-up teaching and discipleship training, there is no stability of faith, nor wisdom, nor spiritual maturity. Paul told the Ephesians that it would require a five-fold ministry to bring the church to the full maturity of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).