Marks of the Faithful Church - Colossians 2:1-7

Marks of the Faithful Church

Focal Text: Colossians 2:1-7

Background Text: Colossians 2:1-23

I.           It Should be a Church of Courageous Hearts, vs. 2a

“My purpose is that you may be encouraged in heart…”

1.        Paul prays that their hearts may be encouraged.

2.        The word, which Paul uses, is parakaleo, it is the same word that John uses to describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the “comforter”.

a.      The literal meaning of the word is “to call alongside”. However, its usage has a broad spectrum of meaning.

b.      Sometimes the word means to comfort and sometimes to exhort, but always at the back of it, there is the idea of enabling a person to meet some difficult situation with confidence and with courage.

c.      In Matthew 10:16-19 Jesus said,

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  17 Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.  18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.  19  But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say.”

3.        One of the Greek historians uses the word in a most interesting and suggestive way.

a.      There was a Greek regiment, which had lost heart and was utterly dejected.

b.      The general sent a leader to talk to it to such purpose that courage was reborn and a body of dispirited men became fit again for heroic action.

c.      That is what the word means here.

4.        It is Paul's prayer that the Church may be filled with that courage which can cope with any situation.

II.       It should be a Church in which the members are knit together in love, vs. 2b

“My purpose is that you…be united in love…”

1.        Without love, there is no real Church.

2.        Methods of Church government and ritual are not what matter.

3.        These things change from time to time and from place to place.

4.        The one mark, which distinguishes a true Church, is love for God and for the brethren.

5.        When love dies, the Church dies.

6.        In the book of Revelation John has a lot to say about the good things that the church at Ephesus was doing. It appears that they were doing all the things that a church should be doing but John had only one thing against them that they had “left their first love”.

7.        In 1 Corinthians Paul said this about love,

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

III.   It Should Be A Church Equipped With Every Kind Of Wisdom, Vs. 2c-3

“So that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,  3  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

1.        In this short passage, Paul uses four different Greek words for wisdom.

a.      The first word he uses “sunesis”, which the NIV translates as understandingly.

i.        This word “a mental putting together”, what we might call critical knowledge.

ii.       It is the ability to assess any situation and decide what practical course of action is necessary within it.

iii.     A Church will have the practical knowledge of what to do whenever action is called for.

b.      The second word is “epiknosisv”, which is translated “to know”.

i.        It means a “precise and correct knowledge” and is always, used in the New Testament of the knowledge of things ethical and divine.

ii.       Paul says the kind wisdom or knowledge is the only thing that will enable us “to know the mystery of God, namely Christ”.

c.      The next two words are “sophia” and “gnwsiv”.

i.        The word Sophia occurs 51 times in the New Testament and is always, translated as “wisdom”.

ii.       On the other hand, gnosis is almost always, translated as “knowledge.”

iii.     Sophia is the power to confirm and to commend the truth with wise and intelligent argument, once it has been fully grasped.

a)   In I Cor 1:17 Paul uses it to refer human knowledge over and against divine knowledge.

b)   This wisdom is broad and full of intelligence: used of the knowledge of very diverse matters.

c)    Specifically, the varied knowledge of things human and divine, acquired by acuteness and experience, and summed up in maxims and proverbs

iv.    Gnosis is that by which a man grasps the truth; sophia is that by which a man is enabled to give a reason for the hope that is in him.

IV.     The True Church Must Have The Power To Resist Seductive Teaching, vs. 4

“I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.”   

1.        Christians must be alert to the danger of being deceived by false reasoning.

2.        This word is variously translated as “persuasive argument, the NIV says “find-sounding arguments, beguiling speech, fancy talk, loftiness of words and plausible arguments.

3.        It is the kind of argument that Satan used in the Garden of Eden to persuade Eve that it is all right to taste of the fruit, that indeed it was not a sin.

4.        This was a word of the law-courts; it was the word used for the persuasive power of a lawyer's arguments, which could enable the criminal to escape his just punishment.

5.        In Galatians, Paul says that there are, some preaching a different gospel.

6.        The true Church should have such a grip of the truth that it is unmoved by seductive arguments.

V.         The True Church Should Have In It A Soldier's Discipline, vs. 5

“For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.” 

1.        “Your good order; answering to "knit together" in verse 2, as a well-organized body; the same Greek as that for knit together, is used of the body" of the Church.

2.        In Eph 4:16 Paul says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

3.        The church should be working together in unity of purpose.

4.        The two words “orderly and firm” present a vivid picture of how the church should be.

5.        They are both military words.

a.      The word translated order (in ancient Greece) referred to a group of heavily armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep, with shields joined and long spears overlapping.

b.      It refers to any number of individuals who are united for a common purpose.

c.      The Church should be like an ordered army, with every man in his appointed place, ready and willing to obey the word of command.

d.      The word translated firm means a solid bulwark, an immovable force. It describes an army set out in an unbreakable square, solidly immovable against the shock of the enemy's charge.

e.      Within the Church, there should be disciplined order and strong steadiness, like the order and steadiness of a trained and disciplined body of troops.

VI.     In The True Church Life Must Be In Christ, vs. 6

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.”

1.        Its members must walk in Christ; their whole lives must be lived in his conscious presence.

2.        They must be rooted and built in him.

a.      There are two pictures here.

i.        The word used for rooted is the word, which would is used of a tree with its roots deep in the soil.

ii.       The word used for built is the word, which would is used of a house erected on a firm foundation.

b.      Just as the great tree is deep-rooted in the soil and draws its nourishment from it, so the Christian is rooted in Christ, the source of his life and strength.

c.      Just as the house stands fast because it is built, on strong foundations, so the Christian life is resistant to any storm because it is founded on the strength of Christ.

VII. The true Church holds fast to the faith, which it has received.

“Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

1.        The Church never forgets the teaching about Christ, which it has been taught.

2.        This does not mean that everyone has to believe the exact same thing.

3.        However, it does mean that there are certain beliefs, which remain the foundation and do not change.

4.        Paul might travel down new pathways of thought but he always began and ended with the unchanging and unchangeable truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

VIII.      The distinguishing mark of the true Church is an abounding and overflowing gratitude.

1.        Thanksgiving is the constant and characteristic note of the Christian life.

2.        J. B. Lightfoot put it: "Thanksgiving is the end of all human conduct, whether observed in words or works."

3.        The one concern of the Christian is to tell in words and to show in life his gratitude for all that God has done for him in nature and in grace.

4.        Epictetus, a Greek philosopher, was not a Christian, but that little, old, lame slave who became one of the great moral teachers of paganism, wrote:

"What else can I, a lame old man, do but sing hymns to God? If, indeed, I were a nightingale, I would be singing as a nightingale; if a swan, as a swan. However, as it is, I am a rational being; therefore, I must be singing hymns of praise to God. This is my task; I do it, and will not desert this post, as long as it may be given me to fill it; and I exhort you to join with me in this same song."