Colossians 2

It's been a windy day, but also a very sunny and sky-blue kind of day. We spent the afternoon at Frankie's Fun Park playing mini-golf, go-carts and the bungee, and then a nice dinner out before coming back home to catch up on the NFL Draft (way to go, Troy! 8th pick from South Carolina to the Vikings) and to work on tomorrow morning's discussion of Colossians 2.

The past couple of weeks, we've worked through Colossians 1 while looking at Paul's opening statements that this local body of Christians was looking forward to the future hope in Christ and needed encouragement on living it out in real ways "now" - something that'll preach to today's church and culture as well. In writing about the supremacy of Christ, Paul also brings in the trait of reconciliation for those who are in Christ - His place in creation works towards reconciling all things back to the Father. That's the short version of two hour-long discussions.

So now we get to chapter two, and Paul begins to address false teaching. The traditional view is that the threat of gnosticism or latent judaism was finding its way into the young church, and Paul wanted to encourage the people by saying Christ really is "all that", and grabbing onto Jesus superceded any other false, divisive and overburdening teaching. I want to allow for that in our discussion tomorrow, that Jesus is more than these false teachings and bad doctrines. But I'm really being drawn to Paul's admonishment to not let false teaching: "I am telling you this so that no one will be able to deceive you with persuasive arguments... Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy..." (2:4, 8). The current state of the church in USAmerica is one where there are probably too many competing voices, too many persuasive arguments and too many empty philosophies.

In my own growth process, I've read a good bit from the postmodern/emergent church conversation, and I've read some of the anti-movement rhetoric, too - and the anti- stance often includes this passage, exhorting the church to pay attention to this seemingly unbiblical and almost heretical movement and to not fall for its deceptions. Honest critique is one thing; cries of heresy are another - where do we draw the line? How do we stand firm in our own faith, make room for differences of opinion and style, and still grow in understanding and maybe change our theology without falling victim to deception on any level?

I'll post more tomorrow; still getting my mind around what Paul is saying, making sure I don't put words or ideas onto his writing, but instead that we stay true to Paul's letter and the Holy Spirit's call for us then and now.