Colossians 1:1-14
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.” (2 Peter 1:2)
Every year, a variety of different sources and periodicals, such as Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and People, compile a list of America’s most powerful people. It’s interesting that the word powerful can be used in such differing categories based on how you perceive power. Beauty, money, status, physical strength are all things that could be defined as a source of power. A beautiful woman can manipulate legions of men. A wealthy individual can pay others to do the things that he doesn’t want to do. A persuasive speaker can have loyal masses of followers. And an overgrown bully can rip the lunch money away from his scrawny classmate. All of these can be displays of power. The common denominator to all of these is who is in control. Who is powerful in the world essentially depends on who is in control. And power is appealing to all because we all like the feeling of being in control.
Above all these things, though, in terms of power, is knowledge. Knowledge of making weapons could start WWIII. Knowledge of an ever-fluctuating stock market or perhaps just private knowledge of passwords, social security numbers, and banking information could make someone enormously wealthy. Knowledge can even cause someone to become more physically beautiful. If you want your excess fat sucked out, your nose sculpted, or your stomach stapled, we now have the knowledge to do that. If you want to have power, you have to have knowledge. It’s a simple formula. Today, I pray, we will grow in our understanding of how
“Knowledge is a Powerful Thing”
To do that, we consider our sermon lesson for today from Colossians 1:1-14. A little research to the book of Colossians tells us that the believers in Colosse certainly understood that knowledge was a powerful thing. Paul learned of their intense desire for knowledge from a man named Epaphras, who was not only a faithful believer in Colosse, but also probably the founder and leader of the church. But problems in Colosse were getting bigger than Epaphras could handle, so he went to Paul for spiritual guidance.
The Colossian believers were beginning to fall prey to a destructive heresy that was unique to them and which was consequently named after them. The Colossians were so desperate for knowledge and power, that they concocted a belief system based on a combination of a variety of different teachings. The “Colossian heresy” had components of Christianity, Jewish ceremonialism, and apparently a false teaching of Greek philosophy that would become even more influential in the next century, called Gnosticism. You may have heard of Gnosticism before. It’s made a lot of news over the past five years or so with the publication of the supposed Gnostic Gospel texts and the success of Dan Brown’s book The Davinci Code. Essentially, Gnosticism is based on gnosis – a secret, hidden knowledge of how to attain salvation. The central tenet of this “secret knowledge” was the popular Greek philosophical concept at the time that all matter, including the body, is inherently evil, and that only the spirit has any value. You push this to its logical conclusion and Jesus’ status as true God is naturally diminished because when he became man, he took on human flesh.
If you still don’t understand Gnosticism, it’s okay. It’s not really essential. But what is essential for understanding Paul’s letter to the Colossians is the problem underneath the problem. Do you see what happened with the Colossians? They borrowed from several different belief systems because they didn’t know what to do or who to believe. Christianity? Yeah, we like that. It seems loving. Judaism and its ceremonial laws? That sounds good too. It has loyal followers and lots of tradition. Gnosticism? Why not? It’s certainly popular right now and we too want to be on the cutting edge. The poor Colossians didn’t know who or what to believe, so they believed a little of everything and hoped they got something right.
This is a very modern spiritual problem – either gathering beliefs from a variety of different religions out there or simply not caring about the doctrinal differences that exist between church bodies. There’s just simply so much information out there, how can I know who holds the truth? Information levels are at an all-time high. The 20th Century rolling over to the present is known as the age of information. I can go online and find out pretty much anything I want about anyone or anything. Think of the power. I can dial a couple numbers and get an update from someone on the other side of the world. I can flip on the T.V. or pop in a DVD and see anything my imagination desires. I can communicate in seconds with anyone anywhere via email, fax, blackberry, or instant messenger. We have access to more information than we ever believed possible. But, instead of empowering people, it only leaves people feeling more left behind. A hundred years ago it took half a century or more for the world to double its knowledge base. Now it happens every other year.
All this information coming so fast makes life unpredictable. There are too many factors beyond our control. Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know. There appears to be too much information to forecast the future, so we feel vulnerable. As a result, people today have a well-developed sense of tentativeness. They’re afraid to make commitments, because they know they could never have all the facts.
I simply don’t know what to believe when people are giving me contradicting information. Some people are telling me to vote “yes, yes” on propositions 1 and 2 because casinos will be better for local businesses, will lower taxes, and will create jobs. Other people are telling me to vote “no, no” because casinos are often owned by and filled with greedy, morally corrupt people, many of whom will eventually bankrupt and I’ll be paying for them to be on welfare through my taxes. Both of the people making these claims know the situation better than I do. Who am I to believe?
The world tells me that if I want to look good and be healthy, I’m going to have to maintain a healthy diet. Well, some people tell me I need to cut carbs out of my life. Others say it’s simply an issue of calories. Others say I need more fiber. Others are concerned that I have too much cholesterol or sodium in my diet. Maybe I just need to eat my vegetables. If I eat my carrots every day, my eyes will be healthy. Coffee? Eggs? Chocolate? I have no idea if they’re good or bad for me anymore. So I end up eating frozen burritos 4 or 5 times a week – they’re cheap, they’re tasty, and you can fill up on them.
What do I believe? What can I believe anymore? Everybody seems to have answers. All I know is that I’m lost. Why is it so difficult for a college student to choose a major? Why is it so difficult for me to order something off of the big menu board at McDonald’s? Why is it so difficult for people to choose a church or even go to church? There are so many options out there and so much information, it’s overwhelming. What should I do? Who can I trust?
What about issues of morality, spirituality, and the afterlife? Everyone has opinions there too, but no one seems to know. We all seem to be in agreement that we’re a little uncertain because the one thing you are allowed to say confidently in society is “don’t judge.” The world says, “Until you can quantitatively, scientifically prove to me that you have the truth, why should I believe what you have to say. What is right for me is right for me. What is right for you is right for you. Whatever works. You’re in no position to judge me.” So the world is left to live according to whatever fragment of a conscience might remain and whatever motherly morals they learned in youth. And even these eventually get washed away by a combination of what “feels right” and what “seems reasonable”. Unfortunately feelings and reason can be Satan’s one – two punch, that are always only a couple of sins away from callusing a conscience completely.
What is true? What is right? What knowledge is true knowledge? The Colossians wanted to know. They desperately were grasping at different beliefs trying to find something that worked – something that felt right and seemed right. I need to know too, because Knowledge is a Powerful Thing. In fact, it’s essential for survival.
If you were trapped all by yourself in the wilderness – in the woods, or mountains, or the desert, you’d need to have a knowledge of the land to survive. You’d need to know what you could eat, what you could use to keep warm, which direction you were facing, etc. Every day we walk around in a wilderness of sin, which we ourselves contribute to. The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are good at blinding us to the knowledge that will keep us alive. But praise be to God, because objective truth has been revealed to us, that has set our hearts on fire.
That objective truth is spoken to us in the immutable Word of God. There is a word that is used several times in our lesson for today that I want to direct your attention to. It actually appears more times in the Greek than in English. And, due to the situation of the Colossians, it appears more times in this letter than in all of Paul’s other letters. It’s a word used for “knowledge” and “understanding” in Greek. It’s actually a little wordplay on Paul’s part, because it’s gnosis, that “special knowledge” which the Colossians loved so much, with a little something extra. The word is ἐπίγνωσις (epignosis) – experiential knowledge on a particular topic. Paul explains to the Colossians the difference between the knowledge that they’ve been chasing in this world and true knowledge. The knowledge they’ve been chasing is a fleeting one, based on sinful feelings, based on sinful logic and reason, grabbed from different religions and teachings. It is worth nothing other than possibly making you popular with the contemporary crowd.
Conversely, true knowledge is the knowledge of the true God. Our lesson says that true knowledge is “understanding God’s grace in all truth” (vs. 6) – recognizing the undeserved love we’ve received from God in our creation, redemption, and preservation. It is being “filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (vs. 9) – appreciating how God’s commands keep us safe from the spiritual dangers of this world. It is “bearing fruit in every good work,” – knowing what God has made you capable of and desiring to please him. It is having a desire to continue to “grow in the knowledge of God” (vs. 10) – being mature enough to know how much you’ve learned and how much more you can learn through his Word. This is true knowledge. This is knowledge that means something. This is knowledge that gives power. At it’s foundation is the knowledge that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Knowledge of Jesus Christ is the source of all true power!
If you know Jesus Christ, you will “be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience” (vs. 11) Isn’t that fascinating? God has blessed us with power. But it’s not a power to perform miracles like fly or read minds. It’s not power to become wonderfully wealthy, amazingly gorgeous, or extraordinarily popular. He’s blessed us with the super-human powers of “patience” and “endurance”. If we were a super hero, no one would buy our action figure. These aren’t the most appealing traits to the world, but they are indeed powerful. Remember how we earlier talked about power equating to control. Well, the fact of the matter is we cannot control the world. We really can’t change the way the world thinks, feels, or reasons. God would be the only one with the power to do such a thing. But, as Christians, with the Holy Spirit guiding our lives, we do have the power to exercise self-control. Patience and endurance are obvious examples of such self-control. It takes a tremendous deal of strength to tame our tongues, avert our eyes, give from our wallets, change our minds, and suppress our sinful thoughts. It takes God-given power.
Well, why would we ever have a desire to exercise such patience and endurance in the face of the temptations of this world, which appear so desirable to our sinful flesh? We do it so that we can “joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (vs. 12) An inheritance is something that you don’t earn. It is something that you receive due to someone else’s generosity and specific love to you. God qualified us to receive the inheritance of paradise in heaven.
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” A simple knowledge of our role in life, our status with God due to Christ, qualifies us to receive salvation. Understand, recognize, have a knowledge of your sinfulness – that thing which separates us from God. Understand, recognize, have a personal knowledge of God’s grace – the fact that he loved us despite that sin, so much so, that he was willing to rescue us by sacrificing his Son. Understand, recognize, have a knowledge of forgiveness – that thing that is the essence of Christianity, which the world neither knows nor understands, nor wants to understand. It’s free, it’s full, and it’s forever.
This knowledge changes your life. It’s kind of like those digitally produced images that were popular 10-15 years ago, the ones that you would hold up to your face and look at for awhile, and then you’d pull back and see a 3-dimensional image. You had to look at the image quite intensely for a short period of time and then you relaxed your eyes to see this amazing thing before you. Everything else in the world seemed to fade away. Focus your eyes on Christ and you will see his beauty before you. You will have the knowledge of his will, his intention, his picture for your life. You will become relaxed in a state that cannot be disrupted by the distractions of this world. You will receive true knowledge. But don’t take my advice, see for yourself from God’s Holy, unchanging Word.
This knowledge is not a fad, here today and gone tomorrow. It was there back in the Garden of Eden, when God promised to Adam and Eve that he would send a deliverer to crush the head of Satan and sin. It was there when God told Abraham to count the stars in the sky and told him that the whole world would be blessed through his offspring. It was there when Isaiah prophesied about a servant coming whom God himself would inflict pain upon, placing the sins of everyone else upon his shoulders. This knowledge was there when the shepherds heard the angels and the wise men saw the star. It was there when the women wept bitterly, watching their good friend and personal Savior breathe his last breath on the cross. This knowledge was there when 500 witnessed our Savior’s resurrected body. This knowledge was there when Martin Luther said, “Wait a second. Christ Jesus gave me salvation as a gift when he died on the cross for my sins and gave me his righteousness.”
It has always been there. That knowledge is still here today. And it is powerful. It is so powerful that it produces life – eternal life for you and me and for many others to whom we bring it. It is able to “make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15) Know it, recognize it, and experience it. Give thanks for it, be filled with it, and let it bear fruit in your life. Let it reign over any conventional knowledge this world has to offer. Jesus Christ, in his almighty power, has rescued us from that which we were powerless to rescue ourselves. Knowledge of this is all we need in life and it is all we need for life. Amen.
“The peace of God , which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (Philippians 4:7)–Vicar James Hein