Why some people drift from Christ? Colossians 2:6-8
A survey has shown that over half of those who had been members of their university Christian Union had stopped going to church over the next few years. They fall away from church but this inevitably means that they fall away from Jesus Christ.
One person who ‘fell away’ wrote,
“It was a lot easier to be a Christian as part of a Christian Union. I did not make a lots of friends in church after leaving.”
“I rarely felt that God communicated with me directly.”
In contrast to this we had a reunion of my college Christian union this year, and it was thrilling to see so many of the 60 students who became Christians over two years were going on strongly with the Lord Jesus.
Unfortunately some of those who seemed to be healthy Christians have apostasised or fallen away. A law student who later became a judge appears to have turned his back on Jesus Christ. Others have become enraptured with certain teachings that they regard as a superior knowledge. They have accepted a modern form of the Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught there was a deeper or higher way. They said they have found a deeper knowledge and encourage others to leave what they regard as a ‘baby faith’ and go on to maturity by joining their sect. Unfortunately this new way emphasizes practices and beliefs that neither Jesus nor his apostles practiced or taught.
Colossians is a book that warns Christians against such apostasy.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces (or basic principles) of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8
What is it that draws people away from the Lord Jesus? Human traditions, the teachings of some new prophet, and ‘basic forces’ are the usual causes. ‘Basic forces’ are often sexual attractions, financial ambitions or a close relationship with someone who is far from Christ. A non-Christian girlfriend or boyfriend can so easily distract our focus from being on the Lord Jesus.
The following verses tell us how we should live, or walk, so that we remain in saving relationship with God.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7
In the book of Colossians, the ‘Lord Jesus’, ‘Jesus Christ’ or a related pronoun (he, his, him) referring to Jesus, comes 55 times, ‘God’ is mentioned 17 times and the ‘Spirit of God’ just twice. Paul’s great concern, both in this book and in his other letters, is to teach us that to move away from a close walk with the Lord Jesus is to walk away from God and from salvation. Salvation is only found by being in Christ. Thus Paul has written,
“He has reconciled you, (put you right with God) by Christ’s physical body through faith . . . . if you continue in your faith established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” Colossians 1:22
Our salvation depends on our remaining close to Christ. Verse 8 says that we must not allow ourselves to be pulled away from living with Jesus Christ. To do so is to be taken captive by ‘spiritual forces’ that are opposed to the life god wants for us. Look again at what we should be doing instead.
1. Continue to live as you began
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus is Lord, continue to live your lives in him.” Colossians 2:6
When we became Christians we asked Jesus to become our Lord and our Saviour. This is very important. We don’t become Christians by just asking God for forgiveness. Forgiveness is part of what God gives us when Jesus is recognized as being the God of the universe and we welcome him as Lord or Master. This submission to God means submitting to all he teaches us in his word - the Bible.
“ . . . and do not move away from the help held out in the gospel. This is the gospel you have heard . . . and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” Colossians 2:23
This thrilling message centres on the Lord Jesus. He has said earlier,
“Christ in you – the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
The good news, the gospel, is Christ. If we move away from the Lord Jesus we move away from Gods message and from Gods purpose for the world. Consequently we do so at our peril. Social actions, though good in themselves, if Christ is not the focus is not God’s gospel.
We all became Christians by asking Jesus to be Lord of our lives and as a result he becomes our Saviour. Whatever happens to me in the ups and downs of life I must continue to live in this close, simple relationship with him.
When my wife and I were in China recently, we were taken to see the bungalow that Watchman Nee had had built near Foochow. He had become a Christian when he was 17 years old and he became a great Bible teacher. In his one large room he loved to teach the Bible, showing that it is all about the Lord Jesus. This teaching was his great emphasis. He urged people not to move away from a simple, trusting, close relationship with Jesus. He wrote a classic book, ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’ and in this he stresses that if we are not resting in Christ and all he has done for us we will not be able to live (or walk) as God wants and will not be able to stand against the devils temptations. The Communists sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment and he died in prison in 1972. When he died a piece of paper was found under his pillow, written in a shaky hand. His deepest love was to testify to the truth that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and that as a result we must respond by living closely with him. In this note he wrote,
“Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of the sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee”
The American preacher, Billy Graham, has said,
“No man can be said to be truly converted to Christ who has not bent his will to Christ. He may give intellectual assent to the claims of Christ and may have had emotional and religious experiences. However, he is not truly converted until he has surrendered his will to Christ as Lord and Saviour and Master.”
Another preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said,
“It is interesting to notice that the apostles preach the ‘Lordship of Christ’. The word ‘Saviour’ only occurs twice in ‘the Acts of the Apostles’. On the other hand it is amazing to notice the title ‘Lord’ occurs 92 times.”
The gospel is, as Paul said to the Philippian jailer,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31
As we stay in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in him, we will be prevented from drifting away from the salvation that he alone can give.
2. Rooted and built up in him
Paul now uses the same picture as that found in Psalm 1, where the man of God is described,
“. . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” Psalm 1:2-3
The Christian develops strong roots, a strong relationship with his Lord, by getting to know him through knowing his Word, the Bible. It is said of a tree that the spread of its roots is similar in size to the spread of its branches. We are rooted and built up in Christ as we cherish his word and study it every day, being determined to do what God teaches.
Last week someone asked me,
“But how can I be sure the Bible is God’s word to us?”
I replied,
“Jesus answered this very question in an interesting way. He suggests that our root problem is that we don’t want to follow God and that this affects the way we think. He said, ‘Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.’ John 7:17
That Paul is talking about obedience to the Bible’s teaching is made very clear by his next phrase,
“ . . . strengthened in the faith as you were taught.” Colossians 2:7
Last week I was told of a person who had left a Bible teaching church and moved to a church where the Bible is not taught but is actually undermined. What a disaster for such a person as it will probably mean they move away from the close relationship with Jesus Christ that God wants of each of us. No social activities can replace this.
This phrase also has something uncomfortably trenchant to say to Christian ministers. Many people go into the ministry holding to a strong biblical theology but they then lose it either at theological college or later during their ministry. The great Bible teacher, Dick Lucas, has said,
“Many ministers owe their first knowledge of Christ to hearing the Bible’s truths explained. Yet how many now say that they have ‘grown out of such simplicities’. But to grow beyond the saving truths as we were faithfully taught them is not to grow up in a way that can please God or profit his church. Such fancied superiority in knowledge calls for honest self examination to see if true loyalty to Christ remains.”
The gospel that is taught in Gods word is Christ living with me and for me. There is a parallel passage in the book of Ephesians which is also about being a well rooted Christian – a Christian understands how much the Lord Jesus loves us and how he entered this world to save us.
“ . . .so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, . . .” Ephesians 3:17-18
This Christ-centred gospel is the original apostolic faith and remains the true Christian faith.
3. Overflowing with thankfulness
The context makes it clear that this gratitude is to the Lord Jesus himself. This is not a cliché, it’s not telling Christians to live with an outward grin all the time. We are not to be SWEGs, that is people with Sickly Weak Evangelical Grins. The Christian’s gratitude is to be deep, it is focused on the Lord Jesus and results in different lives.
A thankless spirit is diagnostic of a lack of spiritual health. It is often seen in people are apt see the faults in others. Such people are no longer focused on Jesus Christ, the glory that awaits them in heaven, the forgiveness Jesus has won for them or their undeserved adoption by God.
John Wesley was visiting one of the early Methodist groups and he was talking with one of the elders. He asked him,
“Sir, pray tell me what gift the Lord has especially endowed you with?”
The man replied,
“Sir, I consider it is an ability to see the faults in others.”
To this John Wesley replied,
“Oh Sir, that is surely one talent that the Lord would have you bury!”
In contrast a thankful spirit is a sign of health. If we are overflowing with thankfulness for Christ, others will be influenced by that overflow and be encouraged.
All Christians are surrounded by dangers. What was happening amongst the Colossians still persists and is still happening today. Some so-called Christian teachers are pulling people away from a simple day in and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Social action, liturgy and other emphases are not wrong unless they act as substitutes for a close daily living to please and honour the lord Jesus. Paul also wrote about this problem to the Corinthian church.
“For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” 2 Corinthians 11:4
Paul has no doubt that this is Satan’s work.
“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 11:14
So how are we to protect ourselves from drifting away from a close walk with Jesus? The message of Colossians 2:6-7 may be summarised:
Continue as you began – by a daily submission to Jesus Christ as Lord.
Rooted in him – by allowing God’s word to permeate our thinking
Overflowing with gratitude to Jesus.
For Paul, Christ was all he wanted, everything else flowed from Jesus. We should all be able to say with Paul,
“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
In John’s first letter, he keeps repeating the characteristics of true Christians. We love Christ and are obedient to him, we hold to the original orthodox apostolic, Biblical beliefs and we love other Christians. John teaches us that the key to keeping going in this way is to keep Jesus busy:
“ . . remain in him.” 1 John 2:27
We must not drift from being centred both in our thinking and in our speaking from the name of Jesus. John continues,
“And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming..” 1 John 2:28
At the end of my medical training, I went on an elective to work in Mission Hospitals in Uganda. One day, a friend and I were walking up Namirembe Hill in Kampala to visit the Anglican Cathedral at the top. Walking down the other side of the road was a smiling Ugandan pastor with a very wide clergyman’s dog-collar. We exchanged greetings and crossed the road to talk with him. He asked us what we were doing in Uganda, and we explained that we were working in Mengo Mission Hospital.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” he exclaimed, adding, “Does that mean you are Christians then?”
“Oh yes,” we replied.
“That’s wonderful. Tell me, how are you getting on with Jesus?”
I had never been asked such a question. Being British however I thought of a polite reply,
“Very well thank you, and you?”
He clearly saw that I was somewhat embarrassed and started to give his testimony. He explained how he had been a twenty-nine year old school master when he had become a Christian. He became very involved in the church, becoming one of its leaders. But he found his Christian life was becoming stale. He was very busy, but spiritually dry; the relationship with the Lord Jesus that he had previously known had become cold.
“Then I realised what the matter with me was. I had to keep Jesus busy. Every time I failed Him I had to apologise straight away and whenever things went well I had to thank Him immediately. I must go now but don’t forget, ‘Do keep Jesus busy!’”
I shall ever be grateful to that pastor who, in such a short time, pointed me to what was going wrong in my Christian life – it needed to be Christ-centred.
BVP
Dec 2016
