Colossians 2:6-15 (NLT)
6 And now, just as you accepted
Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him.
7 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so
you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught.
Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. 8 Don’t
let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding
nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this
world, and not from Christ. 9 For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a
human body, 10 and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is
the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe. 11 When you came
to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. It
was a spiritual procedure—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For
you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were
raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who
raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and
because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive
with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record that
contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing
it to Christ’s cross. 15 In this way, God disarmed the evil rulers and
authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross
of Christ.
The main problem in Colossians seems to be that bad
teaching was forcing the Christians to think that they had to do something
more in order to be “proper” or “spiritual” Christians. The
Apostle was saying: - “Don’t listen to them—all you need is already
there in Jesus!”
Å
Now that you have become a Christian, let your roots go deep down into
Jesus. That is where your faith will get stronger [v6,7]
Þ
Think—Am I spending enough time and effort making sure that my faith
in Jesus is getting stronger?
Å
A Godless, or Christ-less view of the world—and of life is inadequate.
It might sound grand and clever but it is foolish if it fails to recognise
Jesus as the key to all of life [v8-10]
Þ
Think—How much do I relegate God to “Sundays” or housegroup? How
can I remember to let him be in all of my life?
Å
When you became a Christian—God dealt with the real problem once and
for all. He forgave you your sins and made you alive in Christ. He has
already won the victory. There is no going back on that! [v11-15]
Þ
Think—You don’t need to feel guilty or condemned about past sins or
wrongs. He has already sorted it out. He knew about them all—and dealt
with them on the cross.
Å
Take time to thank him!
Go to Day Five
