Colossians 2:8
GAINING INTEREST
Imagine two piles of food sitting before you. On the left, is a mound of foods full of sugar, fat and salt: candy bars, pretzels, potato chips, donuts, cupcakes, pizza, bacon and the like. At your right hand are nutrient-rich foods such as grapes (red, of course), fresh cut green beans, walnuts, carrots, tomatoes, avocados, almonds, broccoli, pineapple, strawberries and grains of every kind. (I sure hope you weren’t hungry when you sat down to study God’s word with me!)
What if I truly and sincerely believed with all my heart the stash of food on the left was beneficial for my health? I would devour cupcakes topped with bacon to no end, enjoying every tasty bite, plateful after plateful. As a result, I would gain weight and the number of my days on earth would be shortened. There would be measurable and disastrous consequences to my health because of my wrong beliefs.
But my beliefs don’t affect me only. My beliefs—wrong though they are—would compel me to have loving conversations with you about your own food choices. I would implore you to eat more pizza and potato chips. You would hear me say, “You’re killing yourself by eating garbage like avocados, green beans and strawberries!” I would do my best to persuade you to come to my side of the table and dine with me. If I put up a convincing argument and you start hearing the same message from other people, you are going to start believing the mound of food on the left is good for you. You’re going to jump on my bandwagon, even though it’s contrary to what you once believed.
In the same way wrong beliefs about food affect people negatively, wrong beliefs in the church impact us negatively. This is how wrong beliefs infiltrate the church: Someone expresses a biblical-sounding idea, we like it, latch on and soon, we’re sharing the same spiritual junk food with other people.
The church in Colosse had been bombarded with false teachings. Heresies—spiritual junk food—permeated the church. Paul wrote to confront the spiritual junk food the Colossian believers were ingesting. He wrote to them as if to say, “Look at what you’re eating! This stuff will kill you!” Or, in spiritual terms, “Why are you listening to this junk? These things are not of Christ!”
UNEARTHING GOD'S TREASURES
Grab your favorite Bible. READ COLOSSIANS 2:8
Paul’s warning to the Colossians roughly 2,000 years ago is just as relevant today as it was then. If the apostle Paul were to speak at your church this weekend, he would not hesitate to say, “Don’t let anyone capture your attention with empty philosophies and shallow platitudes derived from human thinking, rather than from Christ.”
What we believe—and what we pass along to other people as truth—must be based on the truth found in God’s word, not on cute quips and traditional sayings. Unfortunately, there are plenty of falsehoods floating around Christian circles. The following statements are not found in the Bible.
❑ God helps those who help themselves
This bit of spiritual junk food was likely popularized from an Aesopian fable. There is no biblical truth to this statement. In fact, God’s word tells us quite the opposite.
ROMANS 5:6
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
ROMANS 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
These two verses point to our helpless state, describing us as powerless, ungodly and sinners. This was our position when Christ paid for our sins on a cruel cross. We were not able to save ourselves. God helped us —we who were completely unable to do anything for our own salvation.
God thrives on stepping in for those who are weak and powerless so that he will get the glory. If we can accomplish a task or achieve a goal without God, there is no glory left for our King. The light is shining on ourselves and our own abilities, not on God’s power.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:9
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Jesus spoke these words to the apostle Paul at a time when he was suffering. Paul asked God—rather, he pleaded with God—to remove the thorn in his flesh. At a time when Paul was helpless to remove the discomfort on his own, God assured him of his perfected power made known through weakness. Like Paul, then, how much more should we relish in, and embrace, our hardships and difficulties (2 Corinthians 12:10).
No, God does not help those who help themselves. It is when we are powerless and weak God steps in to be everything we need. He proves himself faithful, strong and worthy of our worship and praise!
❑ Money is the root of all evil
More spiritual junk food. This saying is actually a misconstrued version of biblical truth found in 1 Timothy 6.
1 TIMOTHY 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
The myth focuses on money as the root of all evil. The Bible says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. There is a vast difference between the two statements. The world’s version essentially says money in and of itself is evil. The truth, though, is money has a neutral position; it can not be good or evil. But loving money plays out in many evil ways.
This myth has a second layer of untruth. The world, at large, believes money is the root of all evil. The love of money, however, is a root of all kinds of evil. Once again, not every evil act can be tied to money. Many sins are rooted in pride or lust, where money is not even remotely associated to the action.
❑ God will not give you more than you can handle
Friends, this one is not in the Bible. You would almost think it is, considering how often we hear it. The fact remains: it is spiritual junk food. God actually does allow us to experience difficult times—sometimes incredibly difficult circumstances, seemingly more than we can bear.
Let’s pause for a moment and think about Brother Job. Essentially, Job lost everything but his wife and his life. He lost his health, his wealth and all ten of his children in a matter of days. And God allowed this suffering to come upon him.
JOB 1:12
The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
JOB 2:4-6
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
Job is probably the most extreme example of someone who endured more than was seemingly possible. Other beloved Bible characters suffered as well. Paul, Joseph and Esther are examples of men and women who suffered tremendously. While we may hesitate to included Jesus in a list of men and women who suffered (because he was, after all, God), we must remember he was fully human and fully God. In the same manner we would have agonized, Jesus felt severe pain from the nails piercing his hands and feet. Yes, in his humanness, Jesus suffered greatly.
If I had to guess, this bit of spiritual junk food, “God will not give you more than you can handle,” is a misconstrued version of what is in the Bible.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
There is a promise in this verse regarding our ability to endure. The Scriptures, though, explicitly link the promise to the temptations sure to besiege us. With this promise, you can bet your bottom dollar you will not be tempted beyond what you are able to endure. When it comes to life as whole, however, God does not promise to remove unbearable circumstances.
❑ This too shall pass
I don’t hear this phrase as often as I once did, but this spiritual junk food is still feeding the souls of many. Years ago, a friend quoted this phrase to me, saying, “Well, you know what the Bible says…This too shall pass.” This was long before I started reading the Bible for myself. So I did what many others do. I hung on to it for years, even passing it along to others as “good food for the soul.” Imagine my horror when I discovered it wasn’t in the Bible!
This serving of junk food may have been popularized by Abraham Lincoln. He quoted this statement, not as a biblical reference, but from a story associated with an Eastern monarch.
There is, however, a passage in 2 Corinthians referencing the notion inherent to “This too shall pass.”
2 CORINTHIANS 4:17-18
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (italics added for emphasis).
While there is a hint of truth to this statement, we can not rightly declare, “This too shall pass” is in the Bible. It’s not.
WRAPPING IT UP
Did you notice the origin of these sayings? An Aesop fable, Abraham Lincoln/an eastern monarch and misconstrued versions of the truth are among the sources. And we take them as gospel truth! Just as we must consider what foods we digest, we must be careful what we absorb as truth because it does affect the way we live. Our beliefs impact our actions.
I have a confession. At this point in the lesson, I actually considered including a quote by Gandhi. Then I realized those actions seemed counterproductive to this teaching. Here I am, teaching the importance of hanging our hats on the word of God, and I want to quote Gandhi? I include this somewhat embarrassing example just to prove how easy it is to get sucked in to following empty words, rather than the words of Christ!
Let’s refer to Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:8 once again. READ COLOSSIANS 2:8
Don’t let anyone lead you astray from what is true. The only way we can know what is truth is to dig in to the word of God on our own. Listen to the word. Read the word. Memorize the word. Study the word.
What is written on the ancient pages of God’s word is absolute truth. If a pastor, teacher or friend says something that doesn’t sound quite right, look it up. Find out what is true. Let’s stop living on a foundation built on cute clichés and shallow platitudes. Let’s live our lives based on the truth of God’s word. May we follow the example of the Bereans, who, “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).
My husband has mentioned a former acquaintance of his. Apparently, this friend would constantly ask, “Where is that in the Bible?” or, “What chapter and verse?” She wasn’t asking as a learner. She wasn’t inquiring in order to know the Bible better. Rather, she repeatedly questioned and challenged anyone who said, “The Bible says…”
Admittedly, this drove my husband crazy. While her actions do seem a little excessive, she was on the right track. She wasn’t going to allow just anything into her heart and life. She only wanted to live by the truth and she actively challenged other believers to do the same.
COLOSSIANS 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ!
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: The New International Version (NIV) Study Bible, 10th Anniversary Edition. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society (Zondervan Publishing
House).
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