December 10th
Twelfth Day of Advent
I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Colossians 2:4-5
When my older two kids left home for college, worry and fear often drove me to my knees. So many deceptions lie in wait for our freedom seeking children. Sexual deceptions. Religious deceptions. Academic deceptions. Relationship deceptions. Like Paul, I often struggled and toiled for my children, praying against the deceptions that might lead them astray.
Paul sees a similar threat for the Colossians. Plausible arguments and worldly deceptions could possibly lead the church astray… and, just like a parent of a college student, Paul is not bodily present to stand firm with them.
Yet… Paul is with them in spirit. Paul sees their faithfulness and encourages them to remain firm. And… Paul provides the antidote to this threat that keeps him up at night.
Christian maturity.
Christian maturity provides the best safeguard against false teaching.
I am saying this so that no one may deceive you…
From beginning to end, Paul seeks to persuade the Colossians to hold fast and grow in their hope, faith, and love to safeguard against the world. Note… Paul does not tell the Colossians to remove themselves from the world. The antidote to worldly deception, to the darkness of the world… is not removal from the world.
Today we await the baby in the manger. Jesus does not remove himself from the world. Instead, Jesus breaks into our world… as a vulnerable baby. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. The incarnation, God in the flesh.
Yes, deceptions lie in wait for all of us. The antidote is a mature faith centered on Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
John 1: 1-5
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