Adopting A Warfare Mentality: Colossians 2:1-12

Note: This is actually next week's Break Free passage and will be reposted next week but certainly speaks to the topic both weeks. 

This past weekend’s message was entitled Mental War. We are in a spiritual battle that is fought in the realm of the spirit and often played out in the battlefield of the mind. We need to adopt the warfare mentality we see in today’s Break Free passage. 

Col. 2:1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

Col. 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,

Col. 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Paul was in a spiritual battle for the believers of Colossae and Laodicea. The Apostle saw one aspect of prayer as a great conflict and struggle for the hearts and minds of people.

Col. 2:4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

The enemy and his emissaries use words to persuasively deceive.

Col. 2:5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

We are in a spiritual battle. “To see your good order and steadfastness” is a military phrase. The church was under attack from the Adversary but they’re holding the line.

Peter uses parallel terminology in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

Col. 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

Col. 2:7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Without a thankful heart of gratitude you are more vulnerable to deception.

Col. 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

The phrase “anyone cheat you” in the NAS is translated “no one take you captive.” This is a term used of people taken captive in combat and typically then sold into slavery. We are in a war, where the Evil One wants to capture us through lies and deception and bring us into bondage.

Col. 2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

Col. 2:10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Col. 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

Col. 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Paul is confronting the Colossian heresy. There are many enticing false teaching today that deny absolute truth and the deity of Christ. We are being warned not to fall for them and not to be brought into bondage through them.