As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
Paul writes to believers who were under pressure to add something to Christ. The verse looks back to how they first received Him, and forward to a walk that needs nothing more.
The first question is what the word "received" covers. One writer separates having facts about Christ from having Christ Himself:
Now think about "life" in the sense of what a soul has. Is it Christ that I have received, or only truth about Him? The Apostle answers, "Christ."
Another writer remembers the day after he trusted Christ:
I remember the following day that the name Jesus was continually before me. I printed it in large letters and set it where I could see it continually. It was just Himself — not the blessing that I had received — but Himself.
The full title matters. One commentator weighs where the words "the Lord" stand in the sentence:
The place of the words "the Lord" seems to press His Lordship on these believers, with the implied claim that they must be completely subject to Him. So they were to walk in Him — in Christ Jesus the Lord. Their walk was to match the way they had professed to receive Him: in all that He is, and with all His claims. He was to be the sphere and element in which they lived, and moved, and had their being.
The title also shapes how we stand toward the world:
We have received Him as our Lord, not only as our Saviour, though these two things always go together. We have received Him as One who has rightful title over us. He is also the One in whom we have found everything that makes us independent of the world around us.
The little word "as" ties the walk to the way it all began. One writer describes the state they were in when they first came to Christ:
The gospel of the grace of God had saved them and broken them down. They knew their utter helplessness, their complete unworthiness, and that they deserved God's judgment. They were drawn to Christ, sure that He alone could do them good and bring them to God. The whole tone of their Christian life has to be the same... Can each of us truly say, "I need Him as much today as on the day when I first trusted Him as my Saviour and Lord."
Another writer points to the need Christ met then, and meets now:
When first we came to Christ we came to Him as the only One in the universe Who could meet our need, and He did. Well, He is the only One Who can meet our need in working this out in our lives for the pleasure of God.
"Walk in Him" is practical, not mystical:
Having received Christ as their Lord, they were to "walk in Him." That is, they were to put into practice what they knew of Him and of His will... Let us all take note. We are only truly established in the truth when our knowledge of it shows in our practice on one side, and in our praise on the other.
One writer ties this walk to where Christ is now:
We are brought into the faith of Christ while He is rejected on earth and exalted to God's right hand in heaven. So walking in Him at the present time calls for the constant exercise of faith.
The verse is a defence. Everything beyond Christ, offered as an advance, is really a retreat:
When we have received Christ, everything else is only an unfolding of what He is, and of the glory that God's purposes have joined to His Person. Knowledge, or so-called knowledge, outside of this only turns us away from Him. It draws our hearts away from the power of His glory, and throws us into what is false.
Yet the defence can fail from the inside as much as from outside pressure:
We may hold doctrine, fight for "principles", and keep a legal separation from what is wrong. But if that is all, we will become withered ourselves and a danger to the peace of our fellow believers.
- Received a Person. The question is not whether you hold truth about Christ, but whether you hold Christ. That is the start.
- Received as Lord. The title carries His claim to your complete submission — and with Him you need nothing the world offers.
- Received in helplessness. You came broken down and helpless. The whole Christian life keeps that same character. You need Him as much today as on the first day.
- Walk in Him. Put into practice what you know of Him. He is the sphere you live in, and it takes constant faith while He is unseen.
- Nothing added. Everything outside Christ pulls the heart away from Him. And doctrine and separation, without Him, leave a person withered.
rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Persuasive words were circling around the Colossians, promising them something beyond Christ. Verse 7 answers with four short phrases: roots, growth, settled conviction, and praise. All four draw on one Person.
The first picture comes from the ground, and the rooting is not our own doing:
There is a suggestion of trees in Col. 2:7: "rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught." The rooting is the act of God, and once for all He roots His saints in Christ. Then, like trees, we are built up and established as we draw in the nourishment God provides. This is our responsibility, and it is continuous.
Roots also work out of sight, and slowly. That has a plain practical meaning:
A tree's roots take a long time to develop before much growth shows above ground, and they keep developing as the tree grows upward. Hidden communion with the Lord is vital if we are to have strength to stand. The building up too is to be "in Him": we can leave nothing to our own ability or energy.
The second picture switches to a building. The tense matters here. One part is settled, one part is still going on:
Its first words should read, "Having been rooted, and being built up in Him." They had been, and still were, rooted in Him, like a tree rooted in the soil. So all the roots of their spiritual life came from Him. The "being built up in Him" implies two things. First, Christ was the foundation they had been placed on. Yet He is more than a foundation, since He is living, and so the building is "in Him." Second, once on that foundation, they were to go on being built up, by taking in the fullness of the Godhead that lives in Christ bodily.
Both pictures say the same thing about supply. What the plant takes in through its root is what it builds with:
We draw our life from Him, as a plant draws through its root. And so we are built up in Him, as a plant builds itself up on the food it takes in. How perfectly then are we provided! Christ is our one Sufficiency... We are to abound in it, says the apostle, with thanksgiving. That is a huge point. If our hearts are not rejoicing over the truth God has given us, what will keep us from the evil around us?
The danger came dressed in attractive words, and it always promised something beyond Christ:
To stop anyone charming them with attractive words, he urges them strongly: as they had received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, they were to walk in Him. They were to be rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith as they had been taught... he makes it very plain: he knew no theory of progress that starts with Christ and then makes believers complete by something else above and beyond Him.
How can you tell whether truth has taken hold in someone, or he only knows about it? The verse gives two outlets — the walk and the thanksgiving:
Having been rooted in Him, they were to be built up in Him. That would settle them so firmly in the true faith that they were like vessels filled to the brim with it, overflowing with praise and thanksgiving. Let us all take note: we are established in the truth when our knowledge of it comes out in our practice on one side and in our praise on the other.
The last phrase can look like an afterthought. It works more like a warning light:
No wonder, then, he urges them to be "rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." That last word deserves real weight. Their thanksgivings were beginning to fade, I think, because that is what happens at once when other objects push into Christ's place.
One writer turns it into a question to ask yourself:
Are we a thanksgiving people or are we a murmuring people? There is a contrast between these two words, thanksgiving and murmuring. You and I have every reason to be a thanksgiving people.
- Rooted — God's act, done once for all when He set you in Christ. You did not plant yourself.
- Fed — roots draw supply. Hidden time with Christ comes before any growth you can see, and none of it runs on your own energy.
- Built — the same Christ who is the root is the living foundation, and the building goes up daily, in Him, not beyond Him.
- Fixed — hold the faith as you were taught it. Refuse every scheme that starts with Christ and then promises something higher.
- Overflowing — settled truth comes out as practice and praise. When thanksgiving fades, something else has taken Christ's place.
See that there be no one who shall lead *you* away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.
Paul warns the Colossians about what could carry them away from Christ. He names three dangers — philosophy, human tradition, the elements of the world — and one test that exposes them all: they are "not according to Christ."
The older translation reads "spoil you." One writer draws out the picture:
"Beware lest any man spoil you". It means "make a prey of you". It is like a captured animal, unable to move where it would normally move, taken out of its own surroundings. And all through philosophy and empty deceit — there is nothing in it at all.
Some minds are caught more easily than others:
Nothing captures intellectual people more easily than the philosophy of the world's teachers, because it is so hard to follow and so involved. It stands for the highest flights of human thought and imagination. But here Paul joins it to "vain" or "empty" deceit. That shows us clearly what it really is as God sees it.
The two words are not two separate dangers. They describe one thing from two sides:
The first of these is philosophy and vain deceit. As we understand it, this is philosophy that is nothing but empty deceit. It has to be described that way. It comes from man's mind. Human reason shapes it into a system. Its aim is to corrupt the revelation God has been pleased to give by His Spirit in His inspired Word. It is Rationalism, pure and simple, judging everything by its own idea of what suits man. So sinful man would sit in judgment on the thoughts of God!
Faith will not even use philosophy as a helper:
Faith rejects philosophy, not only as a rival but as an ally. It rests on God's Word alone. It takes that Word as absolute and as the only authority.
Scripture does not condemn every tradition. What matters is the source:
Tradition may be described as teaching handed down by word of mouth. It may come from God… teaching handed down before the word of God was complete. Or it may come from man, like the tradition of the elders of Israel. The Lord condemned that tradition strongly. He said it overturned the commandments of God… In Colossians 2:8 it is the mere teaching of the moralists, and much of that has survived to this day. What man sets up, man holds on to most tightly.
This phrase covers wide ground:
The rudiments or elements of the world are every subtle principle and motive that comes from the world, apart from God. They take in everything that makes up the spirit and character of the world, whether religious or not.
Commentators differ. Others tie the phrase to religious forms: "the elements of the world" are "the religious ordinances invented by men or borrowed from Judaism" (Hamilton Smith).
Philosophy and tradition look like opposites. This verse sets them side by side:
Here, I take it, we have the mixing of natural man's philosophy with religious man's tradition. At first sight these two look far apart, but they are not so in the end… Nothing shows an active spirit of evil at work in the world more than the way he draws up and combines these two armies, which on the outside look like enemies… They may look completely hostile to each other. In fact both are hostile only to the truth.
One test detects every trap in this chapter:
The apostle now names certain traps the believers faced. They were opposed to full Christian teaching, and ruinous to souls: philosophy (verse 8), teaching that pressed the Jewish law (verse 16), and Gnostic speculations (verse 18). The test that detects each of them is the teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Apply that test, and the evil is exposed.
Reasoning alone will not catch false teaching:
Our reasoning powers do not detect evil doctrine, since false doctrine always enlists them on its side. Its harmful character may not show at first. Yet a God-fearing soul refuses it, because it is not "as it is written" — "not according to Christ."
Paul does not leave us staring at the danger:
Then, as if he did not want us to dwell too long on the evil, he points us at once to the Divine Source of all good… He sweeps aside every rival and sets us in the presence of Christ, the all-sufficient One… Here then is the great antidote! The fullness of the Infinite One dwells in Him in whom we are complete.
- Captured — "Spoil" means to make a prey of you: carried out of your own element, held where you cannot move freely.
- Empty — Paul calls this philosophy vain deceit. It rises from man's mind and sets human judgment over God's revelation.
- Handed down — Tradition can come from God or from men; what man invents, man clings to hardest.
- Combined — Human reason and human religion look like enemies. Yet they work together, and both fight the truth.
- Christ — One test exposes it all: is this according to Christ? The cure is not watchfulness alone. It is the fullness that dwells in Him, in whom you are complete.