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.
For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;
Paul has just warned the Colossians about teaching that runs "according to human tradition... and not according to Christ" (Col. 2:8). This verse gives his reason: everything God is now lives in one Man, in a body. It raises three questions: what "deity" means here, why Paul says "bodily", and what that leaves for philosophy to add.
(Older translations read "in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" — the wording the writers below use.)
The warning in verse 8 ends with three words: "not according to Christ."
But God answers the whole deception with three words of contrast: "not after Christ." Christ is the exact opposite of it all, the pattern and the test — "for," it says, "in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." There is not a lack, not a gap, not one single quality that goes to make up that fullness, that is not found bodily in Christ... So what room is left for poor human philosophy, or teaching, or worldly elements? Nothing can be added to God's fullness! It is enough for Him, and therefore enough for faith.
Paul had a milder Greek word for "divine" available, and did not use it.
It is well known that theiotes (from theios, meaning divine), also translated "Godhead" in the Authorized Version, has a completely different force from theotes (from Theos, meaning God) in Colossians 2:9. In this second case it would fall far short of the apostle's aim to say only that the person of Christ is divine: all the fulness of the Deity, or Godhead in the strictest sense, he says, dwells in Him bodily.
The word "bodily" rules out the idea that God filled only Christ's spirit.
We know God in Christ as a living Person who once lived bodily in this world, who still has His body above the world... in the Person of Christ "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," not only in His spirit, but really in Him bodily, though He is now glorified. He had a real, true body from the incarnation, and in that body all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. The fullness of the Godhead never dwelt in the Father bodily, or in the Holy Spirit, but only in Christ.
Colossians 1:19 says something very close, but about a different time.
There is a strong likeness between Col. 1:19 and verse 9 of our chapter; only there it refers to that which was true of Him in the days of His stay on earth, while here it stands true of Him today. It is hard to imagine a stronger statement of His deity. Yet the word "bodily" plainly implies that He is still Man.
Because the fulness dwells in a body, knowing God stops being a search and becomes a meeting.
There is something wonderfully blessed here. It is not seeking after God, hoping that we might feel after Him and find Him... but, as John says, "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life" (1 John 1:1) — something brought home to the senses of men. Instead of working up our feelings to seek after something, God has come down to us, poor wretched creatures that we are... There is not a trouble, not a distress, not a feeling in the heart of man, that is not met in Christ... not as a doctrine only, but bodily.
This also decides who can grasp it.
Christ has taken a body and appeared in flesh. So the fulness of the Godhead is shown in a way the simplest people can know. It may take a giant mind to understand even the words in which philosophy struggles to express its guesses. Yet simple fishermen of Galilee can see the fulness of God in Christ, and so enter into truths the greatest natural mind cannot grasp.
The next verse adds a second truth to this one.
First, all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. Instead of the misty speculations of men, we have the fulness of God bodily, in a real human body, and so with real effect for us, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Second, we are complete in Him; we need nothing outside of Christ. On one side, we have in Him God perfectly presented in all His fulness. On the other side, we have in Him perfection and completeness before God.
- Fulness — the cause. Paul answers "not according to Christ" with a Person. No quality of that fulness is missing in Him, so nothing can be added.
- Fulness — the word. He uses the strictest term for Deity, not the milder word meaning "divine", so nothing less than God Himself is meant.
- Fulness — in a body. "Bodily" means a real body from the incarnation. It is true of Him still, now that He is glorified — He remains Man.
- Fulness — within reach. God did not wait for us to search Him out. He came down to be heard, seen and touched, so simple fishermen see what philosophy cannot reach.
- Fulness — the result. The fulness dwells in Him, and believers are complete in Him: God fully revealed on one side, the believer complete before God on the other.
and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority,
Some were telling these believers to add something to Christ: philosophy, rules, respect for angels. Paul's answer is not a longer list of duties. It is a Person. The verse states two facts. It says what the believer already is in Christ, and what Christ already is over everything else.
Older translations say "complete in Him." Newer ones say "filled." Both translate one Greek word. Its root ties this verse to the fullness of God named just before it.
The word comes from a Greek verb meaning "to fill full." The believer is complete in Christ, or filled full. This points to all fullness dwelling in Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is in Christ, as toward the believer. And the believer, as toward God, is complete in Him.
Another writer names where that fullness now dwells: in a Man on high.
Here then is the grand antidote! The fullness of the Infinite One dwells in Him in whom we are complete. He came down beneath all for our salvation, and He is now above all in exaltation. He is the glorified Man who glorified God on earth and is now crowned on high. In Him the Godhead fullness dwells bodily, and we too are filled full in Him.
If the word means "filled full," the answer to every proposed add-on is already given. One writer lists the extras people were pressing on these believers, then asks what any of them could contribute.
"You are complete in Him." This surely covers everything. What can anyone add to a person who is already "complete"? Take philosophy, human tradition, the basic principles of the world, food and drink, festivals, new moons and Sabbaths, "Do not touch" this, "do not taste" that, "do not handle" the other, the commandments and teachings of men, days and months and seasons and years. Could any of these things, or all of them put together, add the smallest thing to one whom God has pronounced "complete"?
The verse states where the believer stands, not how far they have progressed. So it does not measure how complete anyone feels.
This is not experience, but a fact which all believers have title to enjoy. Also, Christ is the Head of all rule and authority. That is, the highest ranks and powers are under Him and depend on Him. So we do not depend on them. We depend on Him.
The second half of the verse meets one particular error: treating angels as go-betweens. Christ is Head over every rule and authority, so no middleman has any place.
"You are complete in Him." Notice this: far from having anyone between us and Christ, we are in Him who is the Head of all rule and authority. We lose our standing if we allow an angel to come between Christ and us, even though an angel, as a creature, is far above us. There is no mediator between us and Christ. There is one between us and God, and that mediator is Christ Himself.
The same principle covers any figure put between the believer and Christ. It also shows where spiritual growth comes from.
To bring angels, or any other creature, whether the Virgin or saints, between our souls and Christ is to deny our direct union with Christ. He is the head of all rule and authority. As Head to the body, He Himself gives all spiritual nourishment, through the spiritual help that the members of the body supply. In this way the soul's spiritual growth is kept up, and the body of Christ grows with the increase of God, quite apart from any ministry of angels.
The extras on offer today have different names. The verse answers them the same way.
There is a Man upon the throne of God in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. All the mighty resources of God are in Him for us; we are complete in Him. That means there is no necessity to go outside Him for anything we need. We do not need philosophy, the wisdom of man, religious organizations, or anything men can produce.
- Full — "Complete" translates a word meaning "filled full." All the fullness that dwells in Christ is the measure of what the believer has in Him.
- Fact — This is standing, not experience. Every believer already has title to enjoy it, whatever their feelings say.
- Finished — Nothing adds to one God has called complete: not philosophy, tradition, food rules or holy days.
- First — He in whom we are filled is Head over every rule and authority. So no creature, angel or human, may stand between Him and us.
- Free — All the resources of God are in Him. So we need nothing outside Him, and we can draw everything from Him.