Should a Christian study philosophy?

This was the best medicine for the Colossians, the divinely appointed remedy. Nothing was as suited as the presentation of Christ’s fulness to help them detect the hollowness of what others were offering them. What could possibly be added by human philosophy if they had the one in whom ‘all’ the treasures of wisdom (Gr. ‘sophia’) are hid? Philosophy applies the power of human reasoning while closing the eyes to divine revelation. Christ was that revelation, the image of the invisible God. Why follow the ‘teaching of men’ if ‘all’ the treasures of knowledge were in Christ? What could any of the ‘elements of the world’ add? They were ‘not according to Christ’ (v. 8) and, consequently, as all wisdom, knowledge and riches are in Christ, these elements of the world must be devoid of any wisdom, knowledge or worth. (Of course, we all have to learn maths, science, and many other human insights — but these things do not make us better Christians.)

It is well for us to know, on the authority of God, that science is an active opposer of the truth. So also is philosophy. Timothy is told to avoid the "oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith." The Colossians too are exhorted thus: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit."

It is a great lift to the soul (in the way of freeing it from what appeals to us on every hand) when we accept this word of God for ourselves. No doubt there were attractions, and a young man like Timothy would be more attracted by the reasonings of science than some who were older. It is so today. Yet that which is most refined and most attractive in man is exposed here as utterly destructive to the truth of God in souls. No one, I take it, could afford to tamper then with either without suffering, or I do not understand what is thus written for us. The reason is not far to seek. Science is man's knowledge, and is built up, not on faith, but on reason. Philosophy is man's wisdom, independent of and without God. May the saints, and especially the young brethren of our day, be preserved from both. True knowledge comes alone from God, and true wisdom also. H. C. Anstey.

The folly also of attempting to attach philosophy to Christianity is condemned in scripture (Col. 2:8), and the theory, given above, of Wisdom and Power being born of Prudence, etc., is a species of philosophy so called. Its folly and wickedness are surely plain to all Christians.

V. 8. In the eighth verse the Apostle warns us against a second great snare — the snare of rationalism, or the effort to explain all things by human reason in order to exclude revelation. The Apostle says, "See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit" (N. Tn.). Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but the wisdom of men by which man seeks to search out and explain all things under the sun. Alas! human wisdom leaves out God and leads to "vain deceit", such as evolution, which would fain have a universe without God, and modernism which would have a form of Christianity without the Christ of God and the atonement of the Bible.

The Apostle meets this snare of philosophy with a three-fold condemnation. Firstly, he says, it is "after the teaching of men", rather than the revelation of God. For this reason it shuts out faith. The teaching of man is never faith. To receive statements because men make them, even if the statements are true, is not faith. "Faith is the reception of a divine testimony by the soul" (J.N.D.). Secondly, philosophy is according to the elements of the world, and therefore can be appreciated by the world. Being appreciated by the world it leaves its votaries in the world. In contrast to philosophy, Christianity calls a people out of the world for heaven. Thirdly, philosophy is "not after Christ". It leads to speculation: it never leads to Christ. For this reason, apart from every other consideration, philosophy stands condemned by Christianity, which is marked by faith, draws people out of the world, and gathers them to Christ.

It was not enough for them to have Christ; they were to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, assured in the faith, and not caught by these novel dreams, whether of an intellectual or a religious kind. It was thus an early error, that philosophy might be united to Christianity in order to make divine revelation more palatable to earnest, thoughtful minds. It had been all very well, they thought, to preach Christ at first simply; but now that it was no longer a question of a few lowly Galileans, why not address themselves to the great and wise of the earth, sick as many were of heathenism, and repelled by cold Judaism? And, if so, why not meet them as much as possible on their own ground? Why not engraft into Christianity some of the common sense of Aristotle, or, still better, the lofty aspirings of Plato, or yet more readily such high and noble sentiments as Philo represents in his Biblical essays?

Philosophy is one great bane of Christianity now as in these early days. The whole scheme of God's truth and ways is blotted out or has no room left for it in the teaching of philosophy. They overlook creation and the fall. They defy conscience, which man acquired by the fall. They ignore sin and God's judgment of sin. So also God's grace is unknown and the atonement its fruit. Rationalists would reduce divine truth to a mere set of inferences that people draw. But truth is never a conclusion. The moment I draw a conclusion, I am on the ground of science. Thus logic is a natural science, the handmaid, one may say of all others, which submits facts to it; but what has this to do with submitting to the truth of God? Revelation may pronounce on things as they are in man, as it also gives us things as they are from God; it does not merely show us that such or such a thing must be, which is the province of human reasoning; the truth reveals to us that a thing is. A poor soul might be perplexed to understand what must be; but no one that hears the testimony can avoid receiving or rejecting, if God declares that a given thing or person is. Hence the vast importance of faith.

Our passage in Colossians 2 shows the dangers that beset the saints at Colosse, and also the divine presentation of the truth regarding Christ which, if received, would rescue them from their dangers. Well does the Apostle say, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit," for these things have ruined the testimony of many dear saints of God, and led astray many who have been brought up among the saints of God. There is no room for human thoughts in the things of God; the assembly has no need for the help of the great thinkers of this world; indeed, they do grave harm to all who imbibe their opinions, for all human thoughts, all that springs from the mind of man away from God, leads to infidelity. Philosophy makes much of man, and those who absorb it usually think very highly of themselves and of their intellectual powers, but it is empty; there is nothing substantial in it for the soul or mind of man, nothing that can bring peace to the conscience or joy to the heart. It allures with great promises, but is actually empty and deceitful.

As to the negative side, we are to be watchful (v.8), for some people are always ready to ruin the testimony of a believer. Philosophy is the first serious danger mentioned. This is the wisdom of man intruding where he has no real understanding. Christ is our Head from whom all wisdom flows: in the things of God, man's wisdom is foolishness (1 Cor.1:20). There has been no greater human wisdom than that of Solomon, and his book of Ecclesiastes is the best philosophical book in existence. But even Solomon's philosophy leads only to one conclusion so far as this world is concerned: "all was vanity and grasping for the wind" (Eccl.2:11). If such philosophy intrudes at all in spiritual matters, it is "empty deceit," both empty and deceiving. It may have man's venerable tradition behind it, but is still only of man -- of the world not subject to Christ who is not of this world.

It is on this account that the apostle specifies in this chapter the various antagonistic influences, which are ever at work to undermine this blessed truth. The first of these is philosophy and vain deceit; that is, as we understand it, philosophy which is nothing but vain deceit. It must be so characterized, for it springs from man's mind; it is formed into a system by human reason, and its object is to corrupt the revelation which God has been pleased to make by His Spirit in His inspired Word. It is Rationalism - Rationalism pure and simple, which judges everything according to its estimate of what is suitable to man. Sinful man would thus sit in judgment upon the thoughts of God! This philosophy, in the words of another, is the wandering of the old man's mind; and, as we read, is after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

"Beware," said the apostle, "lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The force of the word "spoil" is not to mar but to capture, i.e., to take as a spoil or prey. Nothing does more easily capture intellectual people than the philosophy of the world-teachers, because it is so very abstruse and involved. It represents the highest flights of the reflective and imaginative powers of the human intellect. Here, however, it is coupled with "vain" or "empty" deceit, which affords us a sure insight into what it really is according to the divine view.

Having surveyed very imperfectly some part of the material universe and observed or deduced what they believe to be the laws governing it, men love to speculate upon the mysteries of its origin and its character. They attempt the solution of a problem only knowing, and that imperfectly, some tiny fraction of the factors involved in it. Is it likely then that their philosophies will stand? Moreover, could they become possessed of ALL the facts governing the case their minds would break down under the weight of them, for only a mind equal to the mind of God would be capable of comprehending the inter-relation of all the facts and so drawing correct conclusions. What hope is there, then, in philosophy? It is only "after the tradition [or, teaching] of men, after the rudiments [or, elements] of the world," and we Christians should know something of what men and the world are. It is not "after Christ," and hence has the effect of diverting from Him.

The word "spoil" in verse 8 does not mean to mar, but rather, to capture as spoil, or to make a prey of you. It describes the kind of thing that will happen to you if instead of progressing in the faith of Christ you submit to the teachings of philosophers. It is a strong way of putting it, but not one whit too strong. In the ancient world the Greeks were the great philosophers. They had no knowledge of any revelation from God, and in its absence set their minds to work on the problems presented by man and the universe. In result their teachings were but empty deceit, all of them framed according to man and his little world.