Les Kaighin

It is good to be positive. The apostle Paul had a positive desire for the Christians at Colossae. The apostle Paul wanted the saints at Colossae to be knit together in love and focused on the positive truth of the mystery of God. However, with the positive, we also need to hear the negative. So it is with Colossians 2:4. His concern about unity, love and assurance, which comes from true understanding, was because they faced a real danger. This is why he said, "and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words." We need discernment because of the danger of being deceived by people who have attractive words. Nothing has changed. When there is wonderful truth, there are also those who will seek to lead you astray.

In Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 we read, Beware, 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, and not after Christ. The danger of being spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, the ideas of men. The reference in verse 11 makes it clear that this is a call to reject those who mixed faith in Christ with the rituals of the ceremonial law and the traditions of the Pharisees. The laws given to Moses and the traditions, the laws that the Pharisees had added. And whilst there is still a danger of this type of teaching, tonight I want us to look at the beginning of our study at a modern problem relating to philosophy and vain deceit. And we're going to do so in Genesis. There are attempts today to combine the ideas of naturalistic thought with scripture. There are those who think scripture must be reconciled to what men have thought.

When you know trouble is coming, you can take the time to prepare yourself and be ready to face the difficulty. In the opening words of Colossians two, we find the apostle’s instructions on how to prepare to face clever but deceptive false teachers.