Philosophy or Christ? (2:8-10)

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See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; (2:8-10)

From the dawn of recorded history, man has pondered the questions of ultimate reality. He has sought an explanation for the universe around him and the meaning of his own existence. The questions “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, and “Where am I going?” are universal in the human race. Worldly philosophies ineptly try to answer those queries.

The word philosophy comes from two Greek words, phileō, “to love,” and sophia, “wisdom.” Philosophy is the love and pursuit of wisdom. Because everyone has a worldview, in one sense everyone is a philosopher. Throughout history there have also been those who specialized in the academic discipline of philosophy. The Greek thinker Thaïes, a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah, is generally regarded as the first philosopher in the latter sense. From his time to our own day, there have been thousands of philosophers, each with his own explanation of the universe.

I remember taking a college course in European philosophy. Most of the philosophers we studied either denied the existence of God or held an unbiblical view of Him, such as deism or pantheism. It was a frustrating experience, studying the musings of unregenerate men desperately trying to determine ultimate truth apart from God. But as Francis Schaeffer in our own generation emphasized, man cannot begin with himself and arrive at ultimate reality (cf. The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent). The apostle Paul agreed with that assessment. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that ultimate truth is discoverable neither by empiricism nor by rationalism: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard [empiricism], and which have not entered the heart of man [rationalism], all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Os Guinness comments on the futility of modern man’s search for truth apart from God:

Not surprisingly, many philosophers have expressed that futility. The seventeenth-century British philosopher David Hume said, “I am first affrighted and confounded with that forlorn solitude, in which I am plac’d in my philosophy” (cited in Guinness, The Dust of Death, p. 22).

The nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche scorned Christianity as the religion of weaklings. He was among the first to proclaim that God is dead. Yet he could not live with the implications of his philosophy. Guinness writes, “For Nietzsche to be consistent, he needed to become his own superman, but his views were overwhelming even for himself. As he poised over the abyss, he shivered with the horror of being ‘responsible for everything alive.’ In the impossibility of this situation, madness perhaps becomes his only possible freedom from the overbearing responsibility. ‘Alas, grant me madness’” (The Dust of Death, p. 24). Tragically, Nietzsche’s wish was granted. He spent the last eleven years of his life insane.

One of the leading twentieth-century philosophers was the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, also an atheist. In his novel Nausea he has the main character, Roquentin, say, “Every existing thing is born without reason, goes on living out of weakness, and dies by accident” (cited in Robert Denoon Cumming, ed., The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre [New York: Random House, 1965], pp. 66-67). Roquentin expresses Sartre’s belief that, apart from God, man is utterly meaningless:

Commenting on Sartre’s view of the absurdity of man apart from God, William Barrett writes, “Sartre’s atheism states candidly … that man is an alien in the universe, unjustified and unjustifiable, absurd in the simple sense that there is no … reason sufficient to explain why he or his universe exists (Irrational Man [Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962], p. 262).

Man’s rebellion against God has, in Schaeffer’s words, driven him beneath the line of despair. In the words of the apostle Paul, “They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:21-22). By eliminating God and His revelation from the picture, modern philosophy has plunged man into the abyss of ignorant darkness and hopeless despair.

The city of Colossae also had its philosophers. The church there faced the danger of being infiltrated by false teaching, as we do in our own day. The church has throughout its history fought to maintain its doctrinal purity. That the Colossians do so was Paul’s great concern, and 2:8-23 thus becomes the heart of the epistle. In this, the polemical section of Colossians, he attacks the false teachers head on.

The specific heresy threatening the Colossians is unknown, in that Paul does not name it. We can, however, reconstruct some of its tenets from 2:8-23. It contained elements of philosophy (2:8-15), legalism (2:16-17), mysticism (2:18-19), and asceticism (2:20-23). Because those beliefs were shared by the first-century Jewish sect known as the Essenes, we noted in the introduction it is possible they (or a group holding similar beliefs) were the ones threatening the Colossian believers. This heresy also had components that were early forms of Gnosticism, the belief that there was a transcendent kind of knowledge beyond Christian doctrine known only to elite initiates who had ascended to that level. Most damning, though, was its teaching that Jesus was neither God nor the source of all truth. That was the frontal attack on His deity and sufficiency.

In 2:1-7, Paul exhorts the Colossians to maintain their allegiance to both the deity and complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He reminds them that, in contrast to the claims of the false teachers, in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). That statement is a profound summation of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus. That positive teaching is counterbalanced with a negative treatment in 2:8-23, where Paul tells them what to avoid. In so doing, he fully refutes the claims of the Colossian errorists. Against their claim to a secret, superior knowledge, he has already pointed out that there is no hidden knowledge apart from Christ (2:3). Against their teaching that a series of lesser beings emanated from God, Paul emphasizes that “all the fullness of Deity dwells” in Christ (2:9). They worshiped those emanations, which Paul describes in 2:15 as demonic beings, whom Christ has already conquered. He speaks against the falsity of ceremonial, ritualistic legalism and mysticism in 2:16-19. Finally, in 2:20-23 Paul rejects their asceticism, since it is “of no value against fleshly indulgence” (2:23).

Paul gives here a model for dealing with heresy. He does not bitterly denounce the heresy by name. In fact, he does not even give it a name. Nor does he present in exhaustive detail what the heretics believed. He deals with the heresy by emphasizing those truths that refute its claims and similar claims by all other heresies no matter what their names. Commentator Charles R. Erdman wrote, “When he now reaches the very heart of his letter the apostle dwells so eloquently upon the deity of Christ and the dignity and completeness of believers that the reader is left in some uncertainty as to the exact system of error against which the Colossians were to be upon their guard” (The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956], p. 73). Any false system will collapse in the face of the truth.

In 2:8-10, Paul begins to attack the first element of the Colossian heresy: false philosophy. By way of a warning, he contrasts the deficiency of philosophy with the sufficiency of Christ.

THE DEFICIENCY OF PHILOSOPHY

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (2:8a)

Paul is concerned that those who have been transferred from Satan’s domain to Christ’s kingdom not become enslaved again. He voiced a similar concern in Galatians 5:1: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” He calls the Colossians to constant watchfulness because danger is near, as the present tense imperative form of blepō (see to it) indicates. The church constantly faces the danger of false teachers. Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In Matthew 16:6 he warns, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The apostles also warned the church against false teachers. Paul cautioned the Ephesian elders that “after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert” (Acts 20:29-31). To the Philippians he wrote, “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision” (Phil. 3:2). Peter also warns of the danger of false teachers. He writes in 2 Peter 3:1, “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness.”

Paul specifically warns them to be careful that no one takes you captive. Takes you captive is from sulagōgeō, a rare word used only here in the New Testament and not at all found in extrabiblical Greek until long after Paul’s time. Sulagōgeō is a compound word, made up of sulē, “booty,” and agō, “to carry off.” It literally means “to kidnap,” or “to carry off as booty, or spoil of war.” The same concept is found in 2 Timothy 3:6, where Paul warns of “those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses.” To Paul, it was unthinkable that those who had been ransomed and redeemed should be vulnerable by ignorance and thus in the spiritual war become prisoners of some spiritual predator with false doctrine.

Surely it grieves the heart of any pastor to learn of spiritual children who by immaturity are susceptible to the danger of false teaching and fall prey to a cult. Yet many have been duped into thinking they have found some truth, which in reality is a lie that has made them a captive to false teaching. One of the primary duties of church leaders is to guard the flock against wolves and perverse men (Acts 20:28-32) who assault flock members in an effort to kidnap them.

Paul describes the means the false teachers would use to kidnap the Colossians as philosophy and empty deception. Philosophia (philosophy) appears only here in the New Testament. As already noted, it means “to love wisdom.” It is used here in a much broader sense than the academic discipline, since “philosophy is not reducible to the Judeo-Gnostic speculations about which Paul warned the Colossian Christians” (Mark M. Hanna, Crucial Questions in Apologetics [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981], p. 11). Historian Adolf Schlatter noted that “everything that had to do with theories about God and the world and the meaning of human life was called ‘philosophy’ at that time, not only in pagan schools, but also in the Jewish schools of the Greek cities” (The Church in the New Testament Period [reprint, London: SPCK, 1955], pp. 150-54).

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus wrote, “There are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of whom are the Pharisees, of the second the Sadducees, and the third sect who pretends to be a severer discipline are called Essenes” (Jewish Wars 2.8.2). Thus, the term philosophy was broad enough to encompass religious sects. The use of the definite article with philosophia shows that Paul was referring here to the specific beliefs of the Colossian errorists. Most likely they used it to refer to the transcendent, higher knowledge they supposedly had attained through mystical experience.

Paul goes on to describe this philosophy as empty deception. Lightfoot wrote, “The absence of both preposition and article in the second clause shows that kenēs apatēs [empty deception] describes and qualifies philosophia” (St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [1879; reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959], p. 178). He translated the phrase, “Through his philosophy which is an empty deceit” (p. 178). Although the false teachers at Colossae considered their view the epitome of wisdom, Paul dismisses it as empty deception.

Apatēs (deception) means “a deceit, fraud, or trick.” The philosophy of the Colossian false teachers was not what it appeared to be. It sounded good and seduced the minds of those deceived by it, but it was a vapid illusion. There is no value in such speculative human philosophy, no matter how deeply and profoundly religious it sounds.

Commentator Herbert Carson sounds an appropriate warning:

Paul then gives two sources for such vain speculation. The tradition of men is the first. Tradition is paradosis, that which is given from one to another. Just because people have believed something and handed it down through the years does not make it true. Tradition usually serves merely to perpetuate error.

A study of the history of philosophy serves to illustrate that point. Most philosophers have built on the work of previous philosophers, either to refine their system, or to refute it. Francis Schaeffer remarked, “One man would draw a circle and say, ‘You can live within this circle.’ The next man would cross it out and would draw a different circle. The next man would come along and, crossing out the previous circle, draw his own—ad infinitum” (The God Who Is There [Downers Grove, III.: InterVarsity, 1973], p. 17).

First-century Judaism is another example of the effects of tradition. The Jewish leaders and teachers had encrusted the Word of God with so many customs, rituals, and teachings that they were no longer able to distinguish it from the traditions of men. Mark 7 records an exchange between the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus on this subject. In verse 5, they asked Jesus, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?” Jesus replied in verses 8-9, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men…. You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”

The Gentiles also had traditions. Peter used the same Greek word in a different form when he wrote to Gentiles in 1 Peter 1:18: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited [received by tradition] from your forefathers.” In our own day, a common argument for evolution is the false assertion that it is “what scientists have always believed.” In all the above examples, tradition was nothing more than ignorance and falsehood handed down from generation to generation. It was the tradition of men, not the tradition of God (2 Thess. 3:6), which is the only source of truth.

A second source for this false philosophy is the elementary principles of the world. It is difficult to reconstruct the exact meaning of that phrase. Stoicheia (elementary principles) refers primarily to the letters of the alphabet. It literally means “things in a row.” Hence, Paul might be describing the false belief system of the Colossian errorists as rudimentary, too simplistic for mature spiritual adults. To accept their teaching would be to descend, to regress from the mature teaching of Scripture to the infantile teachings of an immature religion, based not on advanced thinking and wisdom but on silly and childish thoughts. To abandon biblical truth for empty philosophy is like returning to kindergarten after earning a doctorate. Paul writes:

This same phrase is also found in Galatians 4:3: “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.” There again, the element of immaturity is evident. Whether first-century Judaism, as in Galatians, or the false teaching threatening the Colossians, human religion is not advanced, erudite, higher, transcendent and lofty in its profundity Rather, it is banal, elemental, and rudimentary. It does not convey any new and profound truths. And, fatally, at its core is an effort to achieve salvation by works.

There is a second possible, though less likely, meaning for stoicheia. It could refer to elemental spirits—either supposed emanations from God, or the spirit beings that the people of the ancient world associated with the stars and planets. Astrology is not new. Many of the great men of the ancient world, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, believed in it implicitly People who believed in astrology were caught in the grip of a rigid determinism. The influence of the stars and planets controlled their destiny, unless they had the secret knowledge necessary to escape that control. It was precisely such knowledge that the false teachers may have claimed. Paul would then be warning the Colossians, some of whom had no doubt believed in astrology before their salvation, to avoid such false teaching. In either case, what these heretics offered was not an advance in spiritual knowledge, but a retreat to spiritual infancy and demonic doctrine (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1).

THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST

rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; (2:8b-10)

This is one of the most blessed passages in all of Scripture. It presents the glorious majesty of Christ’s Person and His complete sufficiency. Verse 9 is perhaps the most definitive statement of Christ’s deity in the epistles. It is the rock upon which all attempts to disprove Christ’s deity are shattered. Obviously, these heretics were saying Jesus was not God, and that was the most damning and disturbing element of their “satanology”—as it still is in any false system.

The false teaching just described was part of the satanically devised and humanly propagated religious system, and it was not according to Christ and what Scripture reveals about Him. It, like all false systems of religion, cannot save. That is the peak of its deadliness. In Christ alone all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form. He alone has the power to save. Plērōma (fulness) is the same term used in 1:19. As noted in the discussion of that passage, it was a term used by the Colossian errorists. They believed the divine plērōma was divided in its expression among the various emanations. Each got a decreasing share as they descended the ladder from good to bad. Paul, however, insists that all the fullness of Deity, not a part of it, dwells in Christ. Katoikeō (dwells) means “to settle down and be at home.” The present tense indicates that the essence of Deity continually abides at home in Christ. Deity is a word emphasizing divine nature. That nature of God that continually abode in Jesus Christ was not some divine light that merely lit Him up for a while, but was not His own. He is fully God forever. And as the One possessing all the fullness of Deity, Christ is the head over all rule and authority. He was not one of a series of lesser beings emanating from God, as the false teachers maintained. Rather, He is God Himself and thus the head over all the angelic realm.

As we have noted, the Colossian false teachers also apparently taught a form of philosophic dualism, believing that spirit was good and matter was evil. Hence, it was unthinkable to them that God would take on a human body. Paul counters that false doctrine by emphasizing that all the fullness of Deity dwells in Christ in bodily form. The One who took upon Himself human nature at Bethlehem will keep that humanity for all eternity. He will forever be the God-Man.

Because Christ is who He is, we have been made complete in Him. His fullness is imparted to us. Peplērōmenoi (been made complete) is a form of the verb plēroō, from which the noun plērōma is derived. Christ is the plērōma of God, and we are filled with His plērōma. John wrote, “For of His fulness we have all received” (John 1:16). The perfect tense of the participle peplērōmenoi indicates that the results of our having been filled are eternal.

As a result of the Fall, man is in a sad state of incompleteness. He is spiritually incomplete because He is totally out of fellowship with God. He is morally incomplete because he lives outside of God’s will. He is mentally incomplete because he does not know ultimate truth.

At salvation, believers become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) and are made complete. Believers are spiritually complete because they have fellowship with God. They are morally complete in that they recognize the authority of God’s will. They are mentally complete because they know the truth about ultimate reality.

To maintain, as the Colossian errorists did, that those who were made complete in Christ still lacked anything is absurd. Those who are “partakers of the divine nature” have, through “His divine power,” been “granted … everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). All true believers are complete in Christ and do not need the teachings of any cult or false teacher.

Everyone has a choice, whether to follow human wisdom or to come to Christ. To follow human wisdom is to be kidnapped by the emissaries of Satan and his false system, which leaves a person spiritually incomplete. To come to Christ is to come to the One who alone offers completeness. May those of us who have found Christ never doubt His sufficiency by turning aside to follow any human wisdom. (For a more thorough treatment of the matter of our sufficiency in Christ, see my book, Our Sufficiency in Christ [Dallas: Word, 1991].)