As we’ve been going through the book of Colossians, we’ve tried to keep in mind that it is a letter.

It’s in the bible because the early church recognized something about it was different; God spoke through it in ways that made a huge difference in people’s lives. God, in a unique way, spoke through Paul.

But it is a letter, written to a specific group of people who believed certain things. Trying to fully understand Colossians is sort of like piecing together a mystery. What did Paul think they believed? What did he want to change?

Before we dive into Colossians again today, let’s practice our detective skills. What can you figure out from these snippets of letters that I will read? What happened, what’s the mood of the letter, what does the writer hope to accomplish?

Letter examples

I put a lot of effort into this project. I spent numerous hours in the library and at the computer working on my research. My project partner, Jack, apparently did not approach the project with the same dedication as I. Enclosed, you will find copies of my notes and sources that I used in my research.

I was just reminiscing about Saturday evening; it was such a perfect night. 

The subtle breeze made me shiver from time to time, but I'm so glad they had a table for us outside. What a wonderful way to spend an autumn evening. 

Sitting across the table from you, listening to your fascinating stories, I was mesmerized.

We’re pretty good at putting the pieces together, aren’t we?

And when we read letters in the bible, we can put the pieces together, too. One thing that makes it a little more complicated is that the example letters that I gave are fairly recent and from our own country and culture. We understand most of the references.

In letters from the bible, there are many things any of us can piece together, and some things that require an understanding of that culture and that day.

I want to invite us to have our bibles open to Colossians 2, verses 8-15. Let’s be detectives together and piece together the clues about what Paul was worried about, and what he hoped the Colossians would come to understand. [READ v. 8-10]

What are some of the key clues in these verses?

What do we learn about what the Colossians might think, and especially about how Paul hopes to correct it? [ASK]

I noticed that “Fullness” is a huge word in these verses, and throughout the book of Colossians. In 1:19, it says “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in” Jesus. In 1:25, Paul says the commission God gave him was “to present to you the word of God in its fullness.”

In 2:2, he says he wants them to have the “full riches of complete understanding.”

Ok, use those detective skills. Why might Paul be so big on using the word “fullness”? [ASK]

Scholars who’ve given their lives to studying this stuff have found out a lot.

Through clues like these left in Colossians and other books of the bible, through other writings of the time, it appears there was a group of people who taught that they had a secret knowledge that would fully give people an insight into God.

These people made it clear that everybody else didn’t have it all. They were missing something. They needed to have something added on to their knowledge to get the full meal deal. This became known as “Gnosticism”, based on the Greek word for knowledge.

Paul is fighting this kind of thinking tooth and nail in this letter. You’re not missing out on a thing! You’ve GOT the fullness! Don’t let anyone take you captive through deceptive human teaching. What you learned from the beginning about Jesus is everything you need.

In fact, the fullness of God himself lives in Jesus, lives in a real body.

And you…you have been given fullness in Christ, who is head over every power and authority.

The fullness of God didn’t stay spiritual and far away from us. The fullness of God took on a human body, and you and I are given fullness in Christ.

We’re not lacking a thing. We’re not missing out. We don’t need to add on human traditions or teachings or practices. We can fully depend upon Christ.

This has something to say to the thinking of our culture, too.

In our world, people commonly believe that many religions are equally valid, and maybe even are the same thing. Many people create a sort of mix and match spirituality, taking things from here and there as they like.

Paul would ask us, “How can you do that? In Christ is all the fullness of God, and you’ve been given fullness in Christ. What more are you looking for?”

In a similar way to the Colossians, Paul would remind us not to be bound up by teaching that deceives us about who Jesus is. The good news Paul brings is everything we need!

Time to do some more detective work.

[READ v. 11-12]

Circumcision for the Jews was the sign that they were committed completely to God. For the Hebrews, it was a physical act their newborn males went through on the eighth day of their lives. But Paul says the Colossians didn’t have that. They had a different kind of circumcision in Christ.

Why is Paul even talking about this, do you think? [ASK; some were probably teaching physical circumcision was required]

For the Hebrews, physical circumcision was a symbol, a sign, that they were God’s set apart people. Paul is reminding the Colossians that they have something deeper and better than a symbol and a sign.

We have been buried with Christ and are raised with him through our faith in the power of God. Paul, as we’re going to see even more clearly in the next couple of verses, helps us see that we join Jesus in his death and his resurrection.

We identify with him, in a real and spiritual sense.

This isn’t easy to completely grasp; it’s beyond what we can see, touch, and feel. But there is more to the good news about Jesus than just the fact that HE died and HE rose again.

As we identify with Jesus, WE die and WE are raised by the power of God.

Some of you probably are noticing that word “baptism” and wondering, because you think, “Wait…Friends churches don’t have a habit of baptizing with water. How does this fit?”

I’d encourage you to take our “Exploring Friends” class for more depth in answering this question. But briefly today, this is actually a very powerful passage to support what Friends believe about baptism.

“Baptism” literally means immersion, being overwhelmed, being completely overcome by something. Friends have always believed what I think is the heart of Paul’s teaching here in Colossians: when we follow Jesus, we completely identify with him. We join him. We’re connected to him, completely immersed in him.

Paul’s talking about something much more real and ongoing than a one-time action with water, but a way of life of being completely connected and immersed in Jesus.

Friends aren’t opposed to water; we simply want to hold out this Colossians way of life, this joining with Jesus in death and new life.

I know that will probably raise more questions than it answers, but I’d be glad to talk about it privately if you have more questions.

Are you detectives ready again? [READ v. 13-15]

So, with all we’ve said as the background…what stands out to you as the key for Paul? What is he afraid the Colossians are in danger of believing, and what does he want for them instead? [ASK]

We don’t need habits or rituals or markers or special secret knowledge.

“God made you alive with Christ!” I’ll be totally honest, this is exactly where God has been working on me for weeks. God made me alive with Christ!

What joy and power and life and amazement there is in that sentence!

To be alive, truly alive…not going through the motions, but to have purpose. Not lifeless and static and stuck. Not dead in my sins, not separated from God, but ALIVE! Alive and free with evil and its power completely humiliated and made a public spectacle!

I’m longing for that to find expression in my life, and realizing how often we settle for something so much less than “aliveness”.

Help me out again.

This may seem a little off target at first, but I promise to bring it back around. [Show pictures…1920’s flapper, 50’s business men, 1890’s gentlemen, 60’s hippie, 60’s couple]

Look at this picture…what era does this person come from? [ASK for each]

These last two are from the same era, but in what ways would you think they are different? [ASK]

The way we dress, the way we talk, the things we do, the music we listen to…

It all gives us a sort of identity. If we wanted to play the role of a 60’s hippie or a gentleman of the 1890’s, we would put on some markers. We’d put on some clothes like those in the pictures, and probably try to speak differently.

At our team meeting this week, Nita Duncan read to us from John Ortberg’s book called, The Life You’ve Always Wanted.

He says there are all kinds of things that can mark a follower of Jesus, too, sort of “boundary markers” of identity that say, “we belong.”

In years past, some of those markers were just as identifiable as the clothes from the pictures we looked at. Things like not playing cards, not smoking, not dancing, those were some of the boundary markers that decided whether we were “in” the Christian circle or “out”.

Even today, right here at Newberg Friends, we have habits, rituals, signs, things that serve as boundary markers for who’s “in” and who’s “out”.

Part of that is just human nature. Some of those things, I’m sure, come out of a desire to be obedient to God. But there’s a danger, as Paul and Ortberg remind us, there’s a danger in making the central part of following Jesus those boundary markers.

The most important thing isn’t to define who is in and out.

The most important thing isn’t getting all the signs and rituals right. I could wear tie-dye and beads and grow my hair long and listen to the Doors and Janis Joplin, but it wouldn’t make me a hippie.

God is calling us to a new life! More than outward signs, more than trying to show we’re “in” and others are “out”, the reality is that we are all invited to completely immerse ourselves in the fullness of Jesus.

[READ 13-14]

Our complete way of living is to be put to death, so that we can be made alive in a new way with Christ.

This is where we’ll go deeper over the next two weeks.

Next week, Steve will look at the first part of Colossians 3. It’s about the things that have to be put to death, the things that have to be taken off, not so we’re in the “in” crowd, but so that we can identify completely with Jesus.

We’ve put in a written note about next week several times, but I want to say verbally that Steve will be addressing issues of sexuality and other things of an adult nature in a very open way next week.

If you feel your child isn’t ready to hear those things spoken of openly, we would encourage you to attend the second service next week, when the children could attend an age-appropriate Sunday School class.

But don’t miss it! Sexual addictions and struggles are a huge part of the world we live in. We need to look at what the bible says about dealing with them.

Then, the following week, we’ll talk about what it looks like to take on a new life, to be made alive with Jesus.

We want to LIVE life!

We can be ALIVE. Don’t be fooled by something else, added on, the boundary markers that make you in or out. Die with him and live with him. Become alive!