Here’s a reposting of my official withdrawal from the ranks of predictable critics of Rick Warren. I was wrong, and I said so. This first appeared at IM November 1st, 2007.

BTW, I think more highly of Warren now than when I wrote this, but I still think he gets theology a bit muddled in print and interviews. That may be the unpardonable sin for the discernablog set, but it’s a human error. Warren can preach in my chapel anytime.

I haven’t blogged all that much about Rick Warren in the 7 years I’ve had this web site, but the times I have- which amount to a couple of essays and a lot of asides, comments and occasional references- it’s generally been negative.

Some of that has been deserved- such as my essay prompted by Warren’s declaration that we shouldn’t “criticize what God is blessing” or his contention that musical style is the key element in a church plant- and I don’t regret or apologize for my opinions at all.

I have, however, reconsidered my evaluation of Rick Warren and I think it’s time to eat a plate of well cooked crow.

I’ll admit seven things up front:

1) I want to get as far as I can away from any possible similarity to the weirdness that goes on at the “discernment blogs” when it comes to Warren. Somewhere in all those collections of name-calling rhetoric about Warren was the straw that broke this camel’s back. Anyone that these theological Barney Fifes think is as bad as they believe Warren to be deserves a sympathetic second look.

2) I want to admit that I did not do adequate research on Warren in order to say some of what I’ve said. I’ve read a lot in his two popular books, but I’ve heard very few Rick Warren sermons and most of what I’ve responded to came to my attention from already hostile third parties, some of them pretty slimy. In other words, in contrast to what I’ve put myself through with Joel Osteen- listening to the man for many, many, many hours of my life that I’d like to have back- I didn’t listen much to Warren.

3) Every church is flawed and that includes Saddleback and its children. It also includes the 12-members-8-of-whom-are-my-family churches that front some of Warren’s critics.

4) I recognize and will continue to recognize the flaws in the Saddleback inspired model of seeker-sensitive spirituality and ecclesiology. I am not in any way accepting, approving or defending what is in error. But I’m going to admit that most of Warren’s critics are far more attuned to his errors than to their own. That doesn’t mean they can’t speak, but it does affect the overall impression that’s left.

5) Rick Warren has said and written some boneheaded things from time to time. He’s not in my league, but he’s up there. When he first came to prominence, he wut nut dat hot wit de mikeyphone on dem der news channel thingys. I’m sure now he could smile, blink and say “I just never thought about that, Larry,” like a pro.

6) In many ways, Warren represents evangelicalism, SBC-style, in all the good, bad, ugly and wonderful that makes evangelicalism a circus and the work of the Spirit. The rule is this: If you hate someone whose main problem is they are a lot like you, you might want to turn the volume down a bit on your tirade.

7) My own commentary on Warren has too often been blind to what Rick Warren and his church network are doing right. I’ve played the reformed watchblogger with my Warren comments when he is clearly a brother. An erring brother, but a brother who has done a lot right that should be recognized, commended, celebrated and imitated.

So what’s on the menu tonight?

For starters, Warren has inspired the planting of thousands of new churches. Christianity is a church based, church planting movement. That’s as basic as it gets, and Warren gets that right. You need to contrast that with the church planting record of Warren critics.

I once found myself in a PCUSA Presbytery meeting where a church plant was being discussed. The word that comes to mind to describe this situation was “strangulation.” What I heard in that meeting was an education on why church planting is just about the last thing most established churches care about these days. (And with the denominational red tape I sat through, it’s no wonder.)

That church plant died, mercifully. Rick Warren has a lot to teach anyone who wants to plant churches. Not that his ideas do it perfectly, but his ideas do it.

Next, there’s Warren’s evangelistic zeal. Warren’s critics, with some notable exceptions, are distinguished by a great suspicion that evangelistic zeal is always a sign of bad theology. If you are zealous for evangelism, you are not likely a Spurgeon. You’re almost certainly a Finney or worse.

At this point, I can say everyone needs to find and read every word written by Iain Murray on John Wesley, particularly on what everyone can learn from the early Methodists about evangelistic zeal.

You see, Murray acknowledges that Wesley had some theological problems, but for some odd reason, Murray hasn’t gotten the memo that any theological error at all disqualifies what you do in evangelism from being commendable.

The seeker model isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in many ways, and I am not a fan of much of what has been done with it. But I do believe that if we look closely at those men- across the spectrum- who have an evangelistic zeal that overflows into what their church says and does- you’ll find that it’s the same Holy Spirit, calling people to Christ, energizing Christians to love and take risks for Jesus sake and for the lost.

Then there is Warren’s leadership in ministries of mercy and compassion. He has a heart for suffering people and makes responding to pain and suffering a priority. This is obvious in his commitment to Africa and the response of his church to the recent fires in California. Saddleback’s generosity and leadership in these areas are a persuasive witness.

I am well aware that good works are not the Gospel, but I am also aware that the Gospel is evidenced by good works, particularly compassionate ministries to the suffering and to the “least of these.” While some can certainly fault Warren and Saddleback when comparing their theology to a Grudem volume, it is difficult to not be impressed by Warren and Saddleback’s genuine, convincing willingness to put themselves in the place of leading out with compassion and personal involvement.

I also see this in the ministry of Celebrate Recovery, an immensely successful Christian adaptation of the classic 12 steps of recovery. CR is spreading into many churches that are not Saddleback networked, but who are looking for a way to open the doors and ministry of the church to hurting people. Of course, the recovery movement earns the special ire of many of Warren’s critics because it deals with specific sins and repentance in community, concepts that, for some unexplained reason, turn some theological watchdogs into ranting orcs.

I thank God that Celebrate Recovery is being used by a church in our area to touch the lives of drug addicts who feel excluded and uncomfortable in the traditional church.

I’ve discovered that Warren is very much a church centered leader. He invests himself in pastors. I don’t agree with all his advice and I don’t jump for joy at all the spiritual leaders he considers worth giving a turn in his pulpit, but these flaws fail to outweigh the heart for pastors that Warren has evidenced for his entire career as a prominent leader.

I’ve spent a lot of time at Saddleback’s web site, and I’m amazed at how basic it is in regard to the church. Heres one of the largest churches in the world, but in many ways it is stressing, teaching and reinforcing the same basic concepts as a brand new church. Would I like to see more theology “up front?” Yes. But is there something wrong with the theology of the church I see at Saddleback? No. It’s a model of how to keep the basics up front and emphasized.

Finally, Warren is a model of personal integrity. I can’t imagine what it’s been like to go from being a church planter, to a leader of a moderately innovative growing church, to the best selling author in the world. It’s true that Warren isn’t John Piper, but he’s not Joel Osteen either. I’m listening to Warren as I type, and there’s been more of the Bible’s central message in the last 3 minutes than I’ve ever heard from Osteen.

Warren’s critics hate the fact that he uses so many different translations when he shares all those Bible verses. Good grief people. Listen to yourselves.

Warren is honest. He’s not comfortable as a media star. He doesn’t play the “generic spiritual leader” role very well. He’s learned how to use his opportunities to point clearly to Christ. I seriously doubt we’ll see Warren doing a Ted Haggard anytime soon. He seems to be the very basic, down-to-earth person he’s always been.

So there you have it. I’m eating crow on this one. Warren is an average preacher. I’m not convinced that his seeker sensitive methods are dependable Biblical. But I am convinced he’s a good man, with a good ministry, who presents the Gospel, encourages pastors, starts churches, demonstrates compassion and lives with integrity.

These days, that resume goes a long way.

American Christianity, if not staying focused on Jesus, gets in big trouble in a culture where entitlement is a tremendous temptation. Paul urged Christians to be “…holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” That’s Jesus. This is in contrast to a kind of spirituality that grows from a person who is “…puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind…” (Colossians 2:18.) That’s a mind that says “whatever feels good is God.”

We need much teaching like Dr. Witherington does in this post: the explicit contrast of the teaching and meaning of Jesus with the errors of this subtle prosperity method. Jesus described “Your Best Life Now,” but it isn’t the Osteen positive thinking message.

Col. 2:20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations – 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used) – according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Col 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

I don’t listen to much Christian talk radio. I overdosed on talk radio in the 90’s. I listen to MLB radio at night and to a few broadcasts during the day: White Horse Inn, Issues, etc. Desiring God, James Boice, Bible Answer Man. But Saturday I found myself listening to a rebroadcast of the Michael Medved Show, a staple on the Salem radio network line-up of Christian/politically conservative radio programs that millions of conservative Christians listen to each day.

I’ve always liked Michael Medved, back to when I first saw him on “At the Movies,” with Jeffrey Lyons. He is advertised as a “pop culture specialist,” and he is an articulate and engagine representative of a Christian-friendly Orthodox Judaism.

On this particular program, Medved was seeking to stir up his audience with outrage over the currently popular trend of tongue-piercing. (No other kinds of piercing came in for his review, which I found quite odd.) His interest was created by articles in journals of dentistry describing the various terrible results that can come from tongue piercing: broken teeth, bizarre growths, infections and so on. Medved regaled the audience with lurid quotes of the nastiness and pain of tongue piercing, assured us there was much worse to be read that he was avoiding, and capped it all with his best version of being stunned at a source telling him that 10.6% of all university students have their tongue pierced. (I find that statistic to be quite suspect, and would advise anyone to be cautious about believing it.)

When Medved opened up the phones, however, he was greeted with a long line of callers with tongue piercings who all, like good libertarian conservatives, wanted Brother Medved to know that it was their body, and they could do with it whatever they wanted to. Further, they asked him to furnish them with some higher priniciple that could somehow prove that their tongue piercing was wrong.

Medved was taken aback by this, and responded to various callers with the following logical gems.

-It is up to society to create healthy definitions of normal.
-Medved attempts to only engage in activities that have a clearly designed purpose.
-Choosing to experience pain is clearly wrong and dangerous.
-Common sense would teach anyone that tongue piercing is wrong.
-Tongue piercing is like using heroin. (??)
-Extreme sports should be avoided as well as tongue piercing, because they are needlessly dangerous.

And so on. For an advertised pop culture critic, Medved came off more like an Amish homeschooler mom who simply couldn’t comprehend what kind of person would ever want to do anything more daring than wear a bonnet with a floral design.

I found myself wondering about Medved’s Judaism and how it might be affecting his response. I know that Judaism has much to say about the treatment of the body, and that it isn’t unusual for rabbis to opine on the orthodoxy of body piercings and tattoos. I never heard Medved’s faith come into the picture, which ultimately made me ask how a Christian culture critic might respond to the same questions.

At the center of the Christian wordview is the glory of God. I frequently tell students that the key to working through any moral issue is “Can I do this for the glory of God?” This isn’t just urging upon them a mental game- “I’ll view porn with an appreciation for God’s creativity”- but a clear knowledge that this is something in which I can rejoice and be thankful that God is seen, and his character and person are exalted without sin. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

God is most glorified when we are satisfied with all that he is for us in Christ. Jesus reveals God, and he reveals the truth about all of us. The image of God in which we were created is perfectly filled and fulfilled in Jesus.Christians are bringing every thought- and every subject- into captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In considering a sub-culture such as piercing and tattoos, a Christian would not look at the phenomenon primarily in terms of rules and regulations of a spiritual nature. (Col 2:20-23) Health concerns, and other “common sense” concerns about the body, are certainly appropriate in a Christian consideration, but they are not primary. This is important, as we ask, “Would Jesus be outraged at tongue piercing?” The answer to such a question will give much evidence of how we are appropriating Jesus as a symbol of our own concerns, much along the lines of “What would Jesus eat?” or “What would Jesus drive?”

The selective outrage of some culture warrior types is evidence that they are playing their own interests as God’s agenda. Note how Jesus does not express outrage at the lifestyle of the woman at the well in John 4, but seeks to move her to a knowledge of her true “thirst” and faith in Jesus Christ. We glorify God in the body, but a Christian response to a human person is not primarily on the level of “What are you doing with your body?” but “What is your relationship to God?”

In his phone conversations, Medved heard a number of justifications for tongue piercing. Callers defended the practice as individualism, a generational ritual and a desire for rebellion against the mundane. At least one caller, however, grabbed my attention with the word “authentic.” She and her husband were seeking to be authentic.

One can probably anticipate that the search for the authentic among current fashion of self-mutilations is a quixotic quest, but I believe the caller was telling the truth. I believe the person who buys an Eddie Bauer style SUV on a quest for “individual expression and authenticity” is telling the truth. I believe the person who buys the same t-shirt, the same house, the same nuclear weapon as another person in a quest to “just be real” is telling the truth.

The quest is not wrong, but the end of the quest is not going to be found in a fashion, a trend, a possession, or anything else on the grocery list of modern culture. I believe the quest is real, and that Jesus is talking to seekers and questers for authenticity when he says “Come unto me, all you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I believe the Bible is talking to seekers after the real when Paul says “What you worship in ignorance, I will proclaim to you (in Jesus.)” I believe the seeker for authenticity is the one who can hear the Christian message that this world is full of shadows, yet Christ is the substance, the satisfier, the giver of significance.

It is impossible for me to imagine Jesus doing a radio program talking about the outrage of tongue piercing, even though it is not hard for me to picture a Christian building a case, based on scripture, that all body piercing is wrong, except for his wife’s earrings and his grandaughter’s little nose stud. It’s all just a phase.

What I can imagine is Jesus asking the tongue and body piercer to talk about the meaning of the ritual, and the meaning it gives to his or her life. As a result of that conversation, I can imagine other conversations that go to the heart of the things that we do. I do not imagine an autopsy of the nature of various sins, but I can imagine a discussion of the ontology of Sin itself, and our quest as a race, and as individuals, to find meaning in the tribal, the material, the daring, the existential, the extreme and the provocative.

Responding to a confession of a hunger for the authentic, Jesus would have much to say. And in his approach to the person who pierces his/her tongue, we could learn much.

Jesus would offer to them the friendship, acceptance and approval of God in the Gospel. He would announce that they are invited home, they are invited to the table of fellowship and they are adopted into God’s family. The tongue piercing makes no difference at all. The bad decisions, the lack of good information about hygiene, the juvenile motivations…none of it matters at all in the banquet at the center of the universe. God COMMANDS us to find the tongue-pierced, with all their real and faux feelings of exclusion, individuality and authenticity, and to give them the very best seats in the house.

Culture warriors are increasingly complaining about a catalog of issues among young adults that they find annoying, immature and shallow. Is this kind of interaction with culture really helpful to the cause of the Gospel? When we are making fun of “emergent goatees” or any other subcultural trait are we also signaling that people with goatees, tattoos, piercings, ripped jeans or a taste for video games are somehow “the problem” in church and culture? Does our ridicule communicate Jesus’ own attitude?

We are about to be overwhelmed with a collection of subcultures taking root in the American middle class. They won’t be in San Francisco; they will be everywhere. Our approach and welcome must connect with Jesus, and not the paternalistic, hypocritical selective outrage of the culture warrior class.

Let Jesus be our teacher on what ought to outrage us, but more importantly, on how we ought to treat those who advertise themselves through various rituals as being the “excluded individuals” religious people dislike the most.

Michael Medved may be a pop culture commentator, but when it comes to engaging that culture, I’ll take the carpenter of Nazareth.

The Colossians material has proven to be some of the richest experiences in Bible study I’ve ever enjoyed. Helped by my recent reading of N.T. Wright’s introduction to the New Testament, and especially by the provocative Colossians Remixed, I’ve derived more enjoyment and helpful teaching from this study than from any previous study of Paul’s letters.

Though I have been studying Colossians for several months, I am just now halfway through the book. Still, I would like to share some of what I am learning in Colossians here at Internetmonk.com. These posts will take more of the form of abbreviated versions of my preaching from Colossians than the more exegetical Bible studies. The exegetical work is an important part of my study, but in preaching I am working more toward application, which I hope will be of value to my readers. There will be no particular order to the posts.

Spiritual Stew or The Bread of Life?

When I was a freshman in college, I was usually eating in the college cafeteria on the weekends. Not by choice, but I was broke and the cafeteria was free for students.

On Sunday nights, the cafeteria almost always had the same meal: soup. Usually “vegetable soup.” Now if you were a careful observer, you would discover that this soup actually contained leftovers from several other meals earlier in the week. There was Monday’s green beans, and Tuesday’s meat loaf, and Thursday’s potatoes. The “Sunday Night Stew” was made up of this and that from the previous week’s menu.

Stew isn’t a bad meal, particularly if you are hungry. In fact, combine it with a good loaf of bread and you can have a fine meal.

Well, I’m setting you up for a metaphor with that story, a metaphor to understand a rather complicated section of Colossians chapter 2.

Almost every one of Paul’s letters contains one or more serious problems in the church that the apostle wants to address and correct. Sometimes the problem is so pressing, such as in Galatians 1:6-9, that Paul barely gets the greeting onto the page before he launches into a response to the problem. Other times, the letter is a catalog of problems, such as in I Corinthians, and there is a whole list of problems to be addressed.

Colossians is a bit unique. Reading chapter one, it is easy to believe there is no problem in the church at Colossae. But by the time we arrive at the end of chapter two, we’ve read one of the most extensive, detailed and comprehensive descriptions of a problem in a local church anywhere in the New Testament.

The Colossian problem is a “soup” of false teachings. These are described particularly in three places in the chapter:

Colossians 2:8 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:16-18 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of f and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,

Colossians 2:20 – 3:1 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations- 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 ( referring to things that all perish as they are used)- according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

One way to judge a good commentary on Colossians is whether they claim to know exactly what is going on in this church, or if the author has the humility to say he/she doesn’t really know what has happened to the Colossians. It’s a complicated matter, and I doubt if we will ever know exactly what the problem was. It certainly defies simple labels like “Judaizers” or “Gnosticism.”

The Reformation Study Bible has four pages of introduction to this letter. Two of those pages are devoted to the “problem” described here. Individually, we know what many of these terms refer to…but how they all wind up in one church is a mystery.

Paul mentions–among other things–Greek philosophy, asceticism (which is self-inflicted suffering of some kind), restrictive rules about food and diet, the worship of angels, visions and ecstatic boastings, the worship of “elemental spirits,” and a whole array of things normally associated with Judaism, such as the festivals, New Moons and the Sabbath. It’s hard to understand how one church could have become, in a short time, home to so many different kinds of spiritual teaching and practice, yet all the time be a church that confesses simple faith in Jesus Christ!

Each one of these practices could take up a long discussion, both inside and outside of scripture. What may be more useful, however, is the meaning of one word in chapter 2, a word that doesn’t occur elsewhere in the New Testament. In verse 23, Paul says that this religious “stew” can be described as ethelothreskia, or “self-made religion.” The King James Version called it “will worship.” Other translations translate the word, “self-imposed worship.”

Whatever label we might put on this spiritual stew, it is a home-made recipe! It was the Colossians taking whatever was in the culture, whatever was in the preferences of the hearers, whatever came packaged in the teaching of a persuasive teacher, whatever religions the converts struggled with leaving, whatever seemed appealing and tolerant to include, whatever felt good, and combining it into a “self made,” “self-imposed” spirituality. They cooked it up themselves, and it was quite a stew!

The claim that Jesus is Lord is an audacious claim. It’s never more outrageous than when it confronts all the other “gods” in our lives. It’s our own loyalty to other ways of finding meaning and purpose in the world that present the great challenge to the Lordship of Jesus, both in the first century and now.

Now….I hope many of you have already seen the obvious. The “spiritual stew” Paul describes in the Colossian community is remarkably like the spiritual atmosphere in our own American culture, and unfortunately, much like that in many of our churches.

In a few days, I am going to a church in a university town to teach a seminar on evangelism and other religions. Even in Kentucky, it is not unusual to meet Muslims and Hindus in rural communities, so this kind of evangelism training is valuable. But let’s face it: the average university student is going to meet 25 people who have created their own religion out of various elements of culture and spirituality before he has even one opportunity to dialogue with a committed member of another religion. This kind of eclectic, personal spirituality is, as Harold Bloom has rightly noted, the gnostic religion of our time, because only we can really “know” what it is.

As a woman called Sheila told one researcher, her religion was her own creation: Sheilaism. You can’t say it much better than that.

Today’s spiritual stew is made up of leftover moralisms from church, the latest spirituality fad from Hollywood, bits and pieces of the worldviews of professors, friends and greeting cards, ingredients from television and books, and a generous seasoning of personal preference. Add in the almost universal loyalty to politically correct versions of tolerance and relativism, and you have the “do-it-yourself” spirituality of American culture.

Of course, while all of this is highly individualized, it grows especially well in a church that has removed the exclusive claims and clear truths of the Gospel. In churches that are more interested in growth than in truth, where preachers are playing the role of “life coach,” and confessions of faith have been replaced by “Your Best Life Now,” this spiritual smorgasbord is the usual fare.

When a church has come under the influence of false teaching, there is often a false teacher. In Revelation 2, the church in Thyatira has come under the influence of “Jezebel,” who is misleading some in the congregation back into pagan spiritualities. The Corinthian church had come under the influence of paganized women prophets and false apostles. Was there a dominant false teacher in Colossae? There is no evidence of such a person in the letter.

The Colossian church wasn’t begun by Paul, but by his associate Epaphras. We don’t know anything about the beginnings of the Colossian church, except from Paul’s own words:

Colossians 1:3-7 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing- as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.

It’s rather sobering to think that a group of Christians could have such a commendable start, and then fall to the point that their church reads like a description of a new age carnival.

Those of us who live in this aggressive, secular culture need to remember something: People are spiritually hungry, and evangelism alone won’t necessarily bring a permanent resolution to that hunger. People are looking for authentic life in the Spirit. They aren’t just looking for affirmations to believe or doctrines to memorize or Bible verses to collect. They are looking for a kind of life that deeply drinks from the wells of genuineness and authenticity.

Many of our versions of Christianity don’t even attempt that experience. We’re shallow. We’ve offered a different message, but not a different life. If there is anything that becomes clear in the Colossian letter, it’s that Paul’s response to the Colossian mess is not just doctrinal–and it will include much valuable doctrine as we will see–but it is a matter of the individual and corporate life in Christ that the Christian community pursues in different contexts.

Look at just one part of Paul’s words in the second half of the epistle. While the “spiritual stew” problem is in chapter two, there is no doubt that Paul’s ministry response is to build a community of believers that seek the Christ-life corporately and passionately.

Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Relationships. Worship. The Body of Christ. A spiritual life that treats one another as members of Christ.

Is this descriptive of what we experience as Christians? If not, are we surprised that the cheaper, exaggerated versions of spirituality that abound in our culture find so much interest and so many customers?

I want to complete this message with the most obvious aspect of the Colossian letter: It’s the most Christ-descriptive letter in the New Testament. There is more information about Jesus Christ packed into a few paragraphs in Colossians than almost anywhere else in Paul’s writings.

This material is found in two places. The first is in chapter one, as Paul makes a comprehensive description of the Christian life, redemption, and the ministry…all centered around an incredibly rich description of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Follow the many references to Jesus through this section. It is extraordinary and life-changing to contemplate all that God is for us in Christ and all he has done for us in the Gospel.

The second especially focused section of teaching about Jesus is throughout chapter two, as Paul confronts the Colossian heresy head-on. The apostle describes the spirituality the Colossians have “cooked up,” but then offers the “Bread of Life,” Jesus Christ, as the true, preeminent and exalted answer to every human spiritual longing.

Here is just one example:

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

One of Paul’s most powerful descriptions of Jesus is in response to the encroachments of some form of Judaism into the church. We know from almost every New Testament book that the relationship of Jesus-believers to the older covenant faith was a contentious and confusing one. Yet Paul, in a single sentence, beautifully relates Jesus and the old covenant in a way that values all that came before, but exalts Jesus Christ above all: Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.This is a wonderful way for us to respectfully address spiritual seekers of every kind: Jesus is the substance that you are looking for among the shadows.

One of the problems Christians have in dealing with other spiritualities is a tendency to be disrespectful and argumentative. How wonderful it would be if we could be like Paul in Acts 17, telling the Athenian philosophers that the God they were searching for in ignorance, he was going to plainly proclaim to them.

You see, Paul respects even the erring spiritual-soup chefs in Colossae. He is a pastor, and his message is compassionate, plain and clear: the religions and spiritualities of this world, no matter what their various pedigrees, are all shadows. Christ, however, is the substance. He is the true God. He is the final Word. All our searches for meaning and truth end in Jesus Christ. In a culture of spiritual smoke and mirrors, Jesus is a true light, the real life and the living bread.

It is important to say that while Jesus puts every other spiritual authority under his feet and triumphs over them, the Gospel does not deny the fact that we are spiritual beings looking for spiritual reality. Because we are fallen, our search is not in God and for God, but in places where we can hold on to our own sovereignty. Christ triumphs over us and subdues our arrogant wills as well, but he does it by reconciling us through his cross; he does it by loving us. He brings us into his Kingdom and makes us his children, he gives us new appetites and a new identity. No matter how much Christ is exalted, we never cease to be beloved individuals, and that is why Paul realizes that these Colossians are baby Christians who need to be taught. They need the truths of the Gospel and the foundations of life in Christ. Though not there in person, he is pastoring them as a mother or a father loves his/her own children.

This is a wonderful model for us. Believing in Jesus is the beginning of a journey, and part of that journey is learning that the world’s spiritualities are insufficient, and Christ is all-sufficient. Let’s live, teach and enjoy that message, so that Christ can be the all-satisfying Bread of Life for many who still don’t know there is such a wonderful gift available to those who will believe and receive.