In Colossians, Paul explains what God has done for us, then helps us see what living in the Kingdom of His Son involves.
Paul tells us God our Father, “made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the holy ones [saints] in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption,‡ the forgiveness of our sins” (Col 1:12-14).
Living as saints in light, is living in the Kingdom of God’s Son, which is in the Spirit (Ro 14:17-18). Jesus is the true light (Jn 1:9, the light of the world (Jn 8:12). We are the children of light (Lk 16:8; 1 Thes 5:5). God has translated us, transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:3-8).
In Colossians 2, Paul tells exhorts us to walk in the light as we live in this dark world.
Paul begins with a brief summation of the blessings God bestows upon us in the kingdom that is. He tells the Colossians and us he wants to let our hearts be comforted, being knit together in love, gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding that we may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Messiah, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. That’s living.
1 For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Messiah, 3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. 4 Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Messiah.
Walk in Christ Jesus
Our way of life in Christ Jesus draws from being rooted and built up in Him, established in the one true faith and abounding in thanksgiving.
6 As therefore you received Messiah Yeshua, the Lord, walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
Don’t let anyone rob you of your faith
8 Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Messiah.
For in Christ you were created
Here Paul shows us the glorious light of Christ in contrast to the darkness of shallow and misleading philosophy and vain deceit appealing to human traditions and the world’s ways of thinking that encroach on our faith.
The vanities of man’s ways are clearly recognized when we see Messiah with the enlightened eyes of our hearts. We see who He is how He won over darkness in us. We see how God created us and what He made us in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:1-10; Ro 3:1-10; Ro 6:1-11; Heb 4:14-16). Living in that light is real living.
9 For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, 10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Messiah, 12 having been buried with him in immersion, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. 15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Living in the kingdom helps us to not succumb to practices that have no value against self-indulgence
16Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days. 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Messiah. 18Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by rejoicing about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up for no reason by his carnal mind. 19He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, which is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God enables it.
20If you have died with the Messiahs to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world? 21“Don’t handle this! Don’t taste or touch that!” 22All of these things will be destroyed as they are used, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence. Col 2:16-23 ISV Cf. Eph 4:9-16
All scripture quoted is from the World Messianic Bible WMB unless otherwise noted.
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