To Encourage You

Colossians 2:1-4 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.”

In the words above Paul helps us to see that one of the main reasons people fall into error with regard to spiritual things is that the arguments false teachers use to delude people are “plausible,” i.e., in many respects, the things false teachers have to say make sense.  Their teachings seem reasonable.  What they say may appeal to us for human viewpoints obviously make sense to other humans.   For example, one of the teachings you hear today is that everyone will end up in heaven someday, no matter what they believe or how they live.  It’s called “universalism.” We like the sound of this because the idea of hell is repulsive to us.  We don’t like to think that there is such a place and even if there is, we don’t like the thought of anyone going there, especially our self.   However, the Bible makes it clear that hell is a real place and people are really going to end up there, forever. 

Spiritual truth is true not because it makes sense to us, but because God said it.  In Him alone and in Christ alone are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  These hidden things are revealed to those who follow Christ, but there is great opposition to the Truth in this world.  That’s why it’s a struggle to make it known. It was a struggle for Paul, as he wrote to the Colossians believers from prison, and it is a struggle to anyone else who works to make the gospel known in a world that has been deceived to believe the lies of the devil and his false teachers. 

So much of what we read in the Scriptures makes no sense at first blush – at least that’s how it is for me.  It is often only after prayer, meditation, and study that its awesome power dawns on our minds.  God’s Word is a great treasure, but like silver hidden deep in the rocks of the earth, we have to dig for it to find it.  We have to ask, seek, and knock for the door to be opened.  In the words spoken to the children of God through Solomon, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5).  It’s this attitude that is expressed in the prayer of the psalmist as he extols the wonders of God’s Word in Psalm 119:18 with these words: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” 

Wondrous things – God’s Word is filled with them.  Plausible things – false teaching is filled with them. But what would you rather have, plausible things that lead to error and death or true things that lead to wisdom and life.  May God help us to hunger and thirst for His truth that will feed our souls with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge rather than seek “plausible things” that tickle our ears but leave us empty in the end.