Thursday, April 7, 2011

Colossians

Just the other day, my notorious colleague James Bryan Smith, asked me a question about Colossians 2, and started me thinking. So I thought I would ramble about my synaptic patterns for a moment or two.

My comments have to do with the way in which we separate Scripture from itself in order to serve our own agendas, rather than recognizing Scripture as "canon" and allow it to speak for itself. Then we take the Scripture and say "here is what it means" because that is what the words say.

So, Col 2:8 says "Watch out lest you become a captive" and proceeds to list several possibilities for enslavement. The KJV starts 2:9 with "For in him dwelleth all the fulness . . .", a famous trinitarian statement.

The issue is that it is so easy to take the trinitarian and Christological statement in 2:9-14 and discuss what it has to say about Jesus in the Godhead, etc. However, then we have separated it from Scripture. 2:9 serves as a "because" statement to explain the 2:8 statement. "Watch out . . . because . . ." The entire rhetorical purpose of 2:9-14 is to help the audience understand why they shouldn't become captives. It describes who Christ is, who they are, and what God has done for them, including canceling the certificate of debt that would lead one into slavery!

My random thoughts lead me to the conclusion: Don't forget who you are and how you got there, or else you are likely to end up back where you started!!! In Christ we are NEW. So if we are NEW and dead to the old way, why go back to it??