59
January 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
J anuary 8 , 1929
JUDGING Text: Col. 2:16-17, 20 In chapter 2, as in the first chapter, we meet a therefore ” of conclusion. “Therefore let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of dn holy day, or of the new moon, or the Sabbath day.” . If the bond laid upon us by the Mosaic law, has in reality been canceled by the death of our Substitute, why should we remain in bondage to its ceremonial ordinances or the keeping of special seasons enjoined under the old economy? No longer has anyone a right to make these things a basis of judg ing our standing before God. Even the Jewish Sabbath was “a shadow” of something to some (v. 17). The Lord’s day, the day of the risen Christ, is not a legal day at all, but one of joyous Christian privilege and service in the name of the living Christ. One final look at the chapter before passing on, causes v. 7 to grip me. We are to be “rooted and built up in Him; stablished in the faith; abounding therein with thanksgiving." Let us not miss the vital connection of these things. The spirit of thankful ness is undoubtedly the, atmosphere in which faith becomes ver dant. -It is doubtful if one’s )faith can grow at all if it does not pause to count blessings and’express gratitude to God. Six times in this epistle, the thought of thankfulness is brought in. It must be a vital element. Bishop Moule declares that “no heart is more vulnerable to doubt and Spiritual delusion than the unthankful heart which will not walk in the sunshine of the Lord.” “Count your many blessings, Every doubt will fly, And you will be singing As the days go by.” The literal translation here is: “If ye then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” It is another case of the blessed past so often used in referring to the true believer’s position. Upon the absolute declaration of fact, that in God’s reckoning, when Christ died, we died, and that when He arose, we were raised, Paul draws a logical conclusion, “Seek those things which are above.” Let your state be consistent with your exalted standing. If His rising was our rising, logically His life should be our life before men. If He is a perfect substitute for us, we can do nothing less than reveal before the world our identi fication with Him. If the death of Christ has meant the burial of our.sins, surely the living Christ should be the source of our holiness. As we ascend after Him in our desires, His repre sentative, the Holy Spirit, leaps to our aid. J anuary 10, 1929 THRONE-LIFE Text: Col. 3:1 J anuary 9, 1929 THANKFULNESS Text: Col. 2:7
J anuary S, 1929
FULNESS
Text: Col. 2:9-10
“In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (with bodily manifestation). The word rendered “Godhead” is the strongest term that could be found to express absolute Deity. It means more than divinity,” a word which is rather elastic. It makes Jesus not only the Son of God but God the Son. It is a clear statement of the meaning of the incarnation. Jesus was not half God and half man, but Deity in bodily mani festation. Observe also the word “dwelleth,” indicating a per manent condition. God was not incarnate for 33 years only. The God-man is at the right hand of the throne now and is coming back, as such, to reign. In Christ we shall ever meet Deity in all its fulness. Whoever has Christ has God. He who thinks he must have something more than Jesus to save his soul, takes the position that he needs more than God. As in the first chapter, after getting a profound statement as to the deity of Christ, we are brought back to the truth which is the heart of the New Testament, that Jesus died for our sins. We who were “dead in sins have been quickened together with Him.” AH our trespasses are forgiven because the God-man died upon the cross “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us—and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” We were in a hopeless state of indebtedness. Jesus came, and by bearing our sins “in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24) canceled our bond, blotted out the signature that was against us, paid our debt, and set us free. So complete was His work for us that the Apostle says, not only that the con demning writing 1 was blotted out, but the bond itself torn up and cast away. REDEMPTION J anuary 6 , 1929 Text: Col. 2:13-14 PHILOSOPHY Text: Col. 2:8 In all the world’s philosophies, there is nothing that ap proaches the levels of the Christian philosophy of redemption worked out by Incarnate Deity. It is well to notice the warning of this chapter against deceiving materialistic philosophies. “Be- wàre lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The word “philosophy” occurs but once in our New Testa ment, and then in a bad sense. The word is of noble origin. Pythagoras (600 B. C.) declined the title of “wise man,” pre ferring the more humble title of “lover of wisdom” (philoso- phos). The word has come to be associated with subtle reason ings, and some who pose as philosophers have none of the humil ity of Pythagoras. The love of wisdom can never be a dan gerous thing to those who know Christ and the “wisdom which cometh from above.” “He nailed my sentence to the tree, The law’s decree of death to me, And there, when He was crucified, The law that claimed the sinner died.” J anuary 7, 1929
J anuary 11, 1929
THINKING
Text: Col. 2:2-3
“There is a life deep hid in God, Where all is calm and still, Where, listening to His Holy Word, One learns to trust, until All anxious care Is put away And there is peace profound alway.”
In the first verse, we were exhorted to “seek those things which are above.” We are _now told to “set our affections upon” them. Not only are we to seek heaven; we are to think heaven. “As a man thinketh, -so is he.” Heavenly mindedness comes from setting the affections upon the things above. Weymouth renders it: “Give your mind to the things above.” This is not neglecting
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