THE K I N G ’ S B US I NE S S
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do who seek to judge of the things of faith by the principles of philos ophy.” Well does Paul call their “ philosophy” , “ vain deceit,” empty deception (cf. Rom. 1:22; 1 Cor. 3:18). It was after “ the traditions (that is, handed down from one to another) of men.” That is what all our boasted “ scholarship” is at its best, it is merely human, a handing down from one man to another of what men fancy that they have discovered, and “ scholarship” is constantly being discovered to be wrong. He indeed is a fool who bows at the- shrine of “ scholarship,” which throughout all the centuries has so often been proven to be mistaken, instead of bowing in submission of mind before God Who is never mistaken and “ cannot lie.” It is “ after the rudi ments (i. e., elementary principles, a b c’s) of the world,” not after the higher grades of heaveply wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-8), “ and not after Christ,” in Whom are hid all the treasures of real wisdom and knowledge (cf. v. 3). Take all human philosophy, all merely human wisdom and scholarship, and write upon it “ not after Christ,” i. e. not according to His Divine and iner- rant wisdom, not making Him Who is the truth (John 14:6; Col. 2.3) its sub ject. That is condemnation enou'gh. But each generation fancies its philo sophy is different from the philosophy of the generations that have gone before, and that at last we have attained to something real and solid, but that is exactly what the last gener ation thought about its philosophy and the generation before it about its. SUNDAY, Nov. 26th. Col. 2:9, 10. Paul now shows how a philosophy that is not “ after Christ” is false and hurtful, viz. “ For (rather, because) in Him dwelleth (dwelleth permanently) all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” This being true, the true and full knowledge of God will come through a study of Him. There is no fulness'of being, attributes or glory in God that is not also in Christ, the actual, literal, historical Christ Jesus. He is God manifest in the flesh, “ bodily,” in a bodily way (cf. John 1:14; 14:9). The word “ Godhead” expresses Deity in the strongest possible way. It would be impossible to express in a stronger way the proper and full Deity of Christ than the Holy Spirit through Paul expresses it here. In Him in whom all the ful- .ness of Deity dwells permanently we
according to what they had already been “ taught.” This teaching had been done by Epaphras, (cf. Ch. 1 :7). In all this growth they were not only to be faithful but to he “ abounding in thanksgiving” (cf. ch. 4:2; Phil. 4:6; Eph. 5:20; 1 Thess. 5:18). Paul is the Apostle of thanksgiving, the words “ thankful,” “ give thanks,” or “ thanks giving” occur in Paul’s writings alone of the apostolic epistles. SATURDAY* Nov. 25th. Col. 2 A Here Paul warns them against the danger that was peculiarly strong in their day and country, and it is also peculiarly strong in our day and coun try— the danger from “ philosophy,” from mere human speculation, from pride of intellect (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18-31; 2:1-16; 3:18-21). “ Take heed,” says Paul (and one must be constantly look ing sharply if he is not to fall into this snare that is constantly coming up in new forms but which is always essen tially the same), “ lest there shall be any one (it matters not who he or what his pretensions be to “ scholarship” or “ piety” or “ beauty of character ) that maketh spoil of you (lead you away as his wretched captive— cf. 2 Tim. 3:6) through his philosophy.” How many there are in our day who have been led away through some man’s “ philos ophy!” The history of “ philosophy” is a most instructive study;' anyone who studies it with an open mind will see that “ philosophy” is an endless search after nothing, a search after the bag of gold at the end of the rainbow. Philos ophy is always seeming to approach a settled conclusion but never arriving at it. Every new philosopher mocks at those who have gone before and will in turn be mocked at by those who come after but the influence of “ philosophy, the emptiest of all the sciences, if in any sense it has a right to be called a science (rather, it is what Paul calls it here “ vain deceit” ), upon theology has been most disastrous from the days of the early Gnostics "down to the pres ent day, when in many schools of the ology men do not go to the Bible to see what God has been pleased to reveal, but go to their reason and profess to reason out what ought to be the truth. Quesnel says, “No doubt the false teachers of Colossae posed as sreat intellectualists,” and one says, folly indeed is it to seek to establish a sci ence wholly Divine on foundations wholly human. And this is what they
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