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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1934
C O L O S S I A N S . . , Heresies and Verities h e r e y y B y ROY L. L^URIN San Gabriel, {California
O u r in q u ir y into the gist of Colossians commences with the purpose of the letter. The purpose which prompted its writing lies deep in the life of the people of this particular church. It will be remembered that Paul is still in prison at Rome. Here, in spite of his chains, he has much liberty. He has liberty to preach among his fellow prisoners and also to the Roman officials, so that he and his preaching have come to be noticed even in the court of Caesar. But why should this imprisoned man who awaits the tyranny of Caesar be concerned with the affairs of a little church away off in Phrygia, a church which he has never seen? You will understand the reason when you remember that Paul is some one more than a pris oner of Caesar. He is a “prisoner of the Lord”—the in strument whom the Holy Spirit used to write this notable Christian document. The Holy Spirit included not only the correction and edification of these local Colossians in His purpose, but also all later churches and all future believers. There is a community of circumstances which prevails throughout all ages, and there is a certain sameness of human nature which causes the heresies of yesterday to become the heresies of today. It will be noticed by a careful reader of the New Testa ment that the Word has very little to say about the ma chinery of church organization. What we generally con sider organizational principles have come largely from experience and precedent. But, on the other hand, the New Testament has a great deal to say about doctrine and practice. This letter was sent to Colosse by the hand of Tychicus, who likewise bore the Ephesian letter. It is a letter of con trasts—contrasts between heresies and verities. T he H eresies We have come upon a day in the Christian church when it is widely affirmed that there should be less emphasis upon doctrine and more emphasis upon living. This con viction is being espoused by an ever-growing party of anti- doctrinalists. Now, we do not discount by a single degree the great importance of' living, but, without doctrine, which in reality is just Christianity’s way of life, how shall one know how to live? Doctrine is to living what the skeleton is to the body. It is the framework of reality and func tion ; and unless there is a framework of true doctrine in our Christianity, there cannot be the reality of true living. Paul bore down very heavily upon.heresy. He exercised an unremitting vigilance against false teaching. He appar ently had great occasion to do so. So do we, for heresy exists today as it did then. In our day, we are developing with sickening rapidity the heresy of heresies, which is the denial and minimizing of doctrine as of practical value in Christian teaching. We are so liberalizing our church con science that heresy can now join hands with orthodoxy in the same church and with the same sanction; and if that sanction is not the sanction of conviction, it is at least the sanction of tolerance.
Paul here delivers a master blow against all heresy and all wrong teaching. He uncovers four local heresies in this Colossian church—heresies from which there rise all other possible heresies. 1. The Heresy o f Rationalism ( 2 :8). This heresy has given rise to modernism in all its deadly forms. The Bible is not an enemy of philosophy as such, but it is an enemy of philosophy rooted in the “tradition of men” and founded on the “rudiments of the world.” In this case, the “tradition of men” was rabbinical theology, and rabbinical theology was a system of religious philos ophy developed apart from the law and the prophets. It was traditional and was handed down from one generation to another. But it belonged to the “elements of the world,” for its highest authority was not God’s revelation but man’s reason. The chief fault of this rationalism of Colosse was that it was not only "after the tradition of men” and “ after the rudiments of the world,” but was also “ not after Christ! ’ And any philosophy that ignores Jesus Christ is false and heretical. All philosophy is in one sense or another a way of life, but no way of life can be complete without Christ, who came that “they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” And when philosophies are “not after Christ,” they are in a very serious sense “ fooloso- phies.” The fatal weakness of all philosophy is in the calcula tions or miscalculations of the philosophers, for, as has been wisely said, “Philosophers are too apt to forget that their plans are laid for a race of logical, reasonable, faultless creatures, but they must be worked out by a seething, struggling rabble of capricious, weak, and roguish schemers and dreamers whose principles are wax, whose blood is hot, and whose very breath is folly.” And Jesus Christ, knowing these human propensities, proposed not only a way o f life, but was prepared to give also a new life, so that all who followed Him could live this way of life. This omission of Christ from philosophy is a virtual denial of Christ, and this is the ultimate effect of all rationalism. It is the effect of the religious rationalism in the churches of today. It is an effect which is spoken of in 2 Peter 2:1: “But there . . . shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” Then there is an educational rationalism which through the past century has swarmed in our educational centers. While the effect of religious rationalism is to deny “the Lord that bought them,” the effect of educa tional rationalism is . to deny the God who made them. And instead of a healthy, normal theism in education, we are developing a poisonous humanism. Mr. Philip E. Wentworth, in an article in the Atlantic Monthly of June, 1932, entitled, “What College Did to My Religion,” states that two years in Harvard made him a Unitarian; four years there made him an atheist. He goes on to say, “Nine young men and women out of every ten who will graduate this June (1932) would probably admit, if
With this article, the pastor o f the San Gabriel Union Church concludes his series o f four studies on "The Gist of Four j Great Letters .”— E ditor .
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