Paul's Warnings
 

by Alan Turner

   

“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:4-5).

According to Paul, vain philosophy is a brigand that, if we are not careful, will take us captive and steal from us our spiritual possessions. Deception, long the technique of those who would cheat and steal, is the major device of all man-made philosophy. Promising everything, it delivers nothing; claiming to be one thing, it turns out to be something else entirely!

Too many of us have either forgotten Paul’s warning or no longer believe it. We have been seduced into thinking that man-made philosophies are religiously neutral, even though they decidedly are not. Seemingly unaware of the paradigm of idolatry, we have become enchanted by the smorgasbord of thoughts/ideas/philosophies that obscure the way, pervert the truth, and totally wreck our spiritual lives. We must be reminded that it was Jesus who said: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). What this means is that apart from the way, there is no going; apart from the truth there is no knowing; and apart from the life, there is no spiritual living. This, quite frankly, is why the apostle Paul said that “every thought” must be brought “into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

In Colossians 3:17, Paul wrote that everything one does in “word or deed” is to be done “in the name of the Lord” (i.e., by the Lord’s authority). But how can one’s actions be correct if one is not thinking properly? And how can one be thinking properly if one has not brought “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”? Therefore, it is clear the Lord calls upon His disciples to out-think, out-live, and out-die those all around us who are both in and of the world.

All man-made philosophies are destined for total defeat. It is, therefore, ludicrous that those of us who have been “called out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9) would want to return again to the “weak and beggarly elements” of this world, symbolized in the Bible as spiritual darkness (cf. Gal 4:9; Eph 4:17-20; Col 1:9-14).

Today, our theological chickens are coming home to roost. We are creating idols for our own destruction (cf. Hos 8:4). If we don’t repent, we will be destroyed for or ignorance of God’s Word (cf. Hos 4:6). As the Lord’s own unique and special people, we will either reject, resist, and repent of these destructive heresies, or we will be “cut off.” As free moral agents, the choice is ours. None of us is immune. Tickets punched can and will be unpunched if we do not continue to meet the conditions of His magnificent grace. Therefore, self-examination is not out of order for anyone, even the most devout. We must remember that whatever is on the throne in our hearts and minds, whatever controls our lives, is our idol. It may be “mammon” (Matt 6:24); it may be personal pleasure (cf. Phil 3:19); it may be one’s work or family; it may be drugs; it may be “omnipotent,” “infallible” science; or it may be just SELF (cf. Dan 5:23). Whatever it is, it must be abandoned.

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So the people answered and said: ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods’” (Jos 24:14-16).

  

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