When Something More Is Something Less:
An Introduction to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians
A Sermon by the Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Baton Rouge, LA
I am calling this exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, When Something More Is Something Less. In the church at the ancient city of Colosse, a group of false teachers sought to convince these Colossian Christians that they needed something more than what they had received when they came to faith in Christ. These false teachers promised superior knowledge and a better method for achieving moral purity than could be obtained simply by faith in Christ. But the Apostle Paul warns the Christians at Colosse that this “something more” promised by the false teachers was, in fact, “something less,” and this something less would lead them into grave spiritual danger.
As we begin our study of this very important and highly relevant epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, let us start by reading three verses from the second chapter, verses 8-10, which I think contain the central theme of the entire book: “Beware 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. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
One of the great temptations of the people of Israel throughout their history was to combine the worship of the true and living God with the paganism of the surrounding nations. Sometimes their apostasy was so great that they simply left the worship of the Holy One of Israel altogether and simply worshiped Baal, Ashtaroth, Molech, the heavenly bodies, or any of the other host of false gods and goddesses of their pagan neighbors. But since God had clearly commanded them, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” they sometimes decided that it was a bad idea to abandon completely the worship of God, so they decided that they would just combine some of the beliefs and practices of these false religions with the worship of the God of Israel, sometimes worshiping God along with the gods of other nations.
The people of Israel fell into this practice almost immediately after having been delivered from the slavery of Egypt. When Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they made a golden calf, but if you had accused them of worshiping another god, they would have denied it. Their worship of the golden calf in Exodus 32:4-6, is described in this way “And he [Aaron] ….fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” A better translation of verse 4 would be, “This be thy god, O Israel.” As far as they were concerned, they were still worshiping the Lord, for Aaron says in verse 5, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” The word for “Lord” here is “yhwh,” the covenant name of God. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, just as they would to the Lord. They thought they were worshiping the Lord, but they were worshiping him the way the Egyptians would worship Apis, the bull deity of ancient Egypt. This is an example of what we now call “syncretistic religion,” a combination, an amalgam, a merging, a fusion of different religions into one.
Then, once the children of Israel got into Canaan, the temptation to borrow from false religions was even greater. There were certain things that these false religions offered that were very attractive to the sinful lusts of the flesh. The worship of Baal, for example, was a fertility religion that included various sexual practices as a key element of its faith. What better way to grow a religion than with something like tantric sex-- that sexual pleasure is the gateway to enlightenment, a way to become one with whatever you want to become one with. Baal was also a weather god who would bring the right kind of climate for growing crops. In other words, Baal was a god of health, wealth, and prosperity. So, the people of Israel took a little of this from Baal, a little of that from Ashtaroth, a little of this from Molech, and combined it with the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The prophet Elijah confronted this kind of syncretism when he challenged the people of Israel, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God follow him, but if Baal, follow him.” The people of Israel were worshiping both Baal and the Lord, but Elijah said that it can’t be done.
We see this syncretistic religion practiced again in II Chronicles 33, where we have a description of how even the wicked king Manasseh repented and began to dismantle the idolatrous worship he had once supported and in which he had participated. But despite his reforms, we read in II Chronicles 33:16-17 And he [Manasseh] repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD their God only.” So, the people were still going to the high places, those places where idolatrous worship was carried out, but they are described as not sacrificing to the pagan gods. They were still sacrificing on the high places, but only to the Lord. But this kind of worship blended pagan worship with the worship of God. Sacrifices were not to be offered on the high places, but in the temple.
Over the centuries, we see the Jews continuing to combine elements of the surrounding culture into the worship of God. In the book of Colossians, we find a first-century example of just such a movement. People sought spiritual answers in various pagan religions and Judaism. Around 55 A. D., a Christian named Epaphras visited Colosse. It was probably he who first preached the Gospel to these people and founded the first church in this city. As far as we know, the Apostle Paul never visited Colosse. In Colossians 2:1, Paul expresses how he is writing to those who “have not seen my face in the flesh.” When Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian church, he was in prison, probably in Rome, though some scholars suggest Ephesus or Caesarea. Epaphras visited Paul during this period of imprisonment and related to him the condition of the church in Colosse. In many ways, this church was doing well, for which the Apostle gives thanks at the beginning of this epistle. But Epaphras had some disturbing news for the Apostle Paul concerning a false teaching in Colosse that could lead to very dangerous heresies and ungodly living. If accepted, this false teaching would undermine the very foundation of the Gospel.
Among Bible scholars, this false teaching has long been called “the Colossian heresy.” Numerous scholars have written books and articles to describe the exact nature of this false teaching, producing at least 40 different theories about its origins and beliefs. Some insist that this heresy was nothing more than a legalistic Judaism, much like that Paul found spreading in the churches of Galatia, which taught that while faith in Christ was a good thing, people also needed to keep all the ceremonial laws of Judaism to be saved. Other scholars go to the opposite extreme and say that this false teaching did not have Jewish roots, but rather a pagan source, possibly a form of the popular mystery religions that were abundant in this area of the world when Colossians was written. Two of the mystery religions that were practiced in this part of the world during the first century were the cults of Cybele and Isis. The mystery religions were called mysteries because their beliefs and practices were kept secret, revealed only to those chosen to be initiated into the cult. But the initiated received a special kind of knowledge (gnosis) that was unknown to the rest of the world. It is easy to see how a Colossian believer might try to incorporate some of these same features into the church's worship, where knowledge is essential. In this Epistle, the Apostle Paul intimates that one characteristic of this false teaching was a special knowledge granted only to a select few. Whoever these false teachers at Colosse may have been, they were promising the Colossian Christians a higher form of spirituality than the one they had obtained simply through faith in Christ.
While it is not possible to say with any certainty if followers of this teaching in Colosse were a specific group, I have come to accept the view that the Colossians faced a heresy that was primarily Jewish in character, but Jewish with a twist—once again a syncretistic Jewish religion that borrowed elements of Greek philosophy and pagan religion. Specifically, I believe the teaching Paul warns against shared many of the elements we find among the Essenes.
That this heresy at Colosse was primarily Jewish in nature can be seen clearly in the second chapter of Colossians verses 16 and 17, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Obviously, Paul is referring here to the dietary laws concerning which foods were clean or unclean and the observances of the Jewish holy days, like the sabbath days. Paul clearly teaches that such laws had passed away with the coming of Christ. But that this kind of Jewish teaching had also borrowed things from pagan culture can be seen in the words of verses 18 and 21: “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind…. will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body.” Paul is describing form a asceticism, that is, denying or abusing the body for a spiritual purpose. Now, this humility and the neglect of the body may have their origin in certain branches of Greek philosophy. Paul had warned them in verse 8, “Beware 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.”
This description of the false teachings leads some scholars to believe it is an incipient form of Gnosticism. It’s not in its complete form yet, as it will develop in the second century, but here we have the basis for those ideas in Greek philosophy. In some branches of Greek thought, matter, the material world, was looked upon as evil. Therefore, your body was evil, but your soul was good. The goal of some forms of Greek philosophy was to free the soul from the body, and one of the ways you achieved that freedom was through neglecting the body, extreme forms of fasting, and if you punish the body enough, ignore the body, you very often have visions. Actually, the visions are hallucinations caused by malnutrition, but many people felt that these visions or trances produced through these methods provided a pure form of spiritual insight.
Now, we can find all of those things in Greek culture. Still, I don’t think we have to look outside Judaism to see those things practiced, because many scholars believe that the Jewish sect, the Essenes, had already combined these beliefs and practices into their theology and lifestyle. We all know that there were many flavors of Judaism in the first century, just as there are many denominations within Christianity. We are most familiar with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots in the New Testament. Then there were the Samaritans, who practiced their own form of worshiping God. But there was another group of Jews not mentioned by name in the New Testament, but they were there—the Essenes. I contend that the Colossian heresy held to many of the ideas promoted by the Essenes. Within the Essene communities, you would find many, if not all, of the beliefs and practices that are mentioned by the apostle Paul in this epistle. I have mentioned this Jewish tendency throughout their history to borrow from other religions and philosophies and incorporate them into their faith, and that seems to have been especially true of the Essenes.
The Essenes, being Jewish, would have observed the dietary laws, the Jewish festivals, and all the rules and regulations concerning “taste, not, touch, and handle not” to remain ceremonially pure. We know that the Essenes were in existence as far back as the second century B. C. Since the Essenes were active during the lifetime of Jesus, some scholars (wrongly, I think), speculate that Jesus and John the Baptist may have been members of the Essene community at some point in their lives, since their teachings and manner of life seem to bear some similarities to those of the Essenes, especially the ascetic life of John the Baptist, wearing camel hair and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey. The Essenes practiced a strict self-discipline that could be interpreted as ascetic, even allowing themselves only a small portion of food each day, trying to limit themselves as much as possible to just bread and water. They refused to obtain new clothing since that might indicate they were falling into pride or worldliness.
But the Essenes had also been influenced by Greek philosophy, especially by the emphasis on a kind of knowledge available only to an elite class. Some scholars have also pointed out that the Essenes incorporated some of the ideas the Jews encountered while in exile and in contact with Zoroastrianism, which explains the emphasis on angels, demons, and even astrology.
Now, the question is often raised: “Could the Jews who lived in Colosse, about 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, have been exposed to the doctrines of the Essenes?” Josephus says that there were only about 4,000 Essenes at the time he was writing in the first century. But though there were only 4,000 of them, their teaching could have spread throughout the Jewish world. If the teaching of Jesus could reach Colosse in only 20 years after his death, then indeed the teaching of the Essenes could have been known there, as they had been around for at least 200 years. Some scholars say that as many as 12,000 Jews were living in Colosse at the time Paul wrote this letter. So, it is highly probable that the ideas of the Essenes had been promulgated not only in Colosse, but in any places that had a large Jewish population.
One of the most important sources of information we have about the Essenes is the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Josephus had once been an Essene, so he was very familiar with their beliefs and customs. Josephus describes in detail their ascetic practices in his book, The Jewish War, Book II. Some of their ascetic practices were so extreme they border on the bizarre. For example, they shunned any kind of physical pleasures because they believed that any kind of physical pleasure got in the way of pursuing the pleasures of the soul.
They saw sexual pleasure as something to be feared, which probably explains why they feared women so much In that part of the world, it was necessary to rub oneself with olive oil to keep skin soft. Without olive oil, the skin becomes dry and hard. But for the Essenes, this concern with the body and the comfort of the body was evil. So they refused to anoint themselves with olive oil, believing that their hard and dry skin was a sign of their serious godliness.
Also, remember that Paul, in Colossians 2:18, warns the Colossians about the worship of angels. The Essenes also had an obsession with angels which may have been an adaptation of Zoroastrianism, which they encountered in the Babylonian/Persian captivity. In Zoroastrian thought, there is the idea that a war is being waged between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, especially in the unseen world of angels. Since human beings are involved in this war as well, they need to be aware of how to placate evil angels and enlist the help of good angels. The making of charms to ward off evil angels was a lucrative business in this part of the world. In the Essene community, knowing the names of angels was important because knowing them could help one avoid evil angels and attract good ones.
Josephus mentions that the Essenes were obsessed with angels and their names. When someone is an Essene, Josephus says, “..he swears that he will impart the precepts to no one otherwise than as he received them, that he will keep away from banditry, and that he will preserve intact their school’s books and the names of the angels.”
This description of Essene life by Josephus seems to cover everything that Paul describes as the false teaching being promulgated in Colosse. But whether the ideas criticized by the apostle Paul came directly from the Essene community in Palestine, the point is that many Jews had incorporated ideas from Greek philosophy, adapted ideas from the pagan mystery religions, and even ideas from their contact during captivity under the Babylonians and Persians. So, it seems to me that this Colossian heresy was a syncretistic religion that combined Judaism with many ideas from the surrounding culture's philosophies and beliefs.
The reason the apostle Paul attacks these teachings so vehemently in this epistle is that they detract from the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Salvation is union with God. Salvation, eternal life, is knowing God. The theme of the book of Colossians is that it is only through Christ that union and communion with God are attained. Keeping the rules and regulations of the Mosaic ceremonial law does not unite us to Christ. All of the Jewish ceremonial law was fulfilled in Jesus. If you are united to him, there is no need to think that those old observances will save you or enhance your spiritual condition. Christ is all we need to enter into union with God, attain the knowledge of God, and grow in holiness of life.
Nor is there a need to be concerned with lesser emanations of God or angels to pursue further enlightenment or closer communion with God. St. Paul writes, “For by him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all thing were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). Since Christ is the creator of all things, including angels, why should anyone be concerned with placating angels or using them as intermediaries to draw nearer to God when people can be united by faith in Christ, the Creator of angels?
Nor is there a need for Christians to seek a greater maturity or “fullness” through esoteric knowledge made possible by initiatory practices of a spiritual elite. St. Paul will keep returning to this concept of fullness because these false teachers were trying to say that these Colossians had not yet experienced the fullness of God—they needed something more. But Paul’s message is that you need not look any further than Christ for spiritual fullness. Paul writes in Colossians 1:19, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.” Christ is all you need to attain spiritual maturity. You need not engage in all sorts of mystical practices at the expense of the body. Paul says in Colossians 2:3 that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” You don’t need to engage in all these rituals and ascetic practices to come to the knowledge of God or draw nearer to him. If you want knowledge, all the knowledge you need is in Christ, whom you already possess by faith, and since this Christ is in you, you are already as near to God as you can be.
In our present age of spiritual thirst and quest, we need St. Paul’s message to the Colossians. At Colosse, people were tempted to borrow from Judaism, the mysticism of the East, and Christianity. We see the same form of syncretism practiced in our culture, even in the churches. The fundamental fallacy of all these syncretistic forms of religion is the belief that Jesus Christ is not sufficient. The Church of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, emphasizes the Scriptural teaching of Christ's sufficiency. Christ dwells in us. To know him in his fullness, all we need is the means he has appointed—prayer, worship, the sacraments, the study and preaching of God’s word, for all these things keep us focused on the fullness of Christ whom we have received by faith. The sacraments of the Church point us to Christ as the source of union with God, and through Christ we receive the forgiveness of sins that separate us from God. The preaching of the gospel is designed to reveal that Christ is sufficient. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 3:21-4). The Greeks, through various forms of philosophy, had not attained the knowledge of God. The simple Christian, without any excellent training in philosophy, has come to the knowledge of God because he is in union with Jesus Christ.
Sadly, the Christian church, in so many ways, falls into the same traps as the people of Israel did when it comes to combining false religions with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seems that throughout the history of the church, our simplicity in Christ has never been enough. Jesus is never enough. Faith in Christ is never sufficient. It must always be Christ plus something more, which is always something less. So, in the book of Galatians, it was Christ plus the law. Christ plus circumcision. Throughout our history, the Church has been tempted to adapt pagan beliefs and practices to the Christian faith.
Throughout our history, Christians have always felt that something is missing. We have said to ourselves, “This can’t be all there is to it. I should be getting more out of my faith and my religious experience than I am. Yes. I am a Christian. I am saved. I am right with God. But still, something is missing.”
Now, it is easy to understand why people are pursuing some meaning, some kind of fulfillment in pursuing these various practices and experiences. Though we live in a materialistic, pleasure-seeking culture where people try to fill the emptiness of their lives with possessions and new thrills, our society is still marked by a profound spiritual hunger. The traditional Christian denominations are being left behind as people seek something more real and solid than liberal/progressive allegorical interpretations of Holy Scripture, and who can blame them? The spiritual vacuum people experience in America and Europe leads them to search everywhere for a new book, a new teacher, or a new church that has, at last, found the answer to the gnawing emptiness they feel.
There will always be false teachers, even among Christians, who will teach us that what we have in Christ is not sufficient. When Christians are having difficulty living by Christ’s commands, someone comes along who has the key and will impart to you a new teaching that will ensure your victory over the powers of darkness. The Colossians knew that they should not engage in immorality, but some of them were probably having difficulty overcoming these temptations, so Paul has to remind them, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). Most of these Christians were probably having a difficult time abandoning their immoral practices, since it had been so much a part of their pagan lifestyle before they became Christians. It may have been that this new teaching offered a way to help them overcome the desires of the flesh through asceticism and learning to deal with evil spiritual forces. In other words, Christ was not enough to give them the power to live a victorious life. These teachers would not have denied that Christ was necessary for salvation. They would have claimed to be Christians themselves, but, having been enlightened, their mission was to tell others about certain ascetic and occult practices one had to engage in to overcome these spiritual forces and the desires of the flesh. Christ alone was not sufficient to deliver them from the power of sin. To be delivered completely from sin, one had to deny the natural, bodily appetites and receive mystical revelations. Paul writes this letter to help the Colossians overcome the false hopes promised by this form of teaching.
Many forms of Christianity make the “ordinary” believer feel inferior. The simple Christian who knows God through his Bible, worship, and the sacraments feels he is missing something. Other Christians have such ecstatic experiences; he wonders whether he should look elsewhere for a more intimate union with Christ. Perhaps an emotional, ecstatic way of worship will lead to a greater knowledge of God and more intimate communion with him.
Most heresies and false teaching begin with a desire for something more. Religious people, especially American Christians, look for the next thrill in Christianity the same way they look for the next thrill in cars or sports. They are prone to believe that something is missing in their lives. If they see someone who seems to have had a deeper experience, who seems to be filled with joy and ecstasy, then they begin to wonder why they can’t be like that. There will never be an end to teachers who will be there to provide you with that “something more.” The false teachers in Colosse told those new converts, “Sure, you have received Christ, but you need something more. They teach that if you want to really know God, you have to engage in ascetic practices. If you really want to know God, then you need to seek the mediation of angels, and engage in these forms of meditation that will lead you to a mystical experience. When people are constantly told that they are missing something in their life experience, then they begin to look elsewhere. Religious discontent never ends. Even when a person has a highly charged emotional experience or a mystical experience of some kind, as the effects of the experience begin to wear off, the person feels he must duplicate that experience, or else experience something even greater. Such people may eventually leave the Christian faith altogether and join a cult that promises an even greater experience.
In other words, the Colossian heresy was precisely the kind of religion that is popular in the United States—a syncretistic religion that borrows not only from different religions but also from various philosophies. While the early Christians found some ideas in Greek philosophy that helped explain multiple aspects of the Christian faith, others went too far, and heresies arose from the temptation to combine too much of the philosophy of the world with the religion of Jesus Christ. We see it in our own day.
Once again, Christ and his gospel are not sufficient. It is Christ plus other religions. Christ plus the world's philosophy. Christ plus health, wealth, and prosperity. We think that when we combine these things with Christ and his gospel, we have discovered something more; in fact, we have traded Christ and his gospel for something far less.
But what the apostle Paul will teach us in the book of Colossians is that all these things that we combine with Christianity—whether we are talking about philosophies or the religious practices of the pagan world—these are all the traditions of men. Look at Colossians 2:8 again: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men.” The great temptation of the church has always been to combine the Christian faith with the traditions of men, and the reason we do that is that we have never fully realized that Christ alone is sufficient. So, join me as we study this epistle to the Colossians, and we will discover how to recognize that Christ alone is enough for all you need. You may not realize it yet, but if you believe in Christ, you have already received the fullness of God and are complete in him. When you understand this great truth, you will never trade your fullness in Christ for something far less. But you will sing with Charles Wesley in his great hymn, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”:
Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find. Amen.