(AI): “If you ever lose confidence in the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, it means you start to doubt that Jesus alone can provide everything you need for salvation and a fulfilling life, potentially looking to other sources or actions to fill the gaps in your faith, which goes against the core Christian belief that Jesus is enough on his own.”

The theme of the letter to the Colossians is “the all sufficiency of Christ”. Paul is in house arrest in Rome for 2 years around 60 AD, during which he wrote his 4 prison epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Epaphras started the church in Colossae. Epaphras was a coworker of Paul’s and a native of Colossae. He likely converted to Christianity while Paul was in Ephesus. Maybe he was converted while Paul was teaching two years in the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus. Paul would have laid his hands on him and given him miraculous gifts. He then returned to Colossae to spread the gospel. He probably ministered to the Colossae church for several years. He traveled to Rome to update Paul on the church’s condition. That’s how Paul knew about the heresy being spread at Colossae. He became Paul’s fellow prisoner in Rome. (AI): “During Paul’s three-year stay at Ephesus, “all the residents of Asia (including Colossae), both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10, CSB). It is quite possible that Paul, while in Ephesus, had led Epaphras to Christ, discipled him, and then commissioned him as a church-planter to Colossae.”

Picture Paul in Rome writing a letter to the house church(es) in Colossae after Epaphras told him about the false teaching being spread in Colossae. Mind you that the church there doesn’t have a copy of the New Testament yet. They might have had access to the gospel. But Paul is dealing with a very specific issue that maybe Epaphras is not able to deal with. The Colossians would have respected Paul as an apostle and hopefully they dealt with the issues after receiving Paul’s letter. It makes you thankful that we have the completed New Testament “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14).

What was the heresy being spread in the church there? This wasn’t a minor dispute over eating meats. The heresy attacked the very nature and sufficiency of Christ. (AI) “The concept of “all-sufficiency”: This means that Jesus’ sacrifice and power are enough to cover all your needs, including forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and strength to live a godly life; you don’t need to add anything else to be saved or live a righteous life.”

(AI): “The “Colossian Heresy” refers to a set of false teachings that spread within the early Christian church in Colossae, which Apostle Paul addressed in his Epistle to the Colossians; this heresy likely involved a mixture of Jewish legalism, pagan mysticism, and angel worship, essentially downplaying the supremacy of Christ and emphasizing the need for additional rituals or practices beyond faith in Jesus for salvation. 

Key points about the Colossian Heresy:

Secret knowledge:The false teachers might have presented their beliefs as a form of “secret knowledge” accessible only to a select few. 

Focus on angels:A significant aspect of the heresy was the excessive reverence or worship of angels, potentially viewing them as intermediaries between God and humans, diminishing Christ’s role. 

Ascetic practices:The heresy might have also promoted strict asceticism, encouraging practices like fasting and self-denial beyond what was necessary. 

Jewish legalism:Some elements of the heresy could have involved adherence to Jewish laws like circumcision or dietary restrictions, even for Gentile Christians.”

The false teachers were persuasive. Colossians 2:⁴ I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments. 2:⁸ See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.  2:¹⁶ Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— ¹⁷ things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”

False teachers are still very persuasive today, deceiving many Christians. Following Christ is really pretty simple. You acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior. You put your faith in His atoning death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. You try to stop “practicing” sin. You try to love fellow Christians and the lost. You try to allow Jesus to lead you in every aspect of your life. You try to obey his commands. You try to be a loving mate, child, worker, neighbor, and influence with everyone in your life. Then some persuasive false teacher comes along and says, “what you are doing is not enough. You need to keep some of the food and feast laws of the Old Testament”(even though they were given to the Jews and you are not a Jew, you are a Gentile Christian under the new covenant:the Seventh Day Adventists do this). “You need to have some secret knowledge that is not in the New Testament” (the Mormons do that with the Book of Mormons which they say is equal to the New Testament in authority; Christian Science does this with their special healing concepts taken from their prophetess). “You have the wrong view of the nature of Christ; he was a created being, not eternal” (the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that and then use persuasive arguments to get you to believe that Jesus invisibly came in 1914 AD to establish the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses and that you need to join).”

Or maybe a persuasive teacher (not so radical as the cult teachers mentioned above) comes along and says, “Here is a list of doctrines that you must follow: no instrumental music in worship, Lord’s Supper every Sunday, no jewelry, infant baptism, etc and you can’t fellowship with others who don’t adhere to these teachings” (the doctrines might just be honest attempts to teach the truth, but it is legalism to make minor doctrines as tests of fellowship with other Christians). “You need to come worship with us b/c we have a pastor or prophet who gets visions from God to guide us” (many cults have latter day prophets who rely on visions they have seen). “You need to speak in tongues to really be a spiritual Christian and you need to follow our Spirit led prophets” (the Bethel group does that as well as many Pentecostal groups: speaking in tongues might not be a heaven/hell issue but it can’t be used to make believers feel more spiritual than others who don’t do such practices).

Indeed we have plenty of the “Colossian heresy” today among religious groups. You might wonder why false teachers would come up with all these heretical or divisive teachings. Maybe it is just a desire for control or power over others, to make the false teacher feel more important b/c of his/her teaching. Maybe even money or sexual motives. Maybe an honest attempt to get people to believe in truths that he/she thinks other believers have missed, but even if that is the case they should not cause division.

But Paul says that the. root of the problem of the heresy is that some are not totally sold on the “all sufficiency of Christ”. Again: “The concept of “all-sufficiency”: This means that Jesus’ sacrifice and power are enough to cover all your needs, including forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and strength to live a godly life; you don’t need to add anything else to be saved or live a righteous life.” We should focus all our attention, devotion, and study on Christ and not issues, new philosophy, new rules and regulations, new forms of spirituality, new intellectual debates, new revelations, etc. Since Christ is the head of the body, he does give us all the basic truths we need. His revelation through the inspired apostles and prophets as recorded in the New Testament is sufficient for us. We won’t come up LGBQT approval if we trust in the sufficiency of His revelation. We won’t listen to a pope as the head of the church. We won’t accept extra books like the Book of Mormon. We won’t follow some latter day prophet. We might sit around in a house church and discuss issues and doctrines, and we can have minor disagreements, but we will always trust Jesus’ new covenant to keep us straight!

We will not feel like we have to keep more rules to be more righteous. We will trust in the reckoned or imputed righteousness of Christ that is given us by our faith in Jesus. We won’t feel like we need some extra secret knowledge or false spirituality to be more spiritual.

We are now ready for Paul’s doctrinal statement of the “all sufficiency of Christ”:

Colossians 1:¹³ For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: ¹⁶ for ^[y]by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, ²⁰ and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

²¹ And although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, ²² yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am supplementing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in behalf of His body, which is the church. ²⁵ I was made a minister of this church according to the commission from God granted to me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, ²⁶ that is, the mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints, ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing every person and teaching every person with all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Christ. ²⁹ For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power which works mightily within me.“

Paul gives 12 facts about Christ in these verses:

1. He is King  (verse 13). We are translated into his spiritual kingdom, the church, which is his figurative body of the saved. Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16) . 
2. He is our Redeemer (verse 14). The Greek is apolutrósis: Redemption:  release effected by payment of ransom. He frees us from the power of death and sin. The ransom price is paid to God to appease His wrath against our sin. His grace will cover you if you sincerely try. His blood will continue to cleanse us of our sins (1 John 1:7). Ephesians 1:⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight”.
3. The image of the invisible God (verse 15). The Greek is eikón: Image, likeness, representation, as with the image of an emperor on a coin. “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 1:9)
4. The firstborn of all creation (verse 15). The Greek is prototokos: Firstborn but in the sense that the firstborn son has preeiminence or soverignty over other sons. Jesus was the not the first thing created by God like the JW’s teach. Paul makes that clear in the next verse.
5. Creator of all things (verse 16). John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” He is the creator of all things, so he can’t be part of the creation itself.
6. He is eternal (verse 17). “Before Abraham was, I Am” (John 5:58). Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” Isaiah 9:For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” If he is eternal, then he was not created.
7. In Him all things hold together (verse 17). What is gravity? What keeps protons and electrons from collapsing into the nucleus of elements? What makes Newton’s laws of motion work? What keeps stars and planets in orbit? It is the power of Jesus who holds all things together.
8. The Head of the Church (verse 18, 24). The head controls every organ in the body and everything that we do. We must look to Jesus, not the pope, to direct everything we do. Ephesians 1:²² And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
9. The firstborn from the dead (verse 18). Again the Greek is prototokos: Firstborn. He was not the first one ever raised from the dead (for example Lazarus were raised by Jesus), but he was the preeminent one ever raised from the dead. His resurrection would verify Christianity.
10. The has first place in everything (verse 18). The Greek is próteuó: To have the first place, to be preeminent, the first in importance. He must be first in everything thing you think, say, and do. He must be first priority in your life.
11. In Him the fullness of God dwells (verse 19). The Greek is pléróma: Fullness, completion, that which fills. In other words, the Father filled Jesus with everything that He, the Father, is. He is God. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 20:²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Believed what? Believed, like Thomas, that Jesus is Lord and God!
12. He is our reconciliation with God (verse 20-22). The Greek is apokatallassó: To reconcile completely, to restore to favor. It emphasizes the total restoration of a relationship that was once broken due to sin. Romans 5:¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 2 Coriinthians 5:¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling^[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Christ then is all sufficient for those who trust in Him. If you are just trusting in Jesus and walking in the light, then you don’t need anything or anyone else. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need something else to be “complete in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). It is “Christ in you” that is the hope of the glory of eternal life (Colossians 1:27). Focus on who Christ is and what he provides for you instead of your religious works and good deeds.

Let’s finish where we started. (AI): “If you ever lose confidence in the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, it means you start to doubt that Jesus alone can provide everything you need for salvation and a fulfilling life, potentially looking to other sources or actions to fill the gaps in your faith, which goes against the core Christian belief that Jesus is enough on his own.” When you have problems, do you believe that Christ is sufficient to give you the strength to handle the problem? When you feel like you are no doing enough or that you don’ know enough, do you trust Jesus to save you anyway? When someone is trying to add things that you need to be complete in Christ, can you tell them, “No thanks. Jesus is all I need.”

I close with a song. “Jesus is all the world to me.” You can listen to the song on youtube.

1 Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without him I would fall:
When I am sad, to him I go,
No other one can cheer me so;
When I am sad, he makes me glad,
He’s my friend.

2 Jesus is all the world to me,
My friend in trials sore;
I go to him for blessings, and
He gives them o’er and o’er:
He sends the sunshine and the rain,
He sends the harvest’s golden grain;
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain,
He’s my friend.

3 Jesus is all the world to me,
And true to him I’ll be;
Oh, how could I this friend deny,
When he’s so true to me?
Following him I know I’m right,
He watches o’er me day and night;
Following him by day and night,
He’s my friend.

4 Jesus is all the world to me,
I want no better friend;
I trust him now, I’ll trust him when
Life’s fleeting days shall end:
Beautiful life with such a friend,
Beautiful life that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy,
He’s my friend.