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#3.
Colossians.
pp. 121, 122
---Illustration---
(BE-XXIV.121).
This epistle is a companion to the epistle to the Ephesians. It traverses the same
ground so far as the revelation of the mystery is concerned, but lays more stress upon the
Headship of Christ, and devotes its central member to a solemn note of warning:
"Beware" (Col. 2: 8).
This note of warning speaks of three items, namely, philosophy, tradition and
rudiments. We have accordingly adopted the triangular danger sign in this chart. Nailed
to the post and "blotted out" will be seen those items enumerated in Col. 2: 14-17.
While Colossians corresponds mainly with Ephesians, it also indicates the glorious
encouragement the reader--like the reader of Philippians--has for pressing on to
"perfection". This we have indicated, using the desire of Paul (Col. 1: 28), and the prayer
of Epaphras (Col. 4: 12) to draw attention to the fact that our experimental
"presentation", through heading the warning and teaching of the apostle, is but our
realization and standing upon the completeness that is already ours in Christ (Col. 1: 22,
2: 10).
There are three hidden things in Colossians, and in the actual chart used at Bible
meetings the centre of the triangle contained the word "Hope", and two rectangular
panels contained the words "Riches" and "Glory". These panels were then removed,
revealing underneath, three hidden things:--
(1)
The hidden mystery (Col. 1: 26).
(2)
The hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2: 3).
(3)
The life hid with Christ until glory (Col. 3: 3, 4).
We have been obliged to resort to the expedient of partly removing these panels--and
trust the reader will understand.
The secret of Colossians is that the believer is so complete or "filled full" in Christ,
that he has no room for either philosophy, tradition, rudiments, ordinances or
observances, but finds that for all things "Christ is all and in all".