the recognition of the fullness of Christ, and moreover, in Christ are hid all the

treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If this be true, you can be proof against the

enticing words of those who would otherwise beguile you. Beware lest any man

carry you off, as plunder, by vain deceitful philosophy, which is according to the

traditions of men, and the rudiments of the world, but which is not according to

Christ. You hear from these philosophers much about attaining unto the pleroma

by means of ascetic practices, but I tell you that in Christ dwells all the fullness

of the Godhead bodily, and this is vitally connected with the purpose of the ages,

and the church of the One Body. Out of His fullness we all may draw, and ye are

already complete (or filled to the full) in Him, Who, in His capacity as the

incorporation of the fullness, is not only Head over all things to the church, but is

Head also of all principality and power.

Coming now to the matter in hand, all this ill-treatment of the body is

valueless. Something more terrible than anything that we can ever accomplish

was required to annul the body of the flesh, the old man--nothing less, indeed,

than the cross of Christ and His triumphant resurrection.

In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,

in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (the practical

and experimental side of which is developed in 3: 5-14). Christ has put off the

body of the flesh; you now, in the strength of your new position in Him, put off

the old man with his deeds, having been buried with Him in His baptism of

suffering and death on the cross, wherein also ye have been raised with Him,

through faith in the working of God Who raised Him from the dead. And you

being dead to your trespasses and to the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has

made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses: having blotted

out the handwriting of ordinances which was against us, and contrary to us,

removing it from the midst, nailing it as a cancelled bond to His cross. Here the

true circumcision took place, where He, and we in Him, put off the body, and

then and there He made a public show of principalities and powers, leading them

in triumph by that very cross which, at first, seemed the symbol of all that was

weak and futile.

If this is your assured position "in Christ" and "with Christ" surely you will

not allow any man to judge you over such things as meat or drink, feasts or

sabbaths, for these are but shadows of good things to come; you have the

substance already in Christ. Now all this impinges upon the question of your

perfecting. No man can rob you of your membership in the body of Christ, but

he may distract you that you will fail in the race and so be cheated of the prized

of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let the peace of God be the umpire in your hearts, and not the fantastic

speculations of these visionaries who, in self-willed defiance of truth, pretend to

humility and angel worship, intrude into secret things veiled by God from our

eyes, and all the time are failing in the one thing that matters, failing to hold the

Head. Seeing you are all members of His body, your only means of growth is by

vital contact with the Head and with one another, for just as the body is

ministered to by joints and ligaments, nerves and arteries, drawing all, finally,

from the head that controls every function in the body, so is it with the mystical

body of Christ. Introspection is harmful and is destructive of all true progress in

It is not a matter of argument, however; it is not a matter of philosophy,

tradition, or the elements of world; it resolves itself into the simple issue, Did

you die with Christ from the rudiments of the world? If so, being dead to these