You can read today’s text by clicking on this sentence.
‘See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority’
These verses have so much power to them it’s almost unfair.
Where does the power lie in your life, in mine? We can think we need to find ways to assert ourselves, our independence. Our society demands that we submit to leaders for the common good (a common good which not many of us have often agreed to and seems to shape-shift to fulfil the demands of political expediency), as Jesus does of course, in telling us to ‘give to Caesar what is Caesar’s’ (but what might that be?). Here though, the writer of Colossians reminds us of a key point with which to begin our year: all of God is in Jesus, and we have everything we need and were made to be in him. He is where our focus is to be. He is the source of our life, our breath, every need or lack we had is met by him and in him. It may well not feel like it, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
I’ve always found the concept of being ‘in Christ’ a challenge. I think in part it’s because everyday life feels so immediate, so pressing, that I’m so ‘in the world’, that the idea of being ‘not of it’ doesn’t get much of a chance to take root and develop. There’s so much injustice that we’ve been asked to partner with God in seeking to fight and overcome. There’s so much of society which sorely lacks hope, that needs to hear the Good News of joy, peace, possibility and freedom in Christ. As an activist-y kind of person, I’m always wanting to get stuck in, bring about as much change as I can, make a better world, make the world I live in today more like the new world that Jesus promises us is coming in the future.
But here’s a question: when I’m working hard to bring about the world that I think is the one that God is building, when I’m going forth and making disciples, baptising them in Jesus’s name, am I letting God begin the building of that world with me, in me? Am I content to be in Christ, or am I seeking to grow something that looks like what he lived and died for, but is actually my own version of it, inadvertently leaving him out? To my understanding, if we have been brought to fulness in Christ, then we have. If we’re brought to fulness, we’re already at fulness. We’re already ‘in’ Christ. There’s not a further way for us to be ‘in’ Christ. We don’t need to work harder, become more tired, sacrifice more and more, seek new ways to suffer, or find ways to impose our doctrines and our way of life on others. Jesus has done what needs to be done to bring us life, hope and a future already. My worry and stress will not make me any more alive. More to the point they may well cause me to lose sight or focus on the simple glorious truth of just how fully I am alive.
I have the choice to live my life directed God’s way, but that does not bring me more life, more fulness. Those are God’s to give to me.
To be in Christ is the safest, most secure place to be. Let’s enjoy resting there today.