(Col. 2:8-10.)

(Continued from page 440.)

The apostle now warns the Colossians regarding the danger of being made a prey by false teachers. It is not simply that they might be despoiled, or suffer injury from which they could recover in good measure; but that if caught in the web of these evil teachings, the Colossians would become their prize, be held captive by them. It would mean the loss of their spiritual freedom, their precious liberty which is in Christ, resulting in bondage to what suits the world-dragged away as spoil by the enemy. The seriousness of this becomes plain in the light of verses 9 and 10.

The form of teaching here decried is called "Philosophy and vain deceit." Three characteristics are given. It is "according to the teaching of men," and "according to the elements of the world," and "not according to Christ." These are the features which make philosophy a "vain deceit"-empty and meaningless. How could it be otherwise when not of Christ, who is all that verses 9 and 10 state?

This term, "philosophy," occurs only here in the New Testament. It refers to the speculations so rife in the Judaeo-Greek schools of that period. According to their imaginations and reasonings, their teachers sought to fuse Jewish traditional teaching and the so-called Greek "wisdom" (some also introducing Oriental elements), all affected with such notions as the eternity of matter, its inherent evil, creation being the work of inferior and secondary beings, causing it to be remote from and hostile to God, whose Creatorhood was denied, but from whom various emanations took place, forming differing and graded orders of power, authority, and dominion. This systematized polytheism led to the worship of such principalities and powers according to esoteric ceremonies, magical arts, and knowledge which only the initiated possessed, accompanied with ascetic practices more or less strictly enjoined by their devotees.

As early as when Paul wrote this epistle, the truth's great enemy had begun his efforts to corrupt Christianity by grafting upon it such systems of vain speculation. These things have not ceased, though the garb in which they appear may be that of the twentieth century, for they are according to the elements of the intellectual and religious world-system which suits man in his present state. Let us beware of it.

Such philosophy is "according to the teaching of men." This defines its character, and sets up a standard of comparison. It is not of divine origin, not a revelation from God, but is solely of man's own reasonings and imaginations. It is the sum of his self-efforts to solve the many problems which arise for solution as he studies the realm of human life and the creation which surrounds him. This world-wisdom has not made God known (1 Cor. 1:19, 20). The wisest lose themselves in the labyrinth of their own speculations, never reaching a conclusion which satisfies heart and mind. The reason for this is in the source of such wisdom. It is not from above, but made up of the accumulated teachings of the worldly-wise, handed down from age to age.

If we trace the forms given to this worldly lore during the course of the centuries, we observe differences of dress and certain elements which relatively may be called indications of progress in human thought and achievement, but underneath all there is the same skeleton-structure of material and physical ideas to which the moral and spiritual are subordinated, resulting in God being pushed far into the background, mantling Him in darkness impenetrable to the creature, making Him a Being unknowable, toward whom the sense of creature-responsibility is seriously lessened or destroyed. On the other hand both celestial and mundane creatures are pushed forward into undue prominence, even perhaps deified, naturally leading to polytheism and idolatry, and to two very divergent forms of practice, either that of extreme asceticism (in which dishonor is done to the work of the Creator) or moral degradation in which human lust runs riot.

The second feature here mentioned is that philosophy is "according to the elements of the world." Here, the ideas of source and object combine to indicate its character, while in the former statement it is rather the idea of its accordance with or conformity to man in his fallen state. Its fitness or relation is entirely human, not divine-what is human, as away from God. The apostle here speaks, not simply of men, but of a great system called "the world," out of which this philosophy rises and with which it is in agreement. It is what characterizes and rules the system-its elements. There are here far-reaching implications to consider.

"The world" here cannot mean God's wonderful creation, concerning which Scripture furnishes us with divine philosophy, but is that world-system which in all its ramifications bears the stamp of man in his fallen state. This system puts God in the darkness. Scripture associates this system itself with darkness; while on the other hand it declares that God is light, and "in Him is no darkness at all." Not a single element of this world darkness is either in Him or has any relation to Him. Compare Eph. 2:1-3; 5:8,11; 6:12; Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:14; John 1:5; 3:19; 1 John 2:12; 5:19; and the passages which speak of the believer as of the light, in the light, and not of this world.

But though men are prominently the central figures of this world-system, they are not its rulers. There are spiritual world-rulers of this darkness. The system, with its moral and spiritual character (darkness, the opposite of God), has its origin from and is controlled by spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies who through man's agency have given form and character to this world. Fallen, man became subject to these powers under Satan's leadership. The plan of these powers stands revealed in the world-system of which man in his present state is made the central figure. That plan, first disclosed in the garden of Eden, is that man should become as God through rejecting His word. Satan's plotted wickedness against God has sought realization by using the human race, seeking to associate it with himself in his desperate venture to trench upon the glory and supremacy of God. The broad outlines of this plan, "the mystery of iniquity," stand revealed in the light of the New Testament. Here we sound the depths of the source and object of that philosophy which is "not according to Christ."

We have spoken of this philosophy as suiting man in his present state, both intellectually and religiously, being the product of his self-effort, his reasonings and imaginations; but the implications we have considered lead us to think of spiritual powers at work behind the scene. No wonder philosophy nurtured under such influences utterly fails, and leaves men lost in the morass of their own conflicting ideas and opinions. God has decreed that it should be so, and it is His pleasure to save man by "the foolishness of the preaching" (1 Cor. 1:21)-the preaching of Christ by whom the sinner is brought back to God.
"Not according to Christ"-this at once sounds the knell of doom to such philosophy, and also calls faith to turn away the eye to view the glorious vista which breaks upon its vision as God's wisdom, His eternal purpose in Christ, as now revealed by the Holy Spirit in the writings of our apostle. How wonderful, how perfect, how satisfying the wisdom which is according to Christ, which is fitting to Him, which is in accordance with and in conformity to Him as the Center of God's vast universe of bliss!

With the eyes of the heart illuminated by the shining of God's glory in Christ, the believer gladly turns from

"The vastness of the agony of earth,
The vainness of its joys, the mockery
Of its best, the anguish of its worst,"

enshrined as all this is in the philosophy of which we have spoken.

Turning from the deceit of a world full of vanity and vexation of spirit, every longing and affection of spirit and soul may find its satisfaction in Christ in whom God's fulness dwells, and in whom we are complete, who is the Head over all principality and power. Touched by the quickening power of that unquenchable love of Christ, let us prayerfully and worshipfully meditate upon the blessed meaning our verses are intended to convey. John Bloore

(To be continued, D. V.)