Don’t Get Carried Away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Don Carpenter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 Bible Reading Challenge<\/p>\n\n\n\n
J.I. Packer wrote, \u201cAll Christians are at once beneficiaries and victims of tradition\u2014beneficiaries, who receive nurturing truth and wisdom from God\u2019s faithfulness in past generations; victims, who now take for granted things that need to be questioned, thus treating as divine absolutes patterns of belief and behavior that should be seen as human, provisional, and relative. We are all beneficiaries of good, wise, and sound tradition and victims of poor, unwise, and unsound traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tonight\u2019s passage is a short and pithy warning about becoming spoiled. In this case, Paul is not warning about soul rot, but rather being carried away by the forces of darkness as spoils of war. Every one of us as believers are targets of the Dark One. He and his wish to get us off track, to get us away from truth and to carry us away deceived and confused, and thus rendered ineffective in the battle for truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The warning is simple and profound we need to beware of those things that can be used to move us from Bible truth. We must be vigilant so that we do not get carried away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colossians 2:8<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t Get Carried Away<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeware\u201d is blepete (???????), \u201cBe constantly looking out, keep a watchful eye ever open.\u201d Lightfoot says; \u201cThe form of the sentence is a measure of the imminence of the peril.\u201d Expositors says; \u201cThe future indicative after m? (??) (not) implies a more serious estimate of the danger than the subjunctive.\u201d The Greek is, \u201cBe ever on your guard lest there shall be anyone who spoils you.\u201d 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest\u2019s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 199.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul continued the military image with this warning: \u201cBeware lest any man carry you off as a captive\u201d (literal translation). The false teachers did not go out and win the lost, no more than the cultists do today. They \u201ckidnapped\u201d converts from churches! Most of the people I have talked with who are members of antichristian cults were at one time associated with a Christian church of one denomination or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How is it possible for false teachers to capture people? The answer is simple: These \u201ccaptives\u201d are ignorant of the truths of the Word of God. They become fascinated by the philosophy and empty delusion of the false teachers. (This is not to say that all philosophy is wrong, because there is a Christian philosophy of life. The word simply means \u201cto love wisdom.\u201d) When a person does not know the doctrines of the Christian faith, he can easily be captured by false religions.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 125.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of the specific teachings, the fundamental problem Paul identifies is that human rules and traditions are being recommended as necessary supplements to Christ. However, it is also possible that Paul is not correcting a particular false teaching. Instead, Paul could be concerned with the immaturity and ignorance of the Colossian believers.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Col 2:8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t Get Carried Away By Philosophy And Vain Deceit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n philosophia (?????????, 5385) denotes \u201cthe love and pursuit of wisdom,\u201d hence, \u201cphilosophy,\u201d the investigation of truth and nature; in Col. 2:8, the so-called \u201cphilosophy\u201d of false teachers. \u201cThough essentially Greek as a name and as an idea, it had found its way into Jewish circles \u2026 Josephus speaks of the three Jewish sects as three \u2018philosophies\u2019 \u2026 It is worth observing that this word, which to the Greeks denoted the highest effort of the intellect, occurs here alone in Paul\u2019s writings \u2026 the Gospel had deposed the term as inadequate to the higher standard whether of knowledge or of practice, which it had introduced (Lightfoot).1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine\u2019s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Corinthians 1:19\u201320<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Galatians 1:11<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. apate (?????, 539), \u201cdeceit or deceitfulness\u201d (akin to apatao, \u201cto cheat, deceive, beguile\u201d), that which gives a false impression, whether by appearance, statement or influence, is said of riches, Matt. 13:22; Mark 4:19; of sin, Heb. 3:13.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine\u2019s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 151.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philippians 3:2<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t Get Carried Away By Traditions of Men<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The word tradition means \u201cthat which is handed down\u201d; and there is a true Christian tradition (1 Cor. 15:3ff; 2 Thes. 2:15; 3:6; 2 Tim. 2:2). The important thing about any teaching is its origin: Did it come from God or from man? The religious leaders in our Lord\u2019s day had their traditions and were very zealous to obey them and protect them (Matt. 15:1\u201320). Even the Apostle Paul, before he met the Lord, was \u201cexceedingly zealous of the traditions\u201d (Gal. 1:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a new Christian from a distant mission field were to visit many of our churches, he would probably be astounded at the ideas and practices we have that cannot be supported by God\u2019s Word. Our man-made traditions are usually more important to us than the God-given doctrines of the Scriptures! While it is not wrong to have church traditions that remind us of our godly heritage, we must be careful not to make these traditions equal to the Word of God.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 125.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matthew 15:3<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t Get Carried Away By Basic Worldly Teaching<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRudiments\u201d is stoicheia (????????), \u201crudimentary teachings,\u201d such as \u201cceremonialism, meats, drinks, washings, Essenic asceticism, pagan symbolic mysteries and initiatory rites\u2014all belonged to a rudimentary moral stage\u201d (Vincent). \u201cWorld\u201d is kosmos (??????). Lightfoot defines; \u201cbelonging to the sphere of material and external things.\u201d1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest\u2019s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Galatians 4:9\u201310<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Colossians 2:20\u201322<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Touch not; taste not; handle not; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022\tReplacing the person of Christ for building blocks of merit based living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Galatians 1:12<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeremiah 2:13<\/em> KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the New York Times Magazine Robert Bryce writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Autumn is prime time for the use of eyeblack in sports: baseball players in daytime playoff games and football players put dark stuff under their eyes, supposedly to reduce glare bouncing off their cheeks. One popular smear, called No Glare, contains crushed charcoal, paraffin, beeswax and petrolatum. Does it do anything? Dr. Oliver Schein, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, says, \u201cProbably not.\u201d Even so, it\u2019s a tradition. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a photo of the Washington Redskins fullback Andy Farkas using it way back in 1942. Bobby Valentine, when he managed the Texas Rangers, once wore eyeblack in the dugout. Boog Powell, the former Baltimore Orioles star, used it during his 17 years in the majors. \u201cI don\u2019t remember it ever doing any good,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you looked cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do well on occasion to examine our traditions to see whether we really know their purpose\u2014and whether they accomplish that purpose.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 581\u2013582.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:25 PM December 15, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Don’t Get Carried Away! Pastor Don Carpenter 2021 Bible Reading Challenge J.I. Packer wrote, \u201cAll Christians are at once beneficiaries and victims of tradition\u2014beneficiaries, who receive nurturing truth and wisdom from God\u2019s faithfulness in past generations; victims, who now take for granted things that need to be questioned, thus treating as divine absolutes patterns of … Continue reading Don’t Get Carried Away<\/span>