Colossians 2:6-10
Complete Already
6Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,
7rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.
10And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Berean Standard Bible
Paul has been building toward an instruction for some time. When it arrives it is smaller than the build-up would suggest.
Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Carry on the way you started. That is the whole of it. They received Christ as Lord, so they should keep walking in him, and Paul stacks up three pictures of what keeping on looks like. Rooted, which is what a tree does downward. Built up, which is what a house does upward. Established, which is what a verdict does when it settles a matter. Then thankfulness, and he does not say be thankful. He says overflowing with it. Rooted, built up and established are all pictures of something fixed in place, which is a strange thing to hand people who were being urged on to something better. The instruction to a church under pressure is to stay where it was planted and keep growing there.
Against that comes the warning, and it is sharper than the one in verse 4.
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
Takes you captive is not a word about losing a debate. Paul is describing something that could carry them off, and he names where such teaching comes from: human tradition, and the spiritual forces of the world. Whatever was being sold in Colossae had a pedigree and an atmosphere, and neither of those is Christ.
Spiritual forces of the world is a phrase he uses here and again at 2:20. Whatever exactly he means by it, he treats it as something a Christian has died out of rather than something to be handled carefully.
Then two sentences that settle the question the whole letter is asking.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
All of God, in a body. Not a portion, and not an emanation at some distance from the real thing. The letter said in chapter 1 that God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and here Paul says it again with the word bodily added, so nobody can retreat into treating it as a figure of speech.
And then the sentence the Colossians most needed. You have been made complete in him. Not you can become complete, or you will be complete once the additions are in place. The verb has already happened to them, and the one it happened in is the head over every ruler and authority there is.
Questions
1 Paul says to keep walking the way you started. Why is that harder than it sounds?
AnswerBecause starting is exciting and continuing is not. He does not tell them to find something new or go deeper into something else. He tells them to carry on in Christ, rooted and built up and thankful.
2 What does taken captive suggest, compared with just being wrong about something?
AnswerBeing carried off. Paul is not warning them about losing an argument. He is warning them about something that could take them somewhere, and he says it comes dressed as philosophy.
3 "All the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form." Why does Paul add bodily?
AnswerSo that nobody can turn it into a figure of speech. He said in chapter 1 that all God's fullness dwells in him, and adding bodily means a real person you could have stood next to, not an idea about God.
4 Paul tells them they have been made complete. What difference does the tense make?
AnswerAll the difference. It has already happened to them rather than being something they are working toward, which means every offer of an addition is offering something they already have.
What This Means for Us
Complete is a strong word to say to people who were being told they were missing something. It is a strong word to say to us, too, and most of us do not believe it for very long at a time.
The things we add are not usually philosophy. They are the sense that we would be properly Christian if we prayed more, or if this family were more disciplined, or if we were the sort of people who had it together. None of that is wicked. Paul's point is that it is unnecessary, because completeness is not a level we climb to. It is a thing that was done to us in Christ, and the one it was done in is over every authority that might tell us otherwise.
So finish the sentence, each of you in turn: "I would be a proper Christian if only I..." Then read verse 10 over every answer given, without discussing any of them. You have been made complete in Christ.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, all of God lives in you, in a body, and we have been made complete in you. We keep looking for the missing piece and there is not one. Teach us to walk on the way we started, rooted and built up in you, and let the thankfulness overflow rather than being squeezed out. Amen.