Intelligently Immature

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Col 2:6-7 AV)

 

One of the issues the Colossian church struggled with was runaway philosophy.  In particular, they obsessed over the doctrine of angels.  Paul rebukes them by reminding them sightings of angels are rare at best.  Non-existent at worst.  To preoccupy oneself with things that are too hard or cannot be known at all is to miss more important priorities in spiritual growth.  It appears what might have happened in Colossae is a prominent problem in today’s churches.  Information and intellect often come at the expense of spiritual growth.  Paul’s advice was to remember how we received Christ, get back to that, and grow from there.  He focuses on the root.  In other words, innocent and simple faith is the key to spiritual growth.  Not sophistication.

We are coming up to the time in our calendar year when yard work switches from tending for growth to managing next year’s growth.  I am no expert in horticultor.  And I’m not embarrassed to say so.  A green thumb I have not.  Whatever I touch will eventually die and I don’t shed a tear over it.  I enjoy the work others put into their yards.  Me?  Not so much.  This time of year means raking leaves and preparing the plants and ground for next year’s bloom.  I have a bush in my front yard that is still tender and young.  I have to mulch the leaves that will fall and dump them on this bush.  This protects the still young root system so the winter will not harm my wife’s bush.  In front of the house, I have plants that come up every year.  There is catmint, tulips, lilies, etc. that regrow every year.  The thing is, all this has to be cut back to a few inches from the ground.  I cover them with mulch as well.  Each year, they regrow.  Some grow taller or fuller.  If left alone, the harshness of the winter would kill the root.  I have to go back to the root so that it can grow properly.  Catmint is especially dramatic.  It starts out small.  The more it is cut back and regrows, the larger the regrowth becomes.

Jews require a sign.  Greeks (gentiles) seek after wisdom.  We non-Jewish people do with the information what the Jews did with signs.  It becomes a means to an end.  We go to school.  We read our books.  We can defend our point of view from any and all challengers.  We formulate an opinion in a matter of months which took theologians years to ascertain.  Our libraries are bubbling over with volumes after volumes of books which we have read.  Our computer is filled with public resource materials.  Books written over a century ago are not part of our public domain library.  We could teach a class on advanced doctrine without batting an eye.  The problem is, we seek after things that cannot be known and kid ourselves into thinking the practice of seeking after these obscure things mean we must be spiritually mature.  On the contrary.  Seeking after things that cannot be known is an indication of immaturity.  Not maturity.  Paul warned against this practice and gave it a name.   “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.” (Col 2:8 AV)  We are better off going back to the root of innocent and pure faith lest the exercises of our mind draw us away from Christlikeness and not towards it.