Come Follow Me LDS- Philippians-Colossians Part 2

'Purple Wool & The New Man'
- Paul resets the Doctrine of Christ
- 'Spoiled through Philosophy'
- Temple Imagery and 'Putting On' the New Man
- 'Endowment'
- Practical & Spiritual Consequences
- God is no respecter of persons

 

 Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Colossians Bible

 

in this episode we talk about purple

wool and the new man here we go so in

this episode we're gonna cover

Colossians

which is a short epistle from Paul he's

writing this epistle most likely also

from Rome as he's a prisoner there and

he's probably under something more like

a house arrest where he's able to write

letters he definitely has visitors

they're able to come to him but this is

this coincides with Luke's description

of Paul going to Rome and becoming a

prisoner in acts 28 so he's writing

while he's in jail while he's in bonds

as he often times dimensions in some of

these letters there Paul has never been

to colossi a he's never been there he's

got people that report to him about the

church there this is a church there that

is very close to Laodicea which we have

heard about previously it is in Asia

Minor which is today's Turkey still

again Turkey a core area for

Christianity under the Roman Empire this

has been a stop for major trade in the

past but just previous to this that

trade center has moved away so it's not

quite as important but it's pretty

recent where this this change was made

so Colossae is a very populous and

vibrant city strong economics strong

trade they're known for perhaps where

they get their name from they're known

for a dyed wool it was kind of a purple

a specific color known as colas honest

and there's many three

raises to where the name for Colossae

may have came from but this seems like

the most likely to me this is also a

city where in the past when the Persian

Empire was expanding and trying to go in

throughout the Greek world that the

Persian king is Eros or is air seized

would stop and put forth from there his

military campaign into the Greek world

again Turkey as is today has always been

the center point between the Middle East

and Europe right is it today is it

Middle Eastern or is it European well

it's both Russia's a lot the same way

Russia has always had kind of a foot in

the West and a foot in the east and so

it's a major point for war for bringing

the two worlds together so we see this

dichotomy here in Turkey we see the same

thing today there are a NATO ally to

many powers in the West and yet they are

in many ways much more of a Middle

Eastern country so in this country of

merging the two worlds the two

hemispheres together Christianity really

starts to grow now Paul has a specific

message here because there are certain

false doctrines that are being taught in

this area which might even include as

far as Ephesia which is about 120

kilometers away from the city here this

false teaching or a group of false

teachings has come to be known as the

Colossians heresy and it's rooted in

what I refer to as the Nehor

principle it's a changing we don't get

specifics on this but it's clear by

Paul's words that this is a changing of

that values hierarchy right there taking

the doctrine of Christ some messengers

here and there trying to distort it

there may be some Gnostic influence here

the

are known in this area for worshipping

angels and so they might have their own

kind of set of hierarchy just like the

Greek gods would have or the Roman gods

might have a hierarchy of gods but

there's a devaluing of Christ and of the

doctrine of Christ that Paul is writing

about to a strong group of Christians

that are hearing messages that would

corrupt the doctrine of Christ so here

right in Chapter 1 of Colossians we get

this idea of what Paul is talking about

with his collage and heresy he talks

about what is the real nature of Christ

who is he down here in verse 13 he

begins to cover a few of these

attributes about Christ and God and

about the doctrine of Christ in 13 he

says who hath delivered us from the

power of darkness in 14 in whom he we

have redemption through his blood and

even the forgiveness of sins who is in

the image of the invisible God we've

talked about this before the firstborn

of every creature so again what we get

here is a little bit of Paul's continual

sculpting of that hierarchy he always

wants to put these hierarchies into

place and it's important because it's a

it's a strong gospel principle and so he

talks about Christ being in the image of

God the Father here and then of course

he talks often about us needing to be in

the image of Christ or also in the image

of God but he's giving that hierarchy

here with God the Father always at the

top or Christ always at the top he wants

to straighten out this these false

teachings where Christ is brought down

in importance or some of the doctrines

of Christ are brought down in importance

right that he wants to make sure that we

understand that salvation only comes

through Jesus Christ

and he talks about he is the image of

the invisible god we've talked about

this before invisible is the same word

or unseen as the same word in Hebrew as

eternal so this is he's in the image of

the eternal God and things which are

unseen as we get in Hebrews write eleven

- about faith those are spiritual things

so he is the spiritual father the

father of all things that are spiritual

and I have more to say about that in

terms of a Bennett eyes a description of

Christ as well in terms of the father

and the son but we're not gonna have

time to do that right now so in the

first half of 15 Christ who is the image

of the eternal God the invisible God the

spiritual God the God of all things

eternal and spiritual and then in the

second half he's putting these higher

and lower laws together here as I see it

the firstborn of every creature so that

would be him being the son of God and

having the royal title as the king being

born into mortality right the king of

every creature or all things that are

created or brought into mortality so we

have the eternal or spiritual on one

side through the Father and then through

the son here he's also bringing all

things together that are temporal that

are physical we have the higher and

lower laws being brought together there

and then down in 20 and having made

peace through the blood of his cross I

was going through the doctrine of Christ

again by him to reconcile all things

unto himself

what is he reconciling unto himself

while reconciling right would be

bringing together everything that's our

word covenant there our principle of

covenant he's bringing God the Father

and us his brethren his brothers and

sisters heaven and earth he's

reconciling all of that together in him and

through his actions through his

sacrifice he is the scapegoat so to

speak the sacrificial scapegoat that

reconciles everything to put it in terms

of the ancient Hebrews and their ritual

or in terms of René Gerard if you've

ever read anything by him which you

should and then in 21 and you that were

sometime alienated and enemies in your

mind by wicked works yet now hath he

reconciled so through your repentance of

your wicked works

you are now reconciled with God the

Father now again here he says enemies in

your mind what he's saying here is

enemies of your thought now why is

thought important one doctrine that

you'll hear out there quite a bit

even from very religious people maybe

not always in Christianity but is look I

don't care what someone's thoughts are I

don't care what they think I care what

they do well obviously what you do has a

much larger impact on everybody around

them and in that sense maybe there are

larger consequences from the actions of

someone but we don't usually feel that

way in the church and in Christianity as

a whole we do care what somebody thinks

especially within the church within the

gospel it's not that we want to encroach

on someone's thoughts necessarily

hopefully but it does matter do you care

about what your spouse is thinking about

do you care about what your kids would

be thinking about not that we want to be

thought police far far from it but I

think we have an understanding that our

thoughts make the person and in the plan

of salvation where we are trying to

become something where we are trying to

grow and progress thought is everything

what do we prioritize our thoughts on

each day that has a lot to do with who

we are not just what we do what we do

would be the fruits of those thoughts

and here Paul is bringing this up he's

saying look there are enemies of your

thoughts which means that there are

things that are bad that encroach in on

your mind but through Christ you can

change those thoughts and you can

prioritize those thoughts of course at

the top there with the doctrine of

Christ following the example of the

doctrine of Christ focused on the

doctrine of Christ as principle for

repentance and faith but also focusing

on the doctrine of Christ his sacrifice

as an example so that we might also

sacrifice to improve who we are and what

we think about and then down in 28 he

talks about Christ whom we preach

warning every man and teaching every man

in all wisdom that we may present every

man perfect in Christ Jesus so we get

this perfect again just like from

Matthew 5:48 and remember I think it was

this year President Nelson talked about

teleios owes the word teleios and how

that is the word perfect and what does

that word really mean well it means

complete and it's got a little bit of

temple imagery here because teleios

means finishing off in initiation it

means ending up at the completed state

of an initiation in a temple so he's

talking about the symbolism i believe of

the temple but the symbolism of

progression we can't be perfect today

but we can work toward it as we progress

through our mortality and go through the

plan of salvation and then in chapter 2

verse 3 he's talking about God the

Father and Jesus Christ and he says in

whom are hidden and knowledge this makes

me think about how Christ especially as

a representation of all things we can

find him in everything

and he is not just the core of our

doctrine but he's the core of all

knowledge which means that as we focus

on him on the principles of the doctrine

of Christ his example and his teachings

that from there that is the fountain of

all knowledge and all wisdom and somehow

not just time comes out from that moment

of his sacrifice and not just space

comes out from that time of his

sacrifice and the creation but wisdom or

knowledge all comes from that moment it

is all founded in the sacrifice of Jesus

Christ and the doctrine of Christ so the

more that we focus on that and relate or

as the Book of Mormon tells us liken

things unto the Savior and the doctrine

of Christ the closer we're going to get

to truth and two additional true

knowledge and wisdom it's not a mistake

or a coincidence that in the church we

constantly are trying to go back to how

this relates to the Savior how this

relates to Christ because that's where

all this knowledge and principles all

come from then in verse eight I love

this verse he says beware lest any man

spoil you through philosophy and vain

deceit or meaningless words as I would

call it fluff sometimes we're always

founded somewhat have a little bit of an

anchor in truth but it's kind of a

feel-good perhaps

enticing perhaps somewhat moral point of

view or idea or ideology that is

ultimately meaningless

and ultimately bankrupt he says that

these vain deceits and philosophies are

after the tradition of men after the

rudiments of the world

and not after Christ so we there's so

many ideologies and systems and

thought processes that we can go through

that are not founded again in that core

doctrine of Christ we've got to start

there with something if we're gonna

follow a political ideology does that

follow the doctrine of Christ if we're

gonna follow a specific philosophy

that's brought up from one of the great

philosophers of the world is it founded

in the doctrine of Christ the ideas the

great ideas of the world that seems

sometimes to have advanced us maybe not

always that are found from typically

these men from Socrates and Plato and

Aristotle to Maimonides and Thomas

Aquinas Martin Luther to Freud and

Darwin and Nietzsche and Hegel and Jung

and whoever else are their philosophies

founded in the doctrine of Christ

because that is the true knowledge

that's what philosophy means right it

means the love of wisdom the love of

truth the love of knowledge but

knowledge doesn't count for much unless

it is true and then in verse 10 we get

that complete again the perfection or

perfect verse 10 and ye are complete in

him which is the head of all

principality and power highest level of

the values hierarchy there and in 12 we

get a description of baptism buried with

him in baptism so we think about when we

are immersed into the water that is

death right and it is in a sense similar

to how Christ died on the cross so just

as Christ had to die and mortality

took him and then wherein also ye are

risen with him through the faith of the

operation of God who hath raised him

from the dead

so we can see in baptism the death of

Jesus on the cross coming down and then

being born again or resurrected along

with Christ also and then a lot of what

he covers here in Colossians is a short

epistle are things that we've already

covered and very recently so I'm just

going to kind of barely touch on a few

of these things for additional

confirmation in verse 1 he says again

where Christ sitteth on the right hand

of God

two distinct beings in verse two set

your affection on things above not on

things on the earth right so we've got

the higher and lower laws there we need

to bring them together but the focus has

got to be on the higher law and then he

talks about this carnal state that we're

in and he uses our limbs so to speak as

sins that we would commit here in

mortality says in verse 5 mortify

therefore your members or limbs which

are upon the earth fornication on

cleanliness inordinate affection evil

concupiscence which has to do with

immorality and covetous which is

idolatry so these things that are mortal

that are carnal that we feel and are at

least a participant in in terms of

feeling and being tempted and observing

perhaps he's saying leave those things

behind leave that part of your body so

to speak behind he's gonna talk about

becoming a new man and bringing that

body with you and the reason he's

bringing this up is he's setting the

stage for what seems to me to be temple

imagery about putting off the old man or

the old woman and putting on the new man

and the new woman so in verse 8 he says

but now ye also put off all these things

anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy

communication out of your mouth again

Paul loves to go through behavior he

really wants to lay down a culture

within the Church of how people need to

behave and we're in the Gospels and with

the teachings of Christ we might get one

principle at a time Paul just spews out

these behaviors and traits and

attributes that were all supposed to

have and follow but he says put off

right well this is from endue which may

be one of the two etymological sources

of endow or endowment so endowment

typically we think about as there's a

route that brings us to the term

endowment which would be about a gift

it's also the same word as dowry right

the same route for dowry which can make

a lot of sense in the temple for example

receiving your endowment but in do here

is this is the source for what seems to

be Joseph Smith's endow or endowment I

don't know that for sure but it has to

do with removing clothing and then

putting on clothing which also has

everything to do with the endowment and

so he seems to go through this temple

imagery here with us which by the way is

very similar if you think about it to

Ephesians right in Ephesians where he

says put on and do the armor of God so

you can think about that as temple

imagery as well so put off all of

these things these attributes and then

put on he says in verse 10 and have put

on the new man which is renewed in

knowledge after the image of him that

created him there's that image right

that hierarchy that we're talking about

in verse 12 put on and do therefore as

the elect of God holy and beloved bowels

of mercy kindness humbleness of mind

meekness long-suffering so he wants us

to repent by putting off the old man and

the old woman and the attributes that

would bring us down and they're not that

are not Christ-like

and not in His image and put on or

reclose in different clothing the

attributes of Christ so what this is

what seems to me to be temple imagery

and in 14 above all above all these

things put on charity which is the bond

of perfectness there's our word

perfectness again so this is from teleios

which is the bond of completion it's

the bond of finishing it's the bond of

being where you need to get to its the

highest attribute and we know this

previously from his epistles that you

need faith hope and charity but

especially charity but you can have as

much faith and hope as you want but

without charity without perfect love

you're never going to have that bond of

perfectness that bond of completion and

then in eighteen and nineteen quickly

but shortly he covers husbands and wives

again where wives submit to their

husbands and husbands love their wives

so these two sides coming together in

covenant and the children obeying your

parents father's servants and slaves how

they should act with masters etc and

then in 24 and 25 he says something

pretty important he says knowing that of

the Lord you shall receive the reward of

the inheritance

that's the promise of the orphan

covenant of the provost hood for ye

serve the Lord Christ but he that doeth

wrong shall receive for the wrong which

he hath done and there is no respect of

person so we've heard that before right

God is no respecter of persons what does

that mean that he doesn't respect me he

doesn't what that means is I don't have

favorites without merit right I don't

have favorites without merit so you may

be favored of God you may be chose

of God the elect of God that's what

chosen is but it's because of what

you're doing he is no respecter of

persons he's not going to say look if

you're not having natural consequences

for the better I'm not going to add

those consequences unless it comes by

proxy just because I favor you more than

somebody else we get into the favor of

God by obedience and by reaching up to

him and serving at cetera you are not a

more respected person or a favored

person because of your position in

business or your economic position or

your church position it has to do with

what you do and a lot of times I think

we look at the Lord and we because we

hear verbiage in the Bible especially in

the Old Testament but throughout the

scriptures where the ancients the

ancient authors have written in a way

that conflate as they should

conflate natural spiritual and temporal

consequences to the act of God so what

do I mean by that I mean that we could

say that and God did bless us with XYZ

or and God did pour down his wrath well

a lot of that I think we can look at as

look our Heavenly Father has given us

immortality to live in and that

mortality has specific rules and laws

and consequences and so when we cross

those laws when we break those laws or

don't follow those Commandments then

there are natural consequences that are

in place and that's how we learn to be

who we are supposed to be by learning

how to follow these Commandments to

follow the law of God and it's His grace

his sacrifice that allows us to do that

and to have a hope looking forward but

that kind of idea to me

practicality of consequences together

with the will of God and the good

rewards and the bad rewards come

accordingly typically and in chapter 4

verse 1 he says masters given to your

servants that which is just and equal

knowing that ye also have a master in

heaven remember there were a lot of bond

servants right a bond servant would be

what's a bond that you might trade with

or purchase it's a debt right it's

a debt it's something you're bound to

through debt and it's the same kind of

thing there were a lot of bond servants

that for one reason or another they were

in the employ or had to work off a debt

with a master or they might have been

just sold as a slave and that was part

of the real world until very recently

everywhere and he's saying look if

you're a master of a bond servant or a

slave any type of servant then treat

them properly because you are basically

a bond servant to the Lord and you need

to want to be treated the same type of

way that you're going to treat them

right again putting things into a

hierarchy it's kind of like going back

to that platinum rule that I talked

about where the golden rule is doing to

others as you would have them do unto

you the Platinum rule would be something

like do unto others as you would have

God to unto you because that's the way

it's going to work that's the way it

works with forgiveness that's the way it

works with your actions that's the way

it's going to work with judgment how do

you treat others that is how the Lord

will judge you and treat you and then in

6 he says something interesting he says

let your speech be all the way with

grace again he's giving us how do we act

how should we act Paul let your speech

be always with grace seasoned with salt

that ye may know how ye ought to answer

every man so I think that what he's

talking about here is

look you want love and grace behind what

you say is it rooted in Christ is it

rooted in that doctrine in that type of

knowledge and you want to season it with

salt there's a lot of interpretations of

that what might salty speech be I think

that maybe if we look at this needs to

be preserved it needs to be savory it

needs to be uncorrupted right and so if

I offer something that where salt is a

preservative a pretty where salt is a

preservative we can say look if this is

based on truth and love then what you

say is going to last and you're going to

be able to answer everyone properly if

you come from that place where there is

not something you're adding in there

that is gonna have any corruption to it

and that's hard to do it's very hard to

think in that sense where because we

always want to we have a desire right to

be right and to influence and he's

saying look the way you want to speak to

others especially about the gospel treat

others is going to be based on the

doctrine of Christ

it's mercy and grace and love and

without any corruption from what your

desire is to be right or the narrative

that you have that's really hard to do

because the world of course between all

of us is full of narrative it's full of

ideology it's full of ideas that are not

based in these things they're there to

influence us and they do so Paul has

gone through this epistle to the

Colossians trying to place Christ the

doctrine of Christ at the very top and

make sure it stays there

and metaphorically speaking it's like

the wool that they create there the

callosum as' the wall that has dyed

purple the wool that will be used to

clothe everybody they're putting on the

new man with a purple wool representing

Christ to endow us with his attributes

so that we can become more like him I'll

talk to you next time