Theme of Colossians 2

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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You may remember my Colossians 2 theme from our Overview:

This theme incorporates much of what we have learned in Colossians 2:  the defrauders were trying to persuade the Colossians to their way instead of God's way.  Paul's mission in this chapter was to warn the Colossians against this and remind them of what salvation truly is.

Here are a few other themes I considered:
Stability of Faith (2:4-5)
Nailed to the Cross (2:13-14)
The Appearance of Wisdom (2:23)

What theme did you pick for Colossians 2?

Monday we will begin Colossians 3, a powerful chapter that discusses how the Colossians should live since they have died and been raised to a new life (2:20-23).

Colossians 2: God's Wisdom and Man's Knowledge

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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Did you check out "persuasive" in a concordance yesterday?  My concordance gave the definition "fine-sounding argument" and "plausible yet false argument."  What an insight into Paul's warning!

Of course, Paul had quite a few choice words about man's knowledge, wisdom, and arguments.  Here are some of the terms used in Colossians 2:

Paul also calls it philosophy (2:8) and accuses them of severe treatment of the body (2:23).  Not a pretty picture!

While Paul is not condemning every bit of man's wisdom, his bottom line is "God knows better than men, so follow after His teachings, not theirs!"

This clarifies Paul's thought even more by showing these were about Christian worship and practices, not all man's thoughts as a whole.

Now that we have delved into Paul's main topics of Colossians 2, we're ready to find the theme and move on to Colossians 3!

Optional Colossians 2 Study:
If you're interested in learning more about what the "defrauders" may have been teaching the Colossians, do a word study on the terms listed above!  You can also check out a commentary on Colossians to study a few viewpoints of what opposition the Gospel was facing -- legalism? a cult? another religion?  Find out!

Word Study: Delude

We're officially halfway through our study of Colossians!  Yay!

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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Did you learn a lot about "delude" in your study yesterday?

There are several ways to do a word study, and it can be very stressful and overwhelming if you don't know where to begin or have a basic plan in mind.  So today, I am sharing my "mini word study" method with you!

This is a basic method that you can use day-to-day in your studies, not an in-depth method like what I would use for scholarly research.

This is the simplest way to find out more about a word, especially if you are using any kind of study Bible.  Unfortunately, in my Bible there are only cross-referencing notes for Colossians 2:4.  What to do next?

This can be a bit tricky if you A) don't have a concordance or B) don't know how to use a concordance.  While I will be covering how to find and use a concordance in detail next month, here are the basic steps necessary (once you have a concordance).

This is where things can get tricky; the number next to your passage (normally on the far right) corresponds to the back of the book where Hebrew and Greek words and meanings are given.  While we aren't worried about the original Greek, there is also a brief definition given.

My number is 3884; after skipping over all the Greek parts, you can see a definition:  to deceive, delude.  Then (after the symbol :- is shown) it lists all the times this specific word is used in the Bible. (As beguile 1 time, as deceiving 1 time).

I know what you're thinking: "De, that is a lot of work to do to get not a lot of information."  In this case, you're right.  We probably could have found out similar information from a regular dictionary or a Google search.  However, sometimes the amount of information you get from this method is very abundant!

Optional Word Study
Use this same method to check out the word "persuasive" from Colossians 2:4.  (In the KJV, it is the word "enticing.")  The results are much more interesting and give a great picture into what we are studying tomorrow:

Mark all the references to both differently; we already marked the reference's to God's Wisdom with our Colossians 1 marking on Monday, so choose a different marking for man's wisdom.

Colossians 2: Salvation

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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Here are the four pictures of salvation I saw in Colossians 2.

What four points about salvation did you find?  Share your thoughts below!

Why is this emphasis on salvation so important to Paul?  The salvation of the Colossians needed to be guarded and protected from those who were trying to defraud them of it.  Paul warns them not to be deluded by persuasive arguments (2:4).

Tomorrow, we will be doing a small word study on "delude" to learn more about Paul's warning to protect their salvation and understanding of God.

Colossians 2: Key Words

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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I hope you enjoyed looking through Colossians 2 for key words!  While there is not much new to learn, having these key words marked will help us develop a more complete picture of the book.

There were a few things I did take away from these key words:

Did you learn anything new from your markings?  Add these thoughts to your previous lists (if you made them) so a fuller picture of Colossians' teachings is formed.

These points reminded me of the two main topics Paul has in Colossians 2:  Salvation through Christ and God's Wisdom over Man's Wisdom.  Therefore, we will be studying these two topics in our Colossians 2 study!!!

As I re-read Colossians 2, I noticed four different metaphors (or descriptions) of salvation.  Look for these metaphors and mark them in your Bible (or make a list).  Also jot down anything else you learn about salvation from Colossians 2.

Intro to Colossians 2

For the index for the Colossians Series, click here.

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Welcome to Colossians 2, and to the end of the FOURTH week of our study!

As I mentioned yesterday, the differences between Colossians 1 and 2 mean that we will be studying these two chapters differently.  Colossians 1 was filled with Paul's opening statements of who he was and who he served, namely Jesus Christ.  Since Paul was explaining for who and for what he stood, we needed to study those things.

While I normally don't use the same key words in one chapter for another (hence chapter key words), I'm sure you may have noticed that Colossians 2 focused on a few overall topics rather than new key words.

Before we dig into those topics, let's take a quick perusal of this chapter using our key words from Colossians 1:  God, Gospel, Knowledge/Wisdom (in reference to knowledge from God, not from man), Prayer, All, Faith, and Hope.