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“Captivity to Christ”
Categories: Bulletin Articles
This week’s Bible reading has many, many verses in it that stand out to me. Of them all, though, the one that most fired my imagination was Colossians 2:8. There, Paul writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Contrary to what we might think, in this verse, Paul makes clear that being captured is not a bad thing per se. Instead, we’re supposed to avoid being captured, or indeed capturing others, with the wrong thing. Being taken captive by philosophy, empty deceit, human tradition, or the elemental spirits of the world: bad. Being taken captive by Christ: good.
Our first application here must be to ourselves. We can have other hobbies, interests, and concerns, but the One who owns us must be Jesus. Our minds and hearts must be turned to Him above all others.
Second, in our efforts to win the lost, we must be careful of using anything but Jesus to appeal to outsiders. There are some obvious applications here. The congregation that attracts unbelievers with a worship service that sounds like a rock concert has made converts to the rock concert, not to Jesus. The church that gets people on its church bus by taping a five-dollar-bill under one of the seats might be bringing those people to services, but it isn’t bringing them to the Lord. Rick Warren to the contrary, “Train up a child in the way he should go,” is not sufficient authority for a church to establish a potty-training ministry! The gospel, not earthly appeal, is what brings the lost to Christ.
However, we must look to ourselves here too. It is possible for us to adhere to the form of Bible authority while defeating God’s purpose and intent. Consider, for instance, song worship. It is entirely possible for a congregation to raise the rafters in four-part a-cappella harmony yet not take visitors captive to Christ. Only the word of Christ, first dwelling within us richly, then expressed to one another in heartfelt singing, can do that. If our song worship is not about the message, it is missing the mark.
So too with preaching. A man can command the pulpit in one of our churches with all the skill of Apollos but not bring anybody closer to Jesus. A sermon built on human tradition and political prejudice can be “not unscriptural” and still have nothing to say about the gospel. The hearers of such a sermon may well amen every word without having brought their lives into submission to the Lord.
To succeed in carrying out God’s will in this evil time, we cannot abandon the word of Christ for any fleshly expedient, no matter how alluring. Instead, we must focus everything we do: singing, preaching, teaching, and personal work, more and more tightly on Jesus. We must repeatedly proclaim His mercy as our Savior and His authority as our Lord. If we want to bring others to Jesus, nothing but Jesus will do.
