I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
Colossians 2:4 (NIV)
Arguments That Sound Right
A man who was forgiven something serious in November is standing at the meat counter in February with no idea what he’s doing. He came in for chicken. The one behind the glass talks while he works and has him on a pork shoulder inside of two minutes: it’s the cut nobody can ruin, put it in at three hundred degrees in the morning and go away for six hours, and pick up the good mustard while you’re here. He wraps it in white paper, writes the weight on the outside in pen, and tells him to let it rest twenty minutes before he goes near it with a knife.
He’s cooking for the woman who forgave him, because making dinner was the only thing he could think of to do about it.
I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, and Paul wants these people to have them: encouraged in heart, united in love, with the full riches of complete understanding, knowing the mystery of God, namely, Christ. He’s contending for them without ever having met them, in a town he has never walked through.
A fine-sounding argument sounds right. It’s well made, it explains more than the last thing you heard, and it usually comes from somebody warm who has taken an interest in you. Paul doesn’t argue with them one by one. He asks one thing about any of it, whether it depends on Christ: see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. That happens on ordinary days, in going back over what you were taught and staying within earshot of the people who taught it.
The shoulder goes in and the house fills up with it. He sets the table for two and puts the mustard out, and he still has no idea what he’s going to say to her when she gets there.
A Prayer to Remember
Show me anything I’ve started believing because a persuasive person said it well, God. I’d rather find out this week than in five years. I can’t always tell the difference on my own, and I’m tired of pretending I can. Hold what I got right the first time while I go back over it.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
