If we get into the depths of the book of Colossians, we shall see that it deals not with sin or with the law, but with man’s culture. Culture is the unconscious living of every human being. This is true both of primitive society and of advanced countries as well. The principle is the same everywhere. People throughout the world are under the influence of their culture. Those in the Far East may find it difficult to speak spontaneously in public meetings because they are unconsciously influenced by oriental culture. According to the book of Colossians, what defrauds us of the enjoyment of Christ and frustrates the church life is our culture.
The book of Colossians speaks to our need today. Mainly we are not troubled by the sinful things, as in 1 Corinthians, nor by the law, as in Galatians. But we are all unconsciously and subconsciously under the influence of culture. When we came into the church life, we brought our culture with us. This culture is now undermining our enjoyment of Christ. Culture is the systematic method we have developed to exist and to maintain our being. The stronger our culture is, the more critical we shall be of others. Based upon the culture we have, we develop our type of asceticism, our own practices to restrict the indulgence of the flesh. Our asceticism is the method we devise to restrain ourselves and to keep from doing sinful things.
The book of Colossians reveals that in God’s economy Christ is everything. Christ is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation, the mystery of God’s economy, the firstborn from among the dead, the fullness of God, the mystery of God, the One in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and the Body of all the shadows. Eventually, this preeminent, all-inclusive Christ is the unique constituent of the new man. Furthermore, as Paul declares in 3:4, this Christ is our life. The expression “our life” is a strong indication that we are to experience in our daily living the Christ revealed in this book.
For our physical existence, everything depends on our having life. If there is no life in your body, then everything else related to you is terminated. For example, if you have no life, how could you have such things as love or submission? Everything associated with the human living is based on having human life. If the life is terminated, everything else is terminated also. This underscores the importance of Christ being our life. It is vital for us to see that the all-inclusive Christ is our life. According to the revelation of the New Testament, this Christ has been processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
In 3:15 and 16 Paul charges us to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts and to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us. The saints in Colosse were troubled by different isms, philosophies, and practices. Just as a referee is needed to settle disputes in a game or contest, so the Colossians needed a referee, an arbitrator, to calm down all the differing opinions. It is significant that only in the book of Colossians, a book that deals with culture and its isms and practices, does Paul speak of the inward arbitration of the peace of Christ. This arbitrator calms down all the opinions which have their source in our culture.
When the peace of Christ calms our opinions, the word of Christ, which is to dwell in us richly, replaces them. Instead of our opinions, we then have the word of Christ. The New Testament reveals clearly that the word of Christ is the Spirit. Furthermore, Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. Our Christian life is altogether a matter of Christ as the living Spirit. We do not need isms, philosophies, practices, or observances. We need the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. The brothers need not try to love their wives, nor the sisters to submit to their husbands. Rather, we all should contact Christ and let Him be our love and submission. Christ today as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit. We need to say, “Lord Jesus, I thank You that You are here. You are in me all the time to be whatever I need.” If we would practice this, we need a clear vision that Christ is everything to us. Such a vision will slay our philosophy, asceticism, opinions, and isms. It will even terminate the influence of culture on our experience of Christ. Then, instead of being cultured people, we shall be people occupied with, possessed by, and saturated with Christ.
There is no doubt that our hearts need to be comforted and knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding. But the goal of this comforting of our hearts is that we would have the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God. We should not allow the concern with the heart to keep us from the realization that we need Christ, the mystery of God, to be everything to us. Moment by moment, we need to take Him as our life and live by Him.
We have pointed out again and again that after Paul tells us that Christ is our life and the constituent of the new man, he charges us to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in us and to let the word of Christ inhabit us. To have a full understanding of what it means for the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, we need to know the background against which the book of Colossians was written. At Babel the cultural divisions of mankind came into being. The opinions from our culture are expressed mainly in religious observances and in philosophical ordinances, represented respectively by the Jews and the Greeks. The cultural opinions have divided mankind into many different nations. However, God’s eternal purpose is to have a corporate people to be the Body of Christ for His expression. But if mankind remains divided by cultural opinions, how can God’s purpose be carried out? It would be impossible. But according to Ephesians 2:15, Christ’s death on the cross has abolished all the cultural ordinances and differences and terminated them. Christ’s purpose in doing this was to create in Himself one new man and thereby make peace. Hence, the peace made by Christ was produced through the crucifixion of cultural opinions. When the Jews and the Gentiles were created into one new man, peace was made. This very peace, the peace of Christ, is what Paul refers to in Colossians 3:15.