In the various books of the New Testament, Christ is revealed for definite purposes. In 1 Corinthians the revelation of Christ is to deal with the problems in the church, problems which included fornication and divisiveness. In the book of Galatians Christ is revealed in contrast to Judaism with the law. Because the Galatians had been distracted to the law and circumcision, Paul showed them that Christ replaces the law, that God’s Son is versus man’s religion. Now in the book of Colossians Christ is revealed as the extensive, all-inclusive One because the saints had been carried away with a cultural blend of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy. This mixture had become very prevailing in Asia Minor and had even invaded the church life and pervaded it. Thus, the revelation of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ is given in order to deal with the problem of culture.
Colossians 3:11, 1 Corinthians 12:13, and Galatians 3:28 are parallel verses. But Colossians 3:11 specifically mentions the circumcision, the uncircumcision, the barbarian, and the Scythian. The terms circumcision and uncircumcision are related to religion, whereas barbarian and Scythian are related to culture. In ancient times those who were uncultured were regarded as barbarians. The Scythians were the most savage of the barbarians. Colossians 3:11 indicates that the purpose of the extensive revelation of Christ in this book is to deal not with sin or with the law, but with culture.
God’s intention is that we as His chosen people become saturated, permeated, filled, and clothed with Christ so that we may live Christ. God wants Christ to be our life and our living, to be everything to us in our daily walk. This is God’s eternal plan and His present economy. However, culture replaces Christ. In His creation of man, God intended to be everything to man: his life, joy, entertainment, provision, protection. But through the fall man lost God and thereby lost the factor which gave meaning and purpose to his life. Therefore, today people live on earth without any sense of meaning or purpose. They have lost God as the factor which gives life its meaning and purpose. Having lost God, man turned to culture as a replacement for God in his living. Every aspect of man’s culture is a replacement for God. Of course, culture, in actuality, is a substitute for Christ. According to God’s ordination, man cannot truly live without Christ. Without Christ, our existence on earth is meaningless and purposeless. Today millions of people are living not by Christ, but by their culture. If they were deprived of their culture, they would have no way to live.
In His salvation God saves us not only from sin, judgment, the lake of fire, the world, and the self; He also saves us from everything which replaces Christ, including our culture. Because culture replaces Christ in a practical way in our daily living, it is hateful in the eyes of God.
What kind of Christ can replace our culture? The Christ who replaces culture is the extensive Christ, not the limited Christ known by most Christians. All real Christians believe that Christ is God incarnated as a man, that He died on the cross for our sins, that He was resurrected, that He ascended to the heavens where He is now sitting as the Lord of lords and King of kings, and that He will return to earth and establish His kingdom with the believers as co-kings. Although all this is true, it is a narrow, limited view of Christ. Such a limited Christ will not in actual experience become the replacement for our culture. Can such a Christ become our food, clothing, and dwelling? The Christ who can replace our culture and become everything to us is the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.
Although we had lost God, Christ has brought us back, reconciled us, to Him. Now we once again have God as the factor which gives meaning and purpose to our existence. As we have pointed out repeatedly, the book of Colossians was written in order to reveal the extensive, all-inclusive Christ who deals with our culture and even replaces our culture. There is no need for us to observe ordinances about eating—we are eating Christ. We do not need to keep certain days, feasts, or new moons—Christ is our new moon, feast, and Sabbath. Since Christ is ever the same and since He is the reality of every day of the week to us, every day is the same. But if we insist on having ordinances concerning food and days, others will judge us with respect to these things. If we care only for the all-inclusive Christ and live according to Him instead of according to culture, no one will have ground to judge us. Christ is the meaning and purpose of life. We all need to see an extensive revelation of such an all-inclusive Christ.
Recently, after hearing a message on how culture replaces Christ in our experience, a brother testified strongly that he wanted to drop all his culture. However, it is not possible for us to do this. If we try to do it, we shall simply develop another type of culture, a culture-dropping culture. But should someone say that there is no need to drop culture, this concept will lead to yet another type of culture. Instead of trying to deal with our culture, we should simply live Christ.
Just as culture has become the replacement for God, so Christ can become the replacement for culture. We have seen that after man lost God through the fall, man’s culture replaced God in his life. Christ’s redemption not only redeems us from so many negative things, but also redeems us from culture. Instead of trying to be free from our culture, we should simply be reconciled to Christ and take Him as the factor which gives our life meaning and purpose. We should pray, “Lord Jesus, from now on I will take nothing other than You as my goal and purpose. Lord, You only are my standard and the factor which gives my existence meaning and purpose. I don’t want to live out anything other than Yourself. Lord, I want to live You and You alone.” When we live Christ, we are spontaneously delivered from culture, and automatically the Christ by whom we live replaces culture. This is the revelation in the book of Colossians.
We must admit that even we in the Lord’s recovery, who love the Lord very much and seek Him, actually live much more by our culture than by Christ. For example, certain sisters may refrain from using makeup not because they are living Christ, but because they are conforming to the common practice in the church life. Some may claim that they do not use makeup because of their love for Christ and the church. This may be true. However, to love the Lord Jesus is one thing, and to live Christ is another. We may do many things because we love the Lord and yet, in those very things, we may not actually live Him.
In the church life it is possible to live by certain habits or customs, in other words, by a certain culture developed in the church, instead of by Christ. For example, a certain brother may feel that he should not attend movies. However, what keeps him from going to the movie theater is not that he is living Christ; it is that he is living according to a certain practice common in the church life. We need to have the assurance that our reason for not doing certain things is that we live Christ. We need not have a rule about staying away from movies. We should simply have the experience of living Christ in the church. If we truly live Christ in the church, then when we refrain from doing a certain thing, it will not be because we regard that thing as wrong; it will be because we are living Christ. Our need today is not only to love Him, but also to live Him.
It is common for husbands and wives to exchange words with each other. When a brother’s wife expresses a concept different from his, he may begin to argue immediately and refuse to give in. In the early years of my married life, my attitude was to never give in when my wife expressed a concept different from mine. My practice was to take my position as the head and expect my wife to be submissive. Although I did not put this into words outwardly, it was nonetheless my attitude and practice.
Later I learned that, as a leading one in the church and as a minister of the Word, it was not right for me to argue with my wife. Therefore, I tried to suppress my anger and not to argue. Because I loved the Lord, I tried my best not to quarrel with my wife. However, I was not living by Christ. Instead, I exerted a tremendous amount of self-effort.
Today I can testify that, through the Lord’s grace, I no longer try to suppress myself. I simply live Christ. As Paul said, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Christ is my culture, my goal, and the meaning and purpose of my human life. In my daily walk all the room is for Christ. For this reason, there is no room for sin, the world, the flesh, or the self. Since my whole being is for Christ, there is also no room for culture. I simply live Christ, and not a limited Christ, but an extensive Christ, the One who fills all and is in all.
Christ descended from the heavens to the earth and then, in the interval between His death and resurrection, He descended into Hades. In resurrection He ascended from Hades to earth and then, in His ascension, from the earth to the heavens. As a result of such a universal traveling, Christ fills all things. Thus, He is the extensive One. As such an extensive One, He is our life, and we may live Him. In the book of Colossians Paul presents such an extensive Christ in order to impress us with the fact that this Christ should replace our culture. Do not try to drop your culture. All your efforts to do so will be in vain. Simply live Christ, and Christ will replace your culture with Himself.
We should not treasure any type of ism, for all isms have to do with culture. Instead of living according to an ism, we should live Christ, a living Person, who is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of both the old creation and the new creation, the One in whom and unto whom all things were created, and the One who is our life in the new man. Such an extensive Christ is the replacement for our culture.
In the book of Colossians, Paul’s concern is not mainly with sin, the world, or even with the self. His concern is with culture, which becomes the factor that replaces God to give meaning and purpose to life. Now that Christ has reconciled us to Himself, we should live Him and allow Him to replace every aspect of our culture. Therefore, in Colossians we see the revelation of the extensive Christ. We need to take this Christ as the meaning, purpose, and goal of our life; we need to live by Him.