Don’t Be Taken Captive

Don’t Be Taken Captive

Colossians 2:8 KJV

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

   When a verse begins with “beware,” I look closely to see what warning it’s talking about.  “Beware” means to be on guard against something.  We are in a spiritual war and the Adversary means to defeat you by any means possible.  The Bible is warning us to beware of the danger. 

   The next thing I see here is a word that is translated differently in different bible versions.  The King James and other older versions use the word “spoil.”  Other versions use “captive.”  The idea here is to be captured by the enemy and taken as a spoil of war.  When barbaric peoples fight and win a battle they often take captives to become slaves and work for them.  This is what Paul is warning us about here.  If we let Satan defeat us he will take our hearts and minds captive and try to make us do his will.  I have, sadly, heard Christians who have fallen away from God and then lived sinful lives and some went as far as cursing God and their former churches and pastors.

   Paul is warning us here to beware of the philosophies that are everywhere in our society.  Evolution, humanism, materialism, and many other ideas violate Christian beliefs and can hijack your mind and heart and you can be drawn away from God.  This is because philosophies can change your outlook on life.  If you begin to accept that all life came about by random chance it can affect how you view God.  If you take the view that all people are not equal under God that can affect how you relate to others and how sincerely you are in sharing the Gospel.  Fortune-telling can affect how you live day to day.  I have personally seen a Christian who became confused and dropped out of church because she started reading her horoscope every day.  

   When I was going through the break-up of my first marriage, a judge suggested we seek help from a psychologist.  In a one-on-one meeting he assured me that nothing I did was my fault; I was the victim of my mother and father and my childhood.  They were poor and “deprived” me of many things other children had and so I grew up in an “abnormal” childhood.  I told him he was full of beans and walked out of his office.  My mother and father loved me and I had a solid family life.  I did not then and do not now buy into his twisted view of life.  His words seemed to be comforting, but his philosophy was designed to rid me of personal guilt and responsibility for my actions, which is against what the Bible teaches.  We need to confess our sins and come clean to God and receive forgiveness.

   Beware of the philosophies that are in the world around us.  They are designed to pull you away from a personal relationship with God.  Am I saying you should stop checking your horoscope?  Yes, I am!  Should you continue to see your psychologist?  You judge what they’re saying to you and how it affects your relationship with God. 

Guard your heart and your mind against anything that tries to come between you and your relationship with God.  Beware! Don’t become a spoil of war.

Stephen Cram                            March 10, 2013                       Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8  NASB