18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. (Colossians 2:18-19)
As we saw yesterday, there are three distractions the believer in Christ faces in our pursuit of personal fellowship and intimacy with Jesus Christ.
The first distraction is Empty Religion.
The second is Aimless Mysticism which cornerstones "false humility" and the "worship of angels."
The believers in Colossae were wrongly directed by "Mysticism", which teaches salvation is gained by acquiring divine knowledge freeing one from the illusions of darkness of this world. This mysticism had its basis in the teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who taught truth is not a person, it is an experience.
The problem with Mysticism is that it leads us to focus not on God's definition of things as given in His word, but on ourselves as the captains of our lives. Mysticism teaches the idea that all we need is already inside of us, and all we need to do is bring it out and develop our full potential. Self-value, self-worth and self-realization are the doctrines which flow forth from this distraction.
This is not the message of the Bible, which asserts that Christianity is a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the reward that Paul is writing about here in v.18. In order to assist us in knowing Him, God has given us His Word and His Spirit to frame up our definitions of life and our pursuit of Him.
On the other hand, Mysticism doesn't help the believer. But, there is Christian Mysticism. D.D. Martin once wrote, "Christian mysticism seeks to describe an experienced, direct, non-abstract, unmediated, loving knowledge of God, a knowing or seeing so direct as to be called union with God."
God has chronicled His thoughts about life and reality in His word, the Holy Bible. There is no personal relationship with God apart from His definition of things, apart from the Bible. And yet, we do not go further with God apart from the "seeming erratic" nature of our faith in Him. This pursuit seems erratic because we do do not know the other means by which God will reveal Himself to us. His Spirit who has made our spirit alive to Him uses all types of object lessons to accentuate the person and character of our God, the God of the Bible.
When our hearts are informed and motivated to seek Him by His word and Spirit, the possibilities are limitless. On the heels of this informed and motivated pursuit, we experience life with the touch of eternity upon it. Our goal is intimacy with God, an intimacy that is feeling without touching. And, it must be defined and fueled by His word and His Spirit.
So, even though Mysticism was a threat to the faith of the Colossians, as with everything, Mysticism can be a means to our fellowship with God. The marriage of our hearts' pursuit and His word renders a journey worth being defined and worth pursuing.
Tomorrow, we will consider the third distraction to the real pursuit that awaits us.
