Colossians 2:1-3
Christ: The Mediator of All Knowledge and Wisdom
The Apostle Paul was ever striving for and praying on behalf of the churches of Jesus Christ. It didn’t matter to him whether it was a church which he had planted or not. Neither the Colossians nor Laodiceans had seen his face. Still, his overwhelming concern in his apostolic ministry was the church—their purity and growth in the grace and knowledge of God. This should inform our prayers, that is, that we should ever be praying for the churches the world over—for their abiding integrity and witness, and especially those in the midst of persecution. We only know the smallest fraction of God’s people, but God has people everywhere and they are our concern.
Paul prays that their hearts be encouraged and knit together in love. Though the early churches were not without problems which are inevitable when sinners come together, even redeemed sinners, still I picture those early Christians as enjoying a fellowship we lack—a fellowship forged in the crucible of persecution or at least marginalization. Theirs was a tiny ship sailing in the rough seas of a dominant pagan culture. Being a Christian meant sacrifice, giving something up, cost. In such a situation, encouraging one another in the faith and “being knit together in love” (what an expression) were crucial for survival. They still are.
But Paul wants them to understand that as sweet as Christian fellowship is, it has a goal; specifically, that they may “reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Christ is the believer’s source of wisdom and knowledge. This makes perfect sense as it was through him that the world was created, and it is in his image that we are being re-created. As the Mediator, he is our way to the Father. But he is also our go-between, our lens, our means of interpreting all manner of knowledge that comes before us through the world. I wish to know nothing apart from Christ. And I’m not only speaking of matters of faith, as if such were compartmentalized and tucked away in some corner of our minds that we refer to in matters of religion. No. I am speaking of all wisdom, all knowledge of things visible and invisible. Everything we come to know must be put through the filter of Christ that we may know it as we should and in its proper relation unto everything else. Christ is the believer’s way of knowing—our epistemology, if you will. And Christian fellowship is Christ-centered such that believers are knit together in love through him. Nothing apart from Christ and everything for Christ.
