Colossians 2:13,14 - God made you alive with Christ

2:13

God raised Christ from the dead, and He also made us alive in Christ. This is speaking of spiritual life now. We were dead in our sins. Sin has an utterly destructive effect on us. The “uncircumcision of your sinful nature (flesh)” is the fundamental corrupt state of us. Sin is not just something we do, it is what we are, it is our nature. God made us alive while we were dead. We had nothing to do with it. He made us alive in Christ, and forgave all our sins. We so often want to look at ourselves, and when we do so questions about how can we possibly be part of God’s kingdom arise. It looks hopeless and impossible, but that is because we are looking in the wrong place (ourselves) for answers. We need to look to Christ.

2:14

“He cancelled the charge of legal indebtedness which stood against us”. We were under judgement, we were guilty. On our own merits we were in a complete mess. But God cancelled the charge. The Judge, the Creator, cancelled the charge. The charge against us was nailed to the cross.

Jeremiah 3:1,2 - You have lived as a prostitute

3:1

Jesus did a lot of His teaching through parables. The prophets delivered a lot of their messages in very graphic terms, or by using everyday analogies, as here. People presume that they can just come back to God when it suits them. This verse makes clear that things are not as simple as that! Under Deut 24:1-4, a man was not allowed to remarry a woman he had divorced. But the situation was far worse than this, for Israel had lived as a prostitute, giving herself to a whole host of idols. The remaking of the relationship between Israel and God was not a simple matter.

3:2

God then emphasises the extent of Israel’s unfaithfulness. He points to the “barren heights”, these were the places where idol worship and all that went with it most commonly occurred. Israel freely made herself available to these idols. As such she had defiled the land. 

As an aside, it is worth noting that the Bible (Old Testament) is a most strange book for a nation to have as their “holy book”, for it hardly paints Israel in a positive light! It would not be unfair to describe the book as the record of the sins of Israel! If this was a mere man-made book, why would they have written it the way it is written? But it isn’t a mere man-made book, it is God’s revelation to Israel (and to all of us), and it is God-breathed, not man-made. It is God telling us what He wants us to hear.

Colossians 2:11,12 - Buried with Him in baptism

2:11

As well as pagan/gnostic type ideas, it is apparent that there were also Jewish ideas going around as well.It seems that Judaism wasn’t so strong a factor as in Galatia, but clear it was still a factor, and they would no doubt have mentioned the importance of circumcision. The Jews were very proud of being circumcised, seeing it as a symbol of their belonging to God. Paul tells the Colossians that they had an even greater symbol. They had been circumcised in an even greater way. Physical circumcision was a sign, a shadow, of the true “circumcision” that was to come. This was a “circumcision not performed by human hands” Rather they were circumcised by the Christ, their sinful nature (flesh, in the sense of human nature) was cut off. A fundamental change had taken place in their being. They were born again.

2:12

We were buried with Him in baptism. Or as Paul says in Romans 6:3, we were baptized into His death. And we were also raised with Him. No other religion or philosophy has anything remotely to compare with what the gospel offers. How did this happen? How did we come to have a share in this? Through our faith in the working of God. Sceptics will try and deride our faith. The enemy will do anything he can to try and stop us having faith, we should remember that he does this because he knows how powerful faith is. (And I mean this is the saving faith type sense, not “word and faith” sense). The particular aspect that Paul puts emphasis on here is that God raised Christ from the dead.

Jeremiah 2:35-37 - I will pass judgement on you

2:35

The guilt of Israel was obvious, yet she still protested her innocence. Sin blinds us. It blinds us to the effects that sin will have, on others and on ourselves, and it blinds us to our guilt. We need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truth of the matter. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16:8). This is a fundamental part of His ministry, and it is one that we desperately need. They thought God was not angry with them, but God then says He will pass judgement upon them. Why, because they denied their guilt. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and forgives us (1 John 1:8-10).

2:36,37

God asks them why they go about changing their ways. Instead of trusting in the living God they went to Egypt, In previous times they had gone to Assyria. Assyria had failed them, and Egypt would likewise fail them. Only God is faithful. “With your hands on your head” refers to them being led into captivity, into exile. God had rejected the nations they were trusting in. We can sometimes look for help or comfort in ways that God has quite clearly said He has rejected. So running after these ways will do us no good.

Colossians 2:9,10 - He is the head over every power and authority

2:9

The pagan believed that various spirits made up the fullness (pleroma) of the universe and were what controlled things. We see that in this letter Paul keeps banging on about the fact that all the fullness of God dwells in Christ, everything is found in Christ, created through Him, created for Him. Absolutely everything is focused on Christ. Since Paul considers this to be such an important point, it is important that we too have the same focus.

2:10

Not only is all the fullness of God found in Christ, in Christ we too have been brought to fullness. So everything about life in general is found in Christ, and everything from a personal perspective is also found in Christ. We do not need anything or anyone else. “He is the head over every power and authority”. We need fear nothing, for anything that contends with us has to contend with Christ. These powers and authorities may be in human form, or may be spiritual forces. It does not matter, we should ot fear them. This does not mean being unrealistic, ie we do not just zap them with a Christian laser gun! Paul knew the reality of suffering, and Christians throughout the world are persecuted. We may suffer for a time, but we will win because of Christ.

Jeremiah 2:31-34 - Have I been a desert to Israel?

2:31,32

There was no logic to the actions of the Israelites. The Lord had not been a desert to them, nor had He sent great darkness upon them. Ie He had not been a source of suffering to them. Yet the people considered it right to abandon God, to go and roam their own way. The Lord then uses an analogy. Items of jewellery are considered to be of great value by a young woman, especially those associated with marriage. Such a woman would not forget them, and would be greatly upset if she did lose them. Yet His people had forgotten God, and had done so again and again.

2:33,34

Again the analogy of the unfaithful woman or the prostitute is used. Israel was skilled at abandoning God and going to chase after other gods. Everyone could learn from her ways. Some might argue this was just religion, what’s the problem? But it wasn’t. Israel’s abandonment of God led to bloodshed, and bloodshed of the poor and innocent. When people abandon God and His ways bloodshed follows. The obvious example in our day is abortion. Yet we do not even consider it wrong. Worse than that, we consider it a human right to be allowed to kill life in the womb!

Colossians 2:7,8 - Rooted and built up in Him

2:7

We are to be "rooted and built up in Christ" . So we both sink our roots deeper into Him, and grow as people and churches. We need to know Him better, to trust Him more, and to understand more deeply the truth of the gospel. This knowledge a not for its own sake, but in order for us to hear fruit. We are gone built up on the foundation or Christ. This is what they were taught. There was no question of just "accepting Christ" , this was only the start of a process. But this is not just hard work, rather it is to be done with thanksgiving.

2:8

Ideas matter, and people can be captivated by ideas.  There were all sorts of philosophical ideas floating around. Many of these ideas are "empty deceit" . They deceive people promising all sorts of things, but ultimately delivering nothing. These things are taught need not by Godly wisdom, but by human tradition. "According to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ". Elemental spirits could be elementary principles. I'd there could be a direct or an indirect spiritual influence.  It really doesn't matter which, the key thing is that they are not according to Christ.