Only Jesus: Don’t Get Ripped Off | Colossians 2:16-3:4
Have you ever been ripped off before? Last year, Americans lost $8.8 billion in scams. A few years ago, I decided to put in a pool. I researched three companies and settled on a contractor who I was told did amazing work. We signed an agreement that looking back wasn’t the best: it basically said, “You will pay, and I will finish the pool whenever I want to.” Long story short, the guy took the money I paid him to build a pool to buy drugs, then he would get more business from someone else and use their money to do just enough work for me to get more money from me. After 10 months, I had enough and told him I wasn’t paying him anymore money. He got mad, left me threatening voicemails and while we were out of town, he stole the pool equipment he finally just put in. I called the police and told them what happened, and the cops asked, “Do you have video proof it was him?” I said, “No.” They said, “We can’t do anything.” Long story short it cost me an extra $15,000 to finish the pool with someone else. As I look back, I should have paid attention and read the contract and had cameras up, but it’s a lesson learned. As bad as it is to get ripped off financially, it is even more devastating to get ripped off spiritually. Some of you have been severely hurt and ripped off by those who claimed to be good, trustworthy religious people but they had ulterior motives. Some of you grew up in religious traditions that felt like a Ponzi scheme or a cult than a church and you have PTSD from it. The trauma is real but of all the places you would think would be safe it is the church but sadly it is not.
Paul wrote this letter with a concern that this young church would get their freedom ripped off by spiritual con artists who had ulterior motives. Paul himself had been ripped off by religion. 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive: to gain control or rob: don’t get ripped off by things that sound good but are not good for you. Colossae was situated on a major trade route that connected the east and the west. There were people from all over the world who not only brought goods and services, but also were peddling different religious systems: Greek philosophy, Roman Polytheism, Jewish legalism and various cults of different gods and goddesses. These people started attending church and were pressuring these new believers to join their religious syncretism and abandon or add to Jesus. Paul is warning believers by telling them what to watch out for and what to hold on to. He is warning them not to fall into the slavery of bad religion but rest in their secure relationship in Jesus.