Tuesday 14 October 2014

Background

In the vast array of faiths and gods that have been worshippeddown the centuries, is there a case for the uniqueness of JesusChrist? Here Paul says, 'Yes!' and with great emphasis.

It is clear that some old beliefs were running alongsideChristianity in the Colossian church. The most likely group to beinfluencing these new believers were the Gnostics. Gnosticism wasbased on the belief that the world had been created by evilemanations, not by God.Gnostics believed that God was so good thata series of distances had to be put between heaven and an earththat was made up of evil matter. And as humankind was also made upof this same matter, then humans were intrinsically evil andhostile to God. The only way for people to relate to God wasthrough a complicated series of codes only known to theintellectual Gnostics. It seems that this belief was influencingthe Colossian church and causing problems.

So Paul lays great emphasis on the Jewish and Christian beliefthat God created the world and that it was good and, at that time,there was no question about how the process took place. What hewants to make clear is that Jesus is the image of that creator God,an image that reflects the creativity and the love of God for allpeople. In other words, if you want to see God, look at Jesus.

There is also a clear instruction to look to Jesus Christ as thehead of the Church (verse 18) and as the head controls the body, soChrist must lead the Church, the Body of Christ.

And there is so much more. Through Christ people may see theextent of the love of God for all creation. Far from being adistant God dealing with evil humanity, this God wantedreconciliation with people and through the life and the sacrificeof Jesus it was shown that there were no limits to God's love.

If the Colossian church could fully understand that, then theirproblems would begin to be resolved.

To Ponder

• Have there been times when exploring another faith haschallenged your own? In what way?

• In today's multicultural society how can you justify theChristian belief in the uniqueness of Christ?