The Whole Truth, and Nothing but The Truth [11-1-26]

November 1, 2026

Colossians 1:1-8

“The Whole Truth, and Nothing but The Truth”

Today, we’re going to start by recapping ground we covered last week. We’ll also look at some bigger pictures before we move on to verses three through eight.

The place to start is with a guiding principle. This is absolute. In other words, this must be held as absolute truth if one is to lay hold of the Christian faith:

BELIEVERS SHOULD LIVE ONLY ON THE BASIS OF CHRIST AND CHRIST ALONE.

Paul had to hammer that idea home because false teaching was already infecting the church. The more things change, right?

People were already cobbling together other practices and beliefs from 

other belief systems and adding them to the One True Gospel. So the big question became, to protect against false teaching, how should we live our lives? That is huge.

Throughout the body of Colossians, Paul is going to guide us toward faithfully seeking the Heavenly Christ. What that means is putting off the old sinful lifestyle. It means rejecting faulty ideas about God and holiness and salvation. It means becoming a new creation in Christ. Are you with me on that? It means thinking and living in ways different from our pagan culture.

We’re dealing with the same things first century believers were facing. The same sinful nature, but sometimes different faces and manifestations.

People were mixed up back in Paul’s day, just as people are mixed up 

today. Back then, as happens today, people talked about Jesus, but it was a different Jesus. They had rolled Jesus up with all these other pagan beliefs and practices. It was a mess then, as it is a mess now. And Satan loves messes. Because messes undermine what? They undermine the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. How firm a foundation becomes weak and crumbly. And that’s where Satan always attacks. At the weakest points.

Here are two key things Paul writes to the Colossians:

• Colossians 2:9-10…”For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” Another way to translate verse 10 is, “You are complete in him.”  That’s all we need to hear. It is such a beautiful thing to know.

• Colossians 3:11…”Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Again, such a powerful affirmation. “Christ is all, and in all.”

As we said last week, Paul’s point can be best summed up this way:

JESUS CHRIST + NOTHING = EVERYTHING

Whereas:

JESUS CHRIST + EVERYTHING = NOTHING

Do you want to know God? Jesus Christ is the image of the Living God. Do you want knowledge? In God’s Word you will find treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do you want to be forgiven for your sin? Then worship Jesus Christ, not angels or cultural gods. Do you want to know and follow God’s purpose for your life? The substance of that pursuit is only found in the person and teachings of Jesus. Do you want holiness? It doesn’t come from all the weird practices and gobbledygook of so-called spiritually sensitive and in-tune people. {I call them whack-a-doodles.} Direct your affections toward the Savior whom the Bible proclaims. In Christ and Christ alone. Amen?

Paul has one thing in mind in Colossians. Two simple words you might want to write down:

CHRIST-SUFFICIENT

Let’s look, once more, at Colossians 1:1-2:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Two huge things stand out in these short verses.

First, Paul says we have peace with the Father. We know what that means. Our sinful nature separates us from the Father. But the Cross of Christ reconciles us with the Father. It is Christ’s work on the cross which makes it possible for us to know God and the peace and grace which come only from Him. We can only know the love of the Father through Jesus the Son. Are you with me on that? That’s the first affirmation in these opening verses.

The second affirmation is that, because of the cross, we are saints. “To the saints,” Paul says. And what, pray tell, are saints? I’ll tell you one thing saints ain’t. Saints have nothing to do with veneration or statues or people who have earned an elevated status or any other such garbage. The original Greek word Paul uses for “saints” here, hagiois, has no morally or ethically significant meaning. It simply means, “set apart one, separated one.” It simply means we are set apart by God for His Holy purposes.

God has plans for you and me. At its most basic, it’s to worship Him, treasure His Son, Jesus Christ, above all others, love each other, and love our community through acts of kindness. That’s the entrance level summary of how we pursue God’s purposes for our life.

With that in mind, let’s now turn to Colossians 1:3-8:

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing - as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

First things first. When Paul writes of the hope laid up for you in heaven, what is he talking about? Right, he is talking about eternal life. As used here, hope doesn’t mean an inner attitude of hope. It means the object of hope. It means nothing less than the hope of our future glorious resurrection. Which has been accomplished for us through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Make no mistake. That future hope of our glorious resurrection animates everything in us and about us. Which gets us to how we live our lives. Knowing what awaits us in heaven, here’s what Paul says happens:

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 

glory of God the Father.”

• Philippians 2:4-11

With that kind of hope…with that mindset, imagine what positive, joy-filled, kindhearted lives we get to live. We get to be different from our pagan culture. Paul says we don’t have to be like everybody else. We don’t want to be like everybody else. We’re different.

How many of you are tired of political ads? We get the double whammy… both Michigan and Ohio races. I can, with great confidence, say I hate them. There, I said it. I hate them. I don’t care what party or candidate, they are horrible. And the Bible says we are to hate what is evil.

Judging by the endless drumbeat of campaign commercials out there, and 

their overall themes, you’d think Americans were the whiniest, most 

envious, complainianest, unappreciative people out there.

My ad campaign would be, “Don’t Be Like Your Neighbors.”

Miles Commodore is a Christian who writes about cultural issues. He’s 

about my age. Amidst all these culturally-driven bad attitudes, he writes:

“Do you thank God for food, clothes, roof over your head, clean water, and good health for you and your loved ones? The truth is billions of people don’t have these things. Let’s always have perspective. I need to do better in this area.”

And I would add, why are there so many disgruntled people in the world, when there’s so much to be gruntled about?

Do you thank God for your blessings every day? Do you thank Him for the absolute dependability of Gospel Truth? God has prepared a place for us in heaven. That’s the Gospel Truth.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some weeds in our unplowed field in back of the parking lot. With my trusty “Picture This” plant identification app, I went to investigate. Walking on the grass, my mind drifted to a place of thankfulness and wonder. As I considered our beautiful facility and grounds, I was thankful for the previous generations who let God work through them to get us here. There is nothing we have done to earn or deserve this place. In God’s sovereign grace and mercy, He brought us here. I not only thanked God for this campus, I also thanked God for the 

wonderful people He called and saved to be His witnesses in our little 

corner of His world.

It is so easy to agree with Paul when he writes, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” How can I do anything else but that when I think about what God is doing through your lives? I love how pastor and author Scott Roberts captures it:

WHATEVER THIS DAY BRINGS, REMEMBER:

God is sovereign over every circumstance.

His mercies are new every morning.

His promises never fail.

His Word remains true.

His grace is sufficient.

His Son is worthy of all our praise.

May we set our sails and live our lives out of these truths.

Let’s Pray:

HEAVENLY FATHER, WE PRAY THAT THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION MIGHT BE SEEN IN THE LIFE OF SOME HERE TODAY. WE ALSO PRAY ALL OF US WOULD HAVE A RENEWED EXPERIENCE OF WORSHIP AND ADORATION AND LOVE FOR OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO HAS REDEEMED THOSE WHO KNOW HIM. AMEN.