Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 4

As for the content of the verbal communication, Paul says that God has commissioned him to present "the word of God in its fullness" (1:25), and to lead believers to "the full riches of complete understanding" (2:2). Notice that this letter to the Colossians is itself a product of Paul's effort to fulfill his commission of using verbal communication to perfect the saints. We can say the same thing about all his other writings, and all other parts of the Bible – all of the New Testament and the Old Testament – are also the result of the divine mandate to perfect the saints by the various prophets and apostles. The apostles repeatedly taught and applied the Old Testament as they performed their work. Thus the content of the verbal communication, on the basis of which all ministries function in order to perfect the saints, is the whole Bible.

Then, Paul makes a specific emphasis here, and calls the message that he delivers a "mystery." As mentioned, in Scripture a mystery is not something that is so intellectually difficult that the finite human mind cannot understand; rather, it is something that has been hidden, "but is now disclosed to the saints" (1:26). Again, this word is frequently misused in preaching and in theology. The Bible does not teach us something, and then tell us that it is impossible to understand. This idea is an evil doctrine invented and propagated by those who wish to cover up their own incompetence, inconsistencies, and their disagreements with the Bible.

Paul does not say, "I want to tell you something that is impossible to understand." But this is the nonsense that theologians after him wish to impose on everyone. Instead, Paul says, "I want to tell you the word of God in its fullness, and I want you to have a complete understanding. I want to teach you everything, and I want you to know and understand everything." It is true that some things are more difficult to understand than others (2 Peter 3:15), but it is possible to understand all of them, and none of them are called "mystery" to denote a high level of difficulty. Also, most of the topics that are commonly considered the most difficult are in fact some of the easiest to teach and to learn, such as the doctrines on God's sovereignty, election and reprobation, the origination and continuation of sin and evil, the creation of hell, where God actively tortures unbelievers forever, and others.

Theologians claim that these doctrines are difficult only because their own prejudice clashes with Scripture. There is nothing within Scripture to reconcile, since there are no contradictions in Scripture, not even apparent ones. But when the prejudice of theologians contradicts the revelation of God, it is not only difficult but impossible to reconcile the two. Those who refuse to yield but who do not want to appear guilty thus put on a show of reverence and blame the contradictions on Scripture, claiming that Scripture appears to contradict itself only because our minds are finite. And then in the guise of false humility, they conveniently leave these contradictions to be reconciled by God in the future. Some even think that they will never be reconciled, since our minds will still be finite even in our glorified condition. There is no biblical or logical basis to any of this. It is a conspiracy designed to hide the theologians' own disagreements with Christianity.

Since they refuse to abandon their own opinions and traditions, then of course it seems that these doctrines are difficult – they made up the problems. But in themselves it is almost impossible to conceive of doctrines that are more simple and obvious. These are some of the least perplexing doctrines in Scripture, since they are clearly and repeatedly stated, assumed, explained, and applied. The measure of the difficulty experienced is the measure of the people's defiance against these biblical doctrines, and not the measure of their intellectual complexity. A "complete understanding" is the inheritance of believers. We must not be cheated out of it by disobedient theologians, who want us to exchange the divine promise for the pagan's portion, and complete understanding for paradox and contradiction.