Captives of Desire
| ! Captives of Desire?
Colossians 2:6-15 (NIV) |
Selling desire is the biggest threat to American Christians. Ours is a culture based on selling desire. That being a fact, we who are Christians must beware of the subtle, negative effects such a view of life can have on our faith.
In 2:8, Paul urges us to be wary of any view of life that’s not centered in Christ. Selling desire is based on the view of life called hedonism. Hedonism is defined as “the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure.” Hedonism, as a philosophy of life, is in firm control of our culture.
| Christopher Decker teaches French at Campbell High School in N. Hollywood, Ca. In Christianity Today magazine, Decker wrote an article, “Selling Desire—Would a Return to Christian Virtue Cause a Recession?” Decker contends that abstinence from sex before marriage “is the counter-cultural value in a consumer society.” (p. 37) Decker explains: “The logic of chastity is fatally opposed to the logic of consumerism. To live chastely requires that one master and control one’s desires.” |
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How do we master our desires when a deluge of advertisements that constantly attempt to sell us something that, according to them, we’ve waited long enough to have?
| Decker writes: “The consumer society must discredit chastity and reverse the traditional value scheme.” |
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For the selling of desire to control us, any attempt to limit desire must be discredited.
What, then, is the deceitful principle by which hedonism operates? It’s this: DESIRE ALONE IS ALL THE REASON YOU NEED FOR ACTION.
Paul says in 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human
tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
Paul could’ve been warning us about hedonism. It’s a philosophy that preys on our hearts and minds.
Is hedonism preying on you? Is it promising you happiness, but instead you’re coming up empty? How can you be set free? Let’s talk about it.
| ! We tend to live as we’re taught.
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Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Paul says the same when he says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (2:6-7)
| A survey taken a couple of years ago said 93% of American households have at least one Bible in it. But only on third of those same families actually read and study them (including Christians). |
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Who will be more successful in continuing to live in Christ? The 14% who do read or study the Bible? Or the 79% who do not? Which are more likely to be deceived by hedonism? The answer is self-evident. Paul insists that we tend to live as we’re taught. If you allow your children to watch TV. three times as much as they study the scriptures, what’s going to happen?
Hidden within verses 6-7 are three metaphors Paul uses to illustrate his point that we must be taught to “live in Christ.” Paul pictures living in Christ like constructing a building. We first lay the foundation (“rooted…”in the faith”), build a frame until the building is recognizable (“built up in him”), and close it in, adding the fine detail (“strengthened in the faith as you were taught”).
The point? Believers in Christ counter the deceitful effects of hedonism by being strengthened in faith. Chapter 1, verse 7 tells us Epaphras first taught the Colossian Christians about faith in Christ. Paul, in this epistle, builds on what Epaphras did. Yet the Colossians were rejecting the truth about Christ and were placing their faith in angelic beings. I imagine the Colossian Christians would’ve denied being influenced by angelology to move away from faith in Christ, just like we may deny being influenced by hedonism to move away from Christ. Still, as someone has observed, GOOD INTENTIONS DO NOT CANCEL OUT THE EFFECTS OF BAD IDEAS. Toy with a philosophy of life outside of Christ and soon you may find yourself turning away from Him.
Why is the selling of desire the biggest threat to American Christians? Because it waters down, and completely destroys, commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord.
| ! We’re deceived if we live
on the level of desire.
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In 2:2 Paul states clearly the alternative to being “strengthened in the faith.” That alternative is being taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.” Paul isn’t anti-philosophy, so long as it doesn’t deceive a person by making them think a system of belief and behavior is the way to true and meaningful life. Paul, who knew Christ to be Lord, knew that to see angels as the path to life was to be deceived. If he were alive today, he would tell us that to seek life in fulfilling one’s every desire is to be deceived big time.
Paul possessed the wisdom of his forbears, who taught, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
It’s our responsibility as Christians to see to it that we aren’t deceived by the selling of desire. We must not be kidnapped by a philosophy of life that’s opposed to every Christian virtue.
I heard about a certain fisherman who refused to be deceived by the selling of desire
| One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand, with his line sparkling in the blue surf. He was really enjoying himself.Just then a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of his own stress. He decided to stop and find out how this fisherman had achieved his time of relaxation and pleasure.“You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman. “You ought to be working instead of fishing.” The fisherman looked at the businessman and asked, “And what will I get out of it?”“Well, you’ll get bigger nets and more fish!” was the businessman’s answer.“And then what will I get out of it?” asked the fisherman.The businessman replied, “You’ll make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”“And then what will I get out of it?” asked the fisherman.“You can buy a bigger boat and hire people to work for you!” he said, a bit irritated. Then the businessman added, “Don’t you understand? You could build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let your employees catch fish for you!”Again the fisherman asked, “And what will I get out of it?The businessman, red with rage, shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you could become so rich that you’ll never have to work for a living again! You can spend the rest of your life sitting on the beach, enjoying the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world.”The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?” |
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What is the real reward for work? The businessman never satisfactorily answered that question. He worked and worked to accumulate the happiness the fisherman already had. Can hedonism give you the peace and contentment you already have in Christ?
Paul knew that faith in Jesus is well and good, but when your heart is controlled by the desire for riches and pleasure, and that desire is stronger than your commitment to Christ, then you have become a captive of desire. When the Word of God says, “The tithe is holy to the Lord,” and you say, “Lord, I can’t tithe right now because I’ve got to pay for that pool in my back yard,” then you’ve definitely a captive of desire.
Jesus our Lord spoke the ultimate word concerning this phenomenon. Mark (4:18-19) recorded what Jesus said, “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Where are you living? On the level of desire? Or in Jesus Christ as Lord? The only reality—and it’s a spiritual one—that can empower us to break free of our captivity to desire is a faith relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord.
| ! We experience full and meaningful
life when we live in Christ. |
In order to experience full and meaningful life in Christ we need to define what that means.
First, it means to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. Paul, in verse 9, says, “For in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form.” He says the same in 1:19-20. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” The inference is that since God’s fullness is found in Jesus, and if have fullness of life in Him, what other principle or philosophy will we allow to have authority over us?
Next, it means that I want to please Jesus, and not my desires. Paul chooses the practice of circumcision to illustrate his point. Circumcision, of course, was the means God gave to Abraham by which he and his descendants would show their commitment to God. Whereas Abraham’s circumcision consisted of
removing the foreskin of the flesh, for the Christian, the foreskin of desire is what’s removed from our hearts. Thus Jesus, and not myself, is the joy and chief goal of life. Paul further supports this truth with the example of Christian baptism. When the Christian is baptized, she confesses that her old life based on human desire has died with Christ and has been buried with Him. She also confesses that by her faith in Christ she’s been raised to a new life, not based on human desire, but on obedience to Jesus as Lord.
| Ask the young teenage girl who’s been living a pleasure-seeking, desire-fulfilling life, and who finds herself in the delivery room facing motherhood and a life of struggle—not to mention two heart-broken parents—if a few minutes of sexual pleasure with her boyfriend has brought her joy, and a full, meaningful life? |
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Wisdom centered in Christ says that to live one’s life on the level of satisfied desire is to be deceived. Fulfilled desire promises life, but delivers death. It promises joy, but produces only sorrow. It also says that living one’s life saying yes to God’s will, and no to my own, brings a full and meaningful life.
Finally, to experience full and meaningful life in Christ means to live in the freedom of Christ. In rapid succession Paul describes what he means.
Look at verse 13. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.” God has set us free from death-producing desire, and given us new life in Christ.
Next, God “forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” While this is hard to understand, we can understand it.
God has willed that all who fulfill their human desires to find life, and who reject Him, will lose the life they long to have. God has also willed that all who give up their own desires in order to do God’s will, will receive the life beyond anything
they could find in pleasure. Why should anyone give up his life? Because Jesus did on the cross. And God raised Him from the dead. Anyone who will, as Paul put it, “die to himself,” as Jesus did on the cross, and receive God’s forgiveness in Christ, will be forgiven and set free from the endless pursuit of life where it doesn’t exist.
Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross, I willingly sacrifice my self and its sinful desires for Christ. That’s what it means to serve Jesus as Lord.
As we close, let me refer to something else Christopher Decker, the French teacher, said in his article. “CHASTITY,” he said, IS A MATURE RESPONSE TO A GREAT EVIL. IT IS A FORM OF REBELLION.” (p. 38) It’s high time for us as Christians to rebel against hedonism, and do it for the glory of Christ. Be chaste, in the true sense of the word, because it’s the only lifestyle that reflects the purity and holiness of Christ the Lord. Do it out of love for Christ who died for you.
Are you a captive of desire? You know. If so, you can be forgiven, raised to new life with Christ, and experience the freedom of the children of God. Repent of sin and come to Christ for life.