Christ the Treasury of wisdom.
I. WISDOM IS A TREASURE for THE GREATEST TREASURY. St. Paul agrees with Solomon. Both exalt wisdom. It is a mistake to suppose that the gospel discourages knowledge and sets a premium on folly. It disregards worldly wisdom just because it brings a higher wisdom. It uses what the world calls the foolishness of preaching in order that it may confound the worldly wise and enlighten the ignorant with the true wisdom of God.
1. The treasury of wisdom is a jewel-chamber. Knowledge is good in itself. It is a treasure worth possessing for its own sake. The truly wise man would rather lose his money than his knowledge. Knowledge has these advantages over other possessions:
2. This treasury is a granary. Knowledge is good for the soul. The mind lives and grows upon ideas. The soul is nourished by the Word of God, which is the revelation of his wisdom. To know God is eternal life.
3. This treasury is a bank. True knowledge is like money. It is the means for procuring many other good things. It has a far larger purchasing power than gold and silver. Knowledge is power, just because it shows us how to use many things which are useless to ignorance. The knowledge of Divine truth helps us to the use of Divine grace and the performance of Divine Law.
II. CHRIST IS THE TREASURY OF WISDOM. The Gnostics looked elsewhere. St. Paul says that, not only some wisdom, but all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, are in Christ. They are part of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Nature is a mitre in which science discovers numberless treasures of knowledge, but it is knowledge about Nature herself, not about the supernatural, the Divine, and the spiritual. Speculation soars in search of knowledge. But what it flatters itself to have discovered as mountain heights of knowledge often turns out to be but the shadows of cloudland. All the highest and best knowledge is in Christ.
1. The knowledge is in Christ himself. It is not simply in his teaching, much less is it in doctrines about him. To know him in his life and character and nature is to have the treasure of the best wisdom.
2. The knowledge covers the most important subjects of inquiry. We may include these in three questions.
III. LOVE IS THE KEY TO THIS TREASURY OF WISDOM.
1. The treasure is hidden. A superficial glance at Christ will not reveal it. The merchantman seeks for goodly pearls; the purchaser of the field digs for the hidden treasure.
2. Nothing but love will open up the treasury. Gnostics thought intellectual enlightenment would do this; theologians in all ages have tried various keys—the rusty key of old world learning, the ponderous key of argumentation with its intricate wards; too often they have forgotten the golden key of love.
3. Love opens up the treasury of wisdom in Christ. St. Paul' desires the Colossians to be "knit together in love" (verse 2) in order that they may "know the Mystery of God, even Christ," etc,
Growth in Christ.
St. Paul is anxious lest the invasion of a new philosophy should lead the Colossians away from their earlier life in Christ. Recognizing how rightly they had at first received the gospel, he desires them to continue in the faith as they had been taught. But while he is most earnest in deprecating any departure from the primite foundation, he is equally earnest in wishing for progress in a continued building on that foundation. The true Christian life is neither a so called progress that carries us away from Christ to newer masters, nor a dogged and stupid obstinacy that will not budge from the past and stagnates in its immobility, but a growth in Christ.
I. GROWTH IN CHRIST IMPLIES CONTINUANCE IN CHRIST. Any other change, even though it may seem to involve an advance, is a retrogression from Christ. The Colossians are exhorted to walk in Christ as they had received him. They had received him as Christ Jesus the Lord.
1. As Jesus. They had begun by recognizing the true human nature of Christ. The Gnostics were persuading them to give this faith up for the idea of a phantom Christ. We are not troubled with these Docetic notions. But practically we are tempted to lose our hold upon the human brotherliness of Christ in our doctrinal systems of divinity and our elaborate solemnities of devotion.
2. As the Lord. He was not only a Teacher, a mystic Mediator such as the Gnostics regarded him, but a Master. To regard Christ as Lord is not merely to have an abstract conviction of his divinity, not simply to offer him worship; it is to submit to his kingly rule. To grow in Christ, then, we must, first of all, continue in brotherly sympathy with him, and also in dutiful submission to him.
II. GROWTH IN CHRIST CONSISTS IN A CONTINUOUS ADVANCE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
1. We must be rooted. As the root derives nourishment from the soil for the increase of the tree, so are we to send out the deepest efforts of our soul to Christ and to draw from him ever more and more of spiritual vigour.
2. We must be built up. This is a gradual progress. It does not abolish the past in making the future, but, on the contrary, it erects the latter on the former. It produces a compact and harmonious structure. So the temple of the Christian life should be rising in solid strength and grace and beauty, based on Christ as the Foundation, to be finished with Christ as the chief Cornerstone, and consecrated for the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ.
III. GROWTH IN CHRIST RESULTS IN ENLARGED FAITH AND GRATITUDE.
1. Enlarged faith. "Stablished in your faith." Faith, which is the means of growing in the Christian life, is itself enlarged and strengthened by the process.
2. Great gratitude. "Abounding in thanksgiving." An advanced Christian will always be a thankful one, for he will know more of the goodness of God in Christ, and his own heart will be more full of love. Therefore also the joy of Christianity will increase with the growth of the Christian life.—W.F.A.