Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Question 52:

“What is the ‘reward’ in Colossians 2:18?”

Answer 52:

The passage might be rendered, “Let none circumvent you,” or “cheat you.” That is, as if he said, Do not allow things to get an entrance into your mind, so that you should be cheated out of that which Christianity has given you in Christ, by voluntary humility, etc. There is no special separate word for “reward” in the passage, but the word is required to get at the full sense of the verb. The words I give in italics are all used to express one word in the original language, viz., “Let no man beguile you of your reward” It is not used in any other place in Scripture.

Question 53:

“Lie not one to the other?” (Colossians 3:9.)

Answer 53:

The Christian as dead and risen with Christ, and as having put off the old man with his deeds, is to act in the truth of this, and disallow and refuse every movement of the flesh, the untruthfulness of which is unchanged, even by a new life in Christ risen. The life which he possesses in Christ is to be seen, and it only. If the believer is “in Christ” on high, Christ is in him below, and his responsibility is that “Christ” should be seen, and never anything else but “Christ.”

It is the practice of a Christian, who is dead and risen with Christ, in dealing with his members, and refusing the action of the old man, because he is dead. He is never told in Scripture that he has to die to sin, but he is to act upon the great fact that he is dead with Christ, and his life is hid with Christ in God. This life is to be manifested on earth, in his mortal body.