WHAT’S YOUR PHILOSOPHY?

Col. 2:8

 

“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.”

 

Some folks think you have to have a PhD in order to have a philosophy.  Not so; it may take a little education to spell philosophy, but everybody’s got one.  A philosophy is: “a system of values by which one lives.”  So your philosophy is nothing more than the way you think about life and the world.

 

People operate according to different philosophies.  Some, for example, think that all there is to life is momentary enjoyment, and so they focus every moment on what will make them happy right then and there.   For them, all there is to life is personal pleasure.  Experience teaches that such a philosophy usually leads to an unfortunate and unhappy end – a drug overdose, or a high-speed crash, organ failure or something like that.  Others think the whole purpose of life is to prepare for the future.  A philosophy like that can cause a person to miss out on living in the present.  That reminds me of a woman found frozen to death in a cardboard box on a street in Chicago.  There, in the box with her body, was over a half million dollars in cash.  She could have not only rented a motel room, she could have probably bought a motel!  Instead she died alone and cold while saving for a future she didn’t have.

 

In the paragraph above I illustrated two contrasting philosophies of life.  Paul did the same thing in the verse at the top of the page; it also contrasts two philosophies.  The first alternative is based on empty worldly nonsense that sounds good, but means nothing; the second alternative is based on Christ. 

 

So what kind of philosophy comes from Christ?  The answer to that is hinted at in the verses that precede the one above.  Col. 2:6-7 say: “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”  In other words, serve and obey Christ – that is appropriate if you have received Him as “Lord.”  Continue to trust him, let your faith grow, and be thankful.  That describes a life that is by Christ, through Christ, and for His glory.  “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”  (Gal. 2:20 NLT).

 

Pastor Keith Andrews