A Caution & A Choice

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according the the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. - Colossians 2:8-10


As we continue through the book of Colossians, we come to a passage that is close to my heart. This requires a little backstory on me- I received my B.A. in English from a liberal arts University in Georgia where I spent three and half years reading and studying philosophers from every age; Aristotle, Plato, Durkheim, Kant and Nietzsche to name a few. Each of these philosophers, whether inadvertently or directly, did their best to prove there was another way to live life. A life that did not have Jesus Christ at the center or in it at all.
Now most of us don't regularly have lengthy debates on the existence of God or the essence of Man, but we do watch television, listen to the radio, and go outside our homes. The world has its own philosophy and it desires you to live your life according to its rules (or lack thereof). We are constantly being told it's okay to use sex to sell products, it's fine to get divorced because you can't get along, you are the only one that should have a say in what you can or can't do, chase after what makes your heart happy, etc. This is also what Paul is cautioning us against; "the basic principles of the world".
There is a Creator and Designer of the Universe, Who has laid out boundaries for His creation to live by and the whole World rages against those boundaries, whether inadvertently or directly, and Paul remind us that Jesus Christ is "the head of all principality and power". This fact is what causes King David to pen, "The law of the LORD is perfect" and through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, do we find salvation. (Psalm 19:7 NKJV)
There are also those that try to incorporate Jesus in there philosophy as a moral teacher and nothing more. To this, I will allow C.S. Lewis to respond because he did it better than I.

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus Christ]: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." - Mere Christianity

I'll leave you with this thought, who is Jesus Christ to you; Is He a madman or your King? If He is your King then I say, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6-7 NKJV)

Father, you are King, sovereign and so necessary to my life and all creation. Thank You for the command to live within Your boundaries; they have been laid in welcome places and for my good. Open my eyes to the deceit of the world, and to the watering down of truth and give me the strength to stand firm on the foundation of truth. In Jesus' Name; Amen