Easy Prey

The blindness we suffer from makes us easy prey for ideologies and philosophies that are dead ends. Only Christ is full enough to keep us FREE in 2025!

Christ is born!

And Happy New Year!

Some suggest we live in a chaotic time, and I agree.

I disagree that this situation is “new” or “unusual.” It isn’t.

Since the snake deceived our Mother and Father in the Garden, we humans have lived with the threat of chaos and disorder and have experienced this throughout history. Today is just the continuation of that broken universe expressed with all the technology we now possess.

But, at the heart of this conflict is the struggle we all sense. We were made for true freedom and to be like our Creator. We know this in our bones. We get the fact we weren’t meant to die and disappear forever. We were made for bigger stuff.

All ideological and philosophical disputes and admonitions result from an attempt to make sense of our fallenness.

But here’s the danger. It isn’t being wrong as much as it is a danger of being too small! That’s where Jesus comes in. If God has become one of Us for our salvation, then knowing Him will guarantee we won’t fall for too small ideologies and philosophies. We won’t be easy prey to that which keeps us blind and infantile!

Look at our lesson today in Colossians 2:8-12:

BRETHREN, see to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

St. Paul is writing the parish in Colosse because some false teachers spread an old heresy common in most religious philosophies – the physical is bad, and the spiritual is good.

Paul even calls this religious philosophy “empty deceit” and “according to human tradition.” This dualism, which is especially common in Eastern religions (Christianity is an Eastern religion, by the way), threatens the central message of the Christian faith: that God became physical in Christ to reclaim the physical as “good,” just as the Creator declared it to be in the beginning!

Paul combats this heresy by specifically focusing the Colossians and us on Jesus Christ.

He declares that in Jesus, “the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.” Jesus isn’t just some great religious teacher or Prophet; He is the very Incarnated God with skin on Him, God Visible, God Himself.

This is no mere incarnation of some aspect of a god or some offspring of a god. All those pagan precursor ideas were just shadows meant to prepare the whole world for the amazing reality of Jesus Christ.

Paul insists that Jesus is “the head of all rule and authority.”

In the ancient world, whoever held power was seen as “ordained” to execute power and rule “by divine right.” But this Jesus is the Ruler and Authority above all. St. Paul insists that Jesus has the Authority of the Creator, the Cause of all being. This is no mere mortal. Paul and the history of the Faith don’t give us that luxury of doubt. The Jesus Paul preaches and the Church declares is “Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten, not made.”

There is no temptation to fall prey to false doctrine with this enormous and lofty Faith as our foundation.

And this Jesus has transformed all the shadows of the previous centuries into realities that marry the physical and the spiritual together as they were meant to be! Jesus does for the soul what the religious observances of centuries past did for the body. Faith in Christ now performs the circumcision of the heart, and the baptism of the body washes not only the flesh but also the spirit, making us, by faith, what Christ is by nature! And the Eternal Life that Christ experiences by His resurrection from the dead, the ultimate negation of our flawed human condition, is now shared with all who follow Him!

No wonder the Church calls us to remember the Lord's circumcision today. The Lawgiver Himself embraces obedience to the Law to show us His humility and love for us! He enters into the Law to show us what a Human who obeys God ultimately looks like! And then He says to us that He will share His obedient, perfect life with us through our communion with Him IF ONLY we are humble enough, brave enough, and curious enough to reorient our attention towards Him every day we live!

Today, as we embark on a brand New Year, don’t fall prey to too small ideologies and philosophies. The Faith enshrines a pattern of theology, a way of life meant to transform our thinking and lives forever as we enter 2025, committed to being a Normal Orthodox Christian!

P.S. Our human form have You taken on Yourself without change, O greatly-compassionate Master, though being God by nature; fulfilling the Law, You willingly receive circumcision in the flesh, that You might end the shadow and roll away the veil of our sinful passions. Glory be to Your goodness unto us. Glory be to Your compassion. Glory, O Word, to Your inexpressible condescension.

From Fr. Barnabas, I want to welcome all our new subscribers to Faith Encouraged on Substact. Please share these devotionals and pray for us in 2025!

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV