The Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion.
Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients.
Colossians 2:1-7; Luke 9:12-17.
Read Colossians 2:1-7
Imagine three cities along the Great Lakes: Detroit, a fading industrial center; Toronto, a thriving financial metropolis; Buffalo, a city known for water (Niagara Falls).
Such were Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis in the first century, each known for industry, finance and healing water in that order. They were connected by trade routes, and these cities received not only goods but competing philosophies and religious beliefs. Paul had never visited the Christians of Colossae and Laodicea, yet he writes of his profound concern for them because they had begun to believe that their beliefs about Christ were elementary but that the world’s great philosophies offered wisdom and impressive theories.
Paul wanted them to possess something better than an impressive theory: certainty rooted in Christ, Wisdom incarnate.
Due to this, Paul speaks of mystery, wisdom, and knowledge. In the ancient world, religious mysteries often promised hidden truths reserved for the initiated. Paul reverses this. He shows that God’s mystery has already been revealed in Christ, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3).
Christianity is not an elementary school from which we eventually graduate. Christ is both simple and incomprehensible for men, like the river that is shallow enough for a baby to play in and deep enough for an elephant to bathe in.
Paul goes on to warn his readers then and us now against those who deceive through persuasive arguments. When has error ever announced itself with a megaphone? It presents itself as enlightenment, as inclusion, offering something more sophisticated than the childishness of the Gospel.
Paul praises the Colossians for their order and firmness of faith, then gives them a simple instruction: “As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him.”
The danger confronting the Colossians then and us now is the sophistication of the popular sophists of the day who seduce the little ones into believing that Christ is great… just not great enough.