COLOSSIANS: JESUS IS FIRST
CHRIST IS FIRST IN RELIGION
Colossians 2:6, CSB
6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
Core Value: There is Always a Next Step
Discipleship doesn't come with a finish line. As a follower of Jesus there is always an opportunity to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit, moment to moment and day to day.
Colossians 2:14, CSB
14 Jesus erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Colossians 2:16-23, CSB
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. 19 They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.
20 If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: 21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22 All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. 23 Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.