July 26th, 2026
by Chris McCall
by Chris McCall
There is a question that every human being wrestles with at some point, often in the quiet moments when the noise of life settles down long enough to let it surface. The question is simple but carries enormous weight: Who am I? The answer you land on shapes everything. It shapes how you make decisions, how you respond to pressure, how you raise your children, and how you engage with a culture that seems to grow more confused with each passing year.
The apostle Paul addressed this question with striking urgency in his letter to the Colossians. Writing from prison, awaiting trial under the reign of Nero, Paul penned words that were not merely relevant to first-century believers. They were a warning for every generation that would follow, including ours.
The Foundation That Does Not Shift
Paul opens Colossians 2 by pointing his readers toward something specific. Not a system. Not a philosophy. Not a political movement. He points them toward Christ. In Colossians 2:2-3, he makes clear that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is not a small claim. It means that whatever you are searching for, whatever answer you need for the confusion you are living in, the source is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
This matters because identity built on anything other than Christ is identity built on sand. You can identify yourself by your profession, your political affiliation, your denomination, your family role, or your social circle. None of those things are wrong in themselves, but when they become the foundation of who you are, they will eventually crack under the weight of a world that is constantly shifting. Paul's argument is that the only stable ground is Christ. When you are rooted there, Colossians 2:7 describes something remarkable happening: you overflow with gratitude. That gratitude is not a personality trait. It is a fruit of being properly grounded.
A Warning Worth Taking Seriously
Colossians 2:8 is where Paul's tone sharpens. He warns against being taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit, through human tradition and the elements of this world rather than Christ. The word "captive" is intentional. It describes someone who has been led away in chains, someone who is no longer free. And the sobering reality is that deception rarely announces itself. People do not generally walk into false belief systems with their eyes open. They drift. They follow the crowd. They adopt the language and assumptions of the culture around them without stopping to examine whether those assumptions line up with Scripture.
Paul identified several streams of deceptive thinking in his own day. Epicureanism elevated pleasure as the highest goal of human life. Stoicism turned inward to the point of self-absorption. Gnosticism promised insider spiritual knowledge that set certain people above others. And even within religious circles, there were those adding requirements to the gospel, insisting that faith in Christ was not enough on its own. These were not fringe ideas. They were mainstream, culturally respectable, and deeply dangerous.
The Same Deceptions, Different Names
What is striking is how little has changed. The deceptions Paul warned about have simply updated their vocabulary.
The pleasure-first mentality of Epicureanism is alive and well in a culture that treats comfort and convenience as the highest values. The pursuit of experience, entertainment, and personal satisfaction has become, for many, the organizing principle of life. Children are viewed as burdens rather than blessings. Sacrifice is avoided at all costs. And the church has not been immune to this drift.
The validity of Scripture itself is under sustained assault from two directions. On one side, there are those who remove from the Bible whatever is culturally inconvenient, affirming same-sex marriage, dismissing the reality of hell, and reshaping God into an image that requires nothing of us. On the other side, there are those who add to the Bible, claiming special revelation, insider knowledge, and spiritual authority that goes beyond what Scripture actually says. Both errors share the same root: they place human judgment above the word of God.
Social justice movements rooted in Marxist ideology have made significant inroads into Western culture, including the church. When government replaces God as the source of salvation and provision, the result is always the erosion of human dignity and freedom. History has demonstrated this repeatedly, and yet the ideology keeps returning because it appeals to genuine concerns about fairness and suffering, even as it offers solutions that ultimately make things worse.
The confusion surrounding gender and sexuality is not simply a political debate. It is a spiritual crisis. When a culture loses the ability to define what a man is and what a woman is, it has lost contact with the most basic realities of creation. Genesis 1 describes the significance of male and female being created in the image of God. Colossians 2:9 reminds us that the fullness of God's nature dwells in Christ, and it is Christ who gives us the framework for understanding what it means to be human.
What To Do With All of This
Paul does not leave his readers paralyzed by the warning. He gives them a path forward in Colossians 2:6-7. Walk in Christ. Be rooted in him. Be built up in him. Be established in the faith you were taught. These are active, ongoing postures. They require intention and discipline.
Two things are worth carrying away from all of this. First, be vigilant. Defending truth is not optional for followers of Christ. It can be done with kindness and gentleness, but it must be done. This includes what happens inside your home, not just in public conversations. Second, guard your heart. The philosophies and traditions of men are not always loud and obvious. Sometimes they are subtle, reasonable-sounding, and emotionally appealing. The only reliable guard against them is a deep, consistent, personal engagement with the word of God.
The world may have lost its mind. But those who are rooted in Christ have access to something the world cannot offer: the wisdom, knowledge, and discernment that come from knowing the one in whom all those treasures are hidden.
That is where identity begins. And it is where it holds.
The apostle Paul addressed this question with striking urgency in his letter to the Colossians. Writing from prison, awaiting trial under the reign of Nero, Paul penned words that were not merely relevant to first-century believers. They were a warning for every generation that would follow, including ours.
The Foundation That Does Not Shift
Paul opens Colossians 2 by pointing his readers toward something specific. Not a system. Not a philosophy. Not a political movement. He points them toward Christ. In Colossians 2:2-3, he makes clear that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is not a small claim. It means that whatever you are searching for, whatever answer you need for the confusion you are living in, the source is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
This matters because identity built on anything other than Christ is identity built on sand. You can identify yourself by your profession, your political affiliation, your denomination, your family role, or your social circle. None of those things are wrong in themselves, but when they become the foundation of who you are, they will eventually crack under the weight of a world that is constantly shifting. Paul's argument is that the only stable ground is Christ. When you are rooted there, Colossians 2:7 describes something remarkable happening: you overflow with gratitude. That gratitude is not a personality trait. It is a fruit of being properly grounded.
A Warning Worth Taking Seriously
Colossians 2:8 is where Paul's tone sharpens. He warns against being taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit, through human tradition and the elements of this world rather than Christ. The word "captive" is intentional. It describes someone who has been led away in chains, someone who is no longer free. And the sobering reality is that deception rarely announces itself. People do not generally walk into false belief systems with their eyes open. They drift. They follow the crowd. They adopt the language and assumptions of the culture around them without stopping to examine whether those assumptions line up with Scripture.
Paul identified several streams of deceptive thinking in his own day. Epicureanism elevated pleasure as the highest goal of human life. Stoicism turned inward to the point of self-absorption. Gnosticism promised insider spiritual knowledge that set certain people above others. And even within religious circles, there were those adding requirements to the gospel, insisting that faith in Christ was not enough on its own. These were not fringe ideas. They were mainstream, culturally respectable, and deeply dangerous.
The Same Deceptions, Different Names
What is striking is how little has changed. The deceptions Paul warned about have simply updated their vocabulary.
The pleasure-first mentality of Epicureanism is alive and well in a culture that treats comfort and convenience as the highest values. The pursuit of experience, entertainment, and personal satisfaction has become, for many, the organizing principle of life. Children are viewed as burdens rather than blessings. Sacrifice is avoided at all costs. And the church has not been immune to this drift.
The validity of Scripture itself is under sustained assault from two directions. On one side, there are those who remove from the Bible whatever is culturally inconvenient, affirming same-sex marriage, dismissing the reality of hell, and reshaping God into an image that requires nothing of us. On the other side, there are those who add to the Bible, claiming special revelation, insider knowledge, and spiritual authority that goes beyond what Scripture actually says. Both errors share the same root: they place human judgment above the word of God.
Social justice movements rooted in Marxist ideology have made significant inroads into Western culture, including the church. When government replaces God as the source of salvation and provision, the result is always the erosion of human dignity and freedom. History has demonstrated this repeatedly, and yet the ideology keeps returning because it appeals to genuine concerns about fairness and suffering, even as it offers solutions that ultimately make things worse.
The confusion surrounding gender and sexuality is not simply a political debate. It is a spiritual crisis. When a culture loses the ability to define what a man is and what a woman is, it has lost contact with the most basic realities of creation. Genesis 1 describes the significance of male and female being created in the image of God. Colossians 2:9 reminds us that the fullness of God's nature dwells in Christ, and it is Christ who gives us the framework for understanding what it means to be human.
What To Do With All of This
Paul does not leave his readers paralyzed by the warning. He gives them a path forward in Colossians 2:6-7. Walk in Christ. Be rooted in him. Be built up in him. Be established in the faith you were taught. These are active, ongoing postures. They require intention and discipline.
Two things are worth carrying away from all of this. First, be vigilant. Defending truth is not optional for followers of Christ. It can be done with kindness and gentleness, but it must be done. This includes what happens inside your home, not just in public conversations. Second, guard your heart. The philosophies and traditions of men are not always loud and obvious. Sometimes they are subtle, reasonable-sounding, and emotionally appealing. The only reliable guard against them is a deep, consistent, personal engagement with the word of God.
The world may have lost its mind. But those who are rooted in Christ have access to something the world cannot offer: the wisdom, knowledge, and discernment that come from knowing the one in whom all those treasures are hidden.
That is where identity begins. And it is where it holds.
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