Day 311: Colossians 2:1–3

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding, and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ (v. 2).

I want you to consider two words for “knowledge” in these verses from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. They help us learn something very significant about Christ and about our relationship with Him. The word “knowledge” in verse 2 comes from a wonderful word in the Greek language, epiginostos. It means a recognition of who Christ is, with particular emphasis on how this relationship requires participation on the part of the learner. It defines somewhat the security that’s found in relationship with Him. Paul is saying, “I want these people to be secure, to have full assurance in their knowledge of Christ.”

Now let me point you to the second word for “knowledge,” which appears in verse 3: “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” This word for “knowledge” is a different word entirely. It is a word that means “present and fragmentary knowledge.” Now hang with me a second, because I think this will thrill you. What Paul is saying is that God is the fullness of all security and mystery. He meets all our emotional needs as well as all our mental needs.

Something in each of us just loves a relationship that is both secure and mysterious all at the same time. Let me give you a very personal example:

My relationship with Keith is my most personal earthly relationship. I love knowing that I have security—full assurance—in my relationship with my husband. I believe I can tell you, after many, many years of marriage, that I know this man.

But I remember a time when a friend of mine saw my husband having lunch with another woman. She saw that Keith was fairly affectionate to her. He often touched her in a tender way. He even put his arm around her as they walked out of the restaurant.

Well, this sight troubled my friend. But when I found out from her that she had seen him with another woman, I said, “I want to tell you something. I don’t know what the explanation is, but I can tell you right now, it isn’t what you’re thinking.”

How fun it was for me when Keith came in later that day and said, “You know who I had lunch with today? Tina. We had the neatest time together.”

(Tina, by the way, is my husband’s little sister.)

Now I’m not telling you that something bad could never happen to my marriage. However, I have assurance in him and our relationship. For Keith to cheat on me would be so out of character for him, it would never enter my mind.

In fact, I don’t know how in the world I could be this blessed, but I don’t think I have lived a day of my married life that my husband hasn’t told me at least once—maybe even two or three times—how much he loves me. He’ll pick up the phone in the course of a very busy, very difficult day and say, “I love you,” even if he only has fifteen seconds and then hangs up the phone without saying good-bye. I know at this point in my life that I have security in my relationship with my husband.

Yet not too long ago, I was sitting in the company of some of our friends, and my husband began telling them a story. I watched his almost childlike face. He was so animated! It was a story about a fish fry he had given for his fraternity in college. (We had gone to the same school together; that’s where we met and fell in love.)

In recalling this event, Keith said, “I told them all that I was going to have a big fish fry and that we’d have all the fish we could eat.” But he ran out of time before he could go out fishing. So he went to the federal game reserve on that campus—which was very well guarded—and did his fishing there.

Now I realize this was illegal, but it was twenty-two years ago and fortunately the statute of limitations has expired.

I want to tell you something, though. As I was watching Keith reminisce that story, I just fell in love with him all over again. When we got in the car to drive home, I laughed and said, “I’ve never heard that story before!” It was so cute hearing him tell it.

You know what thrills me? Even after all these years, I am still discovering things about my man. I have security in him—yes—but if I had security and no mystery, that wouldn’t be any fun, would it? And if all I had was mystery, where would the security be? But in my husband, I have both security and mystery.

That’s what the Word of God is telling us we all have in Christ.

Don’t you just love how Jesus meets our emotional and mental needs? He said, “You have knowledge of Me with security, with full assurance, in relationship with who I am. But you also have constant mystery as I give You these little fragments of knowledge one at a time to open your eyes to My greatness.”

Jesus has taught us so much about Himself. There is so much we can be absolutely sure of. But we will never learn it all while we’re here. No matter how often we seek Him, we will always be stunned by His greatness.