For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ....Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increase with the increase of God. [Colossians 2:1-5; 16-19]

The mind and thoughts of a Christian is very important. Many educationalists today are trying to react and emphasize about the importance of thinking. That may be because people are willing to think no more. In this age of Television people less think and spend more time for entertainment. Some people attribute that thoughts effects emotion. But our visions are formulated according to our thoughts. As an example, think of somebody punch at your back with his finger while you are sitting here. Immediately you get angry and try to react to it. But while turning back if you see that it is one of your old good friend whom you did not meet for several years, suddenly your reaction will be changed. What we feel effects our action.

A great philosopher by name Frank Outlaw had quoted about the thoughts, 'Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.' So in our religious life we need to pay utmost attention for thoughts. Religious actions without our mental interaction and thoughts are empty. Such Christianity becomes nominal. In such cases people may go to emotions of Christian actions. But it lacks a Christian mind. Christian mind should be the mind of Jesus Christ. The emotional expressions cannot bring forth Christian joy. It does not mean that there is no place for emotion in Christian life. An emotion without divine thoughts is near religious sentiments.

Today, in many parts of the world there is popularity for new age spirituality. People look for spiritual experiences with out truth. But it is an impossible thing to achieve. We need the truth to have a real Christian experience. Christian truth is of ultimate importance. There is a famous book by the name 'Socrates Meets Jesus' written by Peter Kreeft. It is an imaginary story, which depicts how the history’s Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ. The story tells that Socrates resurrected and went to USA and joined Harvard University. He heard about Jesus in the Campus and became curious about Him. Socrates asked many probing questions in his Theological classes. Peter Kreeft concludes the book with the episode that Socrates believed in Jesus and became a Christian. There is a funny incident explained in the book, which calls for our attention. The Professor could not answer many of the questions of Socrates or he gave valueless answers and explanations. One day Socrates raised a serious question about Jesus in the New Testament class. Professor could not find an answer for the question and he thought of Socrates as a troublesome student. Suddenly the class bell rang and the Professor was happy to disburse the class without answering the question. Socrates got annoyed with this and told; 'Where I came from they valued truth more than time, but you now value time more than truth.'

In the contemporary world we had been turned out as a pragmatic and worldly society. In this background, it is not a surprise that doctrines of the modern church had became an eclipse. Even the people inside the Church started questioning the doctrines of the Church.

In the referred Scripture portion St. Paul address a similar type of social problem. All exhortations of St. Paul were about Christian teaching with Christian living. We cannot live a Christian life without based on Christian faith. Early church in the history was very keen about Church doctrines. There were many struggles to write down the actual doctrines of Christianity. Doctrine of Trinity was the central one. Eventually it was revealed to us to believe that Trinity is of one nature and three persons.

There was a problem in the Church of Colossians. There were several faith groups in the church promoting vivid teachings. Perhaps the difficulty was those teaching sounded very attractive in their arguments and presentation. St. Paul was very effective to counter argue and expose the hollowness of these new theologies. Their teachings were based on human traditions and not on divine revelations.

Bible had revealed us Who God is to us. The early Church prayed, discussed together and received the revelation from God. It made us known that Jesus is fully man and fully God. So Jesus only can die for our redemption and He can only give us salvation. Paul used this truth to counteract the false teachings of Colossian Church.

There were two particular groups St Paul was greatly concerned with in the Church of Colossians. The first was the legalistic Judaist. This was a group of Jewish Christians who misled other Christians to follow the Jewish rituals and practices. They taught that anyone who becomes a Christians should become a Jew first. They distorted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul saw all these teachings dangerous because the Gospel of Christ did not have anything with the traditions. Gospel teaches us that the salvation is by the Grace of God. The second group in the Colossian Church was pre-Gnostic. They taught Jesus is not enough for salvation and there is a secret mystery. They believed that only spirit is good and the body is evil. Paul decided to challenge these arguments and he found it is necessary to teach the Christian doctrines.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law and the prophets. Old testament festivals and rituals were only the shadows of the reality, which was yet to come. The modern world is used to look into the screen. They find increasing difficulty to differentiate between the shadow and reality. Actually Jews were trained for centuries together to identify the reality and abandon the shadow when the reality comes. But they failed to identify the reality. But John says in his Gospel “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

I think the reason why they could not recognize the reality may be the same theme involved in the parable of Pharisee and the Publican. [Luke 18] The publican beat his breast from a distance and said he is a sinner. The Pharisee who is supposed to know the law practiced his religiosity to the depth with smallest details and prayed to himself. That was the problem. The shadow what the Pharisees followed was not the shadow of Messiah but it was the shadow of themselves. So when the reality came they could not recognize.

But there was one Pharisee who could realize the reality. That was Saul who turned out as Paul. On the way to the gate of Damascus he had faced with Jesus and he got transformed. We know the rest of the story. Soon after this confrontation he went to Arabia. There, he might have read the Old Testament again and again, over and over for several times. He suddenly realized that the temple worship, sacrificial lamp, dietary restrictions all these were the shadow of Messiah and the reality had come in Jesus Christ. He recognized that all the shadows were pointing towards Jesus Christ. The laws, prophets all were talking about Jesus only. He could well recognize this truth while other Pharisees were not able to. The circumcision of the body was pointing to the circumcision of the heart. When the reality came we are baptized to Christ to get joined with Him. The forgiveness is according to the sacrifice on the cross.

So the whole truth of reality is Jesus Christ. There is no knowledge besides Jesus Christ. When the reality had come why we should embrace the shadow? This was the question raised by the Paul to the Colossians. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament laws and prophets. The origin of all knowledge is Jesus Christ as He was living before the creation. Everything what man wanted to know is there in Jesus and there no further hidden secrets.

So the Christian thoughts are very important in Christian life. Sinful mind is hostile to God. The God of the world had blinded the mind of the unbelievers. So we need to transform our mind not conforming to this world, but as per the mind of Jesus Christ. The transformation is way for salvation. When Jesus commenced his public life he exhorted the same thing. “Repent and change your mind.”

Each Christian should make sure that our life is connected with the faith. In the story of Jonah we read that Jonah replied to the queries of the captain, "I am a Hebrew, I worship the Lord of heaven who made the land and sea”. Those who heard this, they got terrified by it. But further Jonah confessed that he is running away from that God. These are two contradictory things. In our life also we make many contradictory statements. So our words becomes of no relation with our life. This happens because of the lack of transformation of our mind and we do not think in terms of our faith. Let our Lord make us to think in proper line with our faith and transform our mind to live a life according to our faith!