Beware, lest men spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ. Colossians ii. 8.
We cannot comprehend the value of this warning, except we put ourselves in the place of Paul, and the people he addressed. This is really the thing for us to do, with every utterance in Scripture.
Nothing purposeless has been put on record. Out of all the teachings of the Master or of Paul, but few things were written down. To understand Scripture is to be filled with the Spirit of Christ,—which controlled those who wrote the Scriptures,—and live in the scenes in which they were written.
