Today's encouragement comes from Colossians 2:8a, & 9-10a, which says this:
"Beware lest anyone cheat you . . . For in [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him . . . "The free lives of redeemed Christian churchmen must always be zealously guarded. People devoid of saving grace—in particular, religious people who are not regenerated but still have misguided passion—are constantly seeking to "cheat" us of their rightful inheritance in Christ. They desire to bring us down to their miserable level; and to see us enslaved to the world, just like they are.
The answer to this pressure is self-understanding, which is based in Christ-understanding. The faithful churchman is already "complete" in Christ. He or she needs nothing more. Since God's "fullness" is in Jesus, we do not need to look to any other beings for salvation or its benefits. (We also do not need to pay any attention to the religious world’s latest idolatries and guilt trips.)
[Puritan quote of the day: "Christ's prayer takes away the sins of our prayers.” —Thomas Watson, in, "All Things for Good"]
