Colossians 2:10

Paul continues talking about our advantages in Christ, trying to deception-proof the Colossians.

Instead of looking for satisfaction elsewhere, he draws their attention to the fact that they have been filled with Christ. All their needs have been met in Christ. As it is written, “The Lord is my shepherd I lack nothing (Psalm 23).” And that “Lord” does not mean master, the one that has to be obeyed, though he is that, but the personal-relational name of God, that some translations have as LORD.

Jesus, as the shepherd, guarantees that the needs of the believers are met in him (John 10:11-14). He is the bread of life and fills us (John 6:35); he is the shepherd, guiding and guarding us.

That means nothing is missing in Christ that we should look for in other places, other knowledge attractions. We can examine other kinds of knowledge for information but not for salvation because “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” Paul is trying to say, see, you are not just saved and have eternal life; you also have all your present and continuous needs met in Jesus. That He is the savior means you are free from all other controlling needs—which connotes bondage—because all your needs are met in him.

When you are filled, it means you are satisfied; you do not feel that something is missing, you don’t feel incomplete, and there is nothing else to fill any gap in you because no gap in you needs to be filled. Nothing is better than being filled in him.

Adam and Eve fell into sin when they began to think they lacked something they could get apart from their creator. Rather than fixated on trust and obedience to the one who brought them forth, they went astray. We can say that Eve was captivated by the serpent's words; she paid attention to him and took the steps he prodded her into taking, and the judgment of that came upon us all. The devil convinced her that she needed what she did not need, that she needed something else to fill her than the multitude of provisions she already had as God’s apex creation.

God did not send his son to die on the cross so that he would have some competition in our hearts afterward; he is Lord of all. He did not send him to have a shiny object that would attract us away from him.

Eve could not judge that the serpent does not have her best interest in mind and that the short-term gain of tasting the forbidden fruit (which must have been sweet since she gave it to her husband) would lead to endless pain and suffering.

But Paul had the mind to preempt the devil by warning of the possibility of treating Jesus and Christianity as a fad the Colossians would adopt for a time, as a passing fancy among a group of people that would soon lose his luster and appeal.

He does want some demonically zealous people to trap them in deception as they devise another appeal, another variation of the truth. Maybe turning the appeal up a notch and saying, "What if we edit just a little thing from Paul's words? Wouldn't that be great?" Or they come up with a thousand and one reasons why what the Colossians were taught in the gospel is not plausible. These are wolves in sheep's clothing that Jesus warned about (Matthew 7:15).

It's a game of allegiance. Paul said that Jesus is the head of every ruler and authority. Anything that makes Christ a second fiddle or does not give Christ total preeminence must be shut down and put aside. It means we are not lining up with reality. We should not just go along to get along, even at the cost of our lives. It is worth it because Christ laid down his life for us.

These rulers and authorities that Paul mentioned are what people try to convince people that they owe their obedience to and owe them consideration. Paul said to throw all of them to the dunghill.

When Paul preached in a place, the people brought and burned their books (Acts 19:19). These were not ordinary books; they discussed certain spiritual rulers and authorities and how they should be embraced for power. But Paul was going to draw people's eyes away from anything else, any other god, any other historical or newly created entity, and draw their attention to Christ, draw their faith into Christ.

Jesus himself said that as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness, he would be raised up so that if anyone looked, he would be saved (John 3:14-15).

Paul had already said that being saved is good, but after that, we need to be rooted and built up in him (Colossians 2:6-7), who is supreme and peerless.

In the Old Testament, God forbade the Israelites from mentioning any other gods (Exodus 23:13); the people of Israel are his, and he did not want his people to give any other god any mental/emotional/spiritual bandwidth.

The New Testament corollary is what Paul is aiming at here, where you are filled with Christ, and there is no space in you for any other allegiance and privileging any other ruler or authority.

No reading books of false concepts of Christ and God in the name of maybe there is something I am missing out on that is not in the pages of the bible.

Remember that Paul did not even name any ruler or authority because they are not important individually. It is enough to know that we don't need them as we have Christ, and we have been filled in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.