Col 2:2-4 (NIV) My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
NOTE: Paul's purpose (I assume for the letter to a group he does not know personally) is two-fold. He wants to encourage them and to unite them in love. This two-fold purpose is necessary to experience the full riches of a complete understanding of biblical truth, with the primary truth being Jesus Christ, which is where all of the riches of wisdom (applied understanding) and knowledge (biblical truth) is found. He gives them the purpose, because he is also seeking to refute "fine-sounding" arguments.
That is usually true of false-teaching. They appeal in some manner to what we want to hear, but they do not satisfy the criteria of adherence to biblical truth. False teaching, such as a recent book suggesting no hell, appeals to many, but ignores one of the most solidly-based truths in the bible. Jesus spent more time talking about hell than any other writer in the New Testament. Jesus talked of a very literal hell, with very descriptive terms. I'm sure some fine-sounding philosophy can explain why he would do it, but it ignores the plain teaching of the bible. We either have a source for absolute truth or we do not. If we do not, then there is no sense arguing, since all propositions can be said to be true but nothing is really true. It is not worth wasting time. We cannot even reason truth if we are the product of random chaotic events. No, in the end, we require some clear foundation of truth, some message from the creator. No other source satisfies that requirement than the bible.
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