Chocolate Bunny

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays, but the reasons I love it have changed over time. When I was young, I loved Easter because of the chocolate baskets I received from a close family friend. We would go to her house Easter evening and I would anxiously await the chocolate boon to befall me. Each year, my basket contained a pastel rainbow of colored chocolate, Reese’s peanut butter eggs, and a large chocolate bunny.

The first time I got the bunny my brain melted. It was huge! And chocolate! It would take me at least an hour to eat this whole thing! I was overwhelmed by this bunny with its colorful packaging and the rich, milk chocolate poured all the way through. But then I took my first bite. My teeth sank through this bunny much easier than I anticipated. I pulled it away in horror. This bunny is hollow! I’ve been cheated! It’s not fair! There wasn’t even caramel inside.

In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns believers against “hollow and deceptive philosophy.” Any teaching that does not depend on Christ, he says, is hollow. Like that giant chocolate bunny, it may look significant and life changing from the outside, but inside there’s just nothing to it. Any teaching, doctrine, or theology that removes Christ from the center is hollow, because nothing else can ever fill the void left by Jesus.

But how can we tell the difference? How can we know when we encounter a hollow and deceptive philosophy?

The best way to answer this question is with a diagnostic question: What is the litmus test of true belief according to this teaching? If the answer is anything other than “the person Jesus Christ,” then it is a hollow and deceptive philosophy. There are many false litmus tests:

• Political ideology or affiliation
• Biblical literalism
• Patriotism
• Human sexuality
• Expressions of spiritual gifts

But none of these can be the center of our faith. These are all chocolate bunnies. They are hollow. They cannot possibly hope to replace Jesus as the center, because in him lives the fullness of the Deity. Christ is the center, and everything flows from him. Your responsibility is to draw life from your personal encounters with Jesus. Always be on your guard against what seeks to remove him from the core of your life and belief.