Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in Lucas
In these verses Paul begins to wrap up his teachings designed to prevent error in relation to the place of Christ and the Gospel in the lives of the Colossians and, by extension, in our lives. Remember that the root of the error coming against the young church in Colossae was a religious teaching that they needed special works and observances and ceremonies to be really holy and pure. So what does Paul say?
Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (NIV)
Have you realized before that you can “let” someone judge you? We don’t like it and we often chaff under it but we do “let” others judge us. Our pride makes it hard to let go when someone thinks we are sinful or less spiritual than we should be. I’ve been in a Muslim country in which Christians were judged less spiritual because we didn’t have the rigorous observances that they did. They had a much more active observance of the Sabbath. It was so serious that you had to stop work early on Friday. Look at Ramadan! It affected our work for a month. They judged us because of what we ate and drank too. They had taped “calls to prayer” that they played so loud that you couldn’t miss them. But I didn’t feel less holy because the reality is found in Christ. Do you think the world’s best “air-guitar” player makes Carlos Santana feel like an inferior guitarist? I think that is unlikely. We have the reality of Christ in that our sins are forgiven by His work on the Cross and we’ve received, by Grace, the righteousness of Christ. All the dietary laws, festivals, and even the Sabbath rest pointed toward Christ. Our observance of the Sabbath is a larger discussion but think of this. Next Sabbath day, see if you can go the entire day in the Sabbath rest of knowing that every sin (even those committed that day) was paid for on the Cross and that you have no (none, not a bit, nada) claim for any righteousness before God apart from that imputed to you by the perfect life of Christ. Can you spend a day in which you’ll do your best to do each thing you do in Jesus name at the time God asks, in the way God asks, with no thought but for His glory. Now that would be a true Sabbath rest.
Colossians 2:18-19
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (NIV)
I think we used to refer to this a spiritual weirdness in weird places. Every once in while, you’ll meet someone who is really way off the spiritual wall. I remember once I was running on a country road in Oregon. I looked up ahead and here came a “spiritual dude” with a robe followed by a woman. So I said “hi!” being polite even while sweaty and near anaerobic. The guy was barefoot and as I ran by him yelled, “Take off your shoes and liberate your feet!” I’d say he had lost connection with the Head for sure. Scripture is a valuable and essential framework for our growth. It sets boundaries and commands growth.
One of the perennial problems with many cults is that their lost connection with the Head results in an uncontrolled drift. For example, the Mormons taught that the “burning in the bosom” could be used to discern truth. Well then when you have conflicting truth, whose truth trumps the other truth? It makes for a real mess and cult leaders have a real problem with stray cult members running with their own revelations.
Colossians 2:20-22
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. (NIV)
We need to make sure we are free from thinking that our righteousness has any source but Christ. Rules are a treasured source of feeling righteous and have been for thousands of years. We have all sorts of rules that we use to make ourselves feel righteous. Protestant churches have certainly had as much traffic in this arena as the Roman Catholic Church.
Be sure to separate in your mind things that are part of the moral law from things that are not part of the moral law. We are told in Deuteronomy 4:2 that we are not allowed to add to or take from the law of God. The moral law still has claim on us. The issue in question in Colossians 2:20-22 are those things which are known as adiaphorous. That means they are things that God has neither commanded nor forbidden. This now includes those things in the ritual law which were fulfilled in Christ and no longer have claim on our lives. For example, have you eaten ham lately? If so, it had no impact on your holiness before God. It may have increased your girth but it was not a sin unless you were gluttonous. In other words the ritual prohibition against eating pork is gone but the moral law commanding us to not be gluttonous still stands. I think that generally we don’t find this very confusing on a day to day basis but teachings regarding adiaphorous actions are common in cults and even in some Christian fellowships. The fundamental problem, aside from the sin of violating Deuteronomy 4:2, is that these teachings pollute our understanding of our justification before God and confuse the process of our sanctification.
Colossians 2:23
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (NIV)
Benjamin Franklin was big on “moral improvement” and noted that every time he thought he had a moral problem fixed that he’d find a problem popping up in another arena. Paul goes right to the heart of the matter. These things look good but they are not produced by the Holy Spirit and they don’t have any true value in fixing our sin nature. The pharisaical nature of “religious” systems creates a deeply rooted web of pride that confirms those caught in the web in the system and binds them from abandoning something in which they are so deeply invested.
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