Colossians Study – Session 7
CrossPointe Community Church – Denton,
TX
February 24, 2013 - Larry Reynolds,
Teacher
1.
Warnings based on Christ’s sufficiency (2:16-23) - In our journey through Colossians we have come to a
passage of Scripture where the Bible issues to us a very strong warning...
Colossians 2:16-23 is a strongly worded warning against some approaches to
Christianity which will enslave us, entrap us, and weigh us down, instead of
setting us free...
Introductory
statement: Verse 16 - “Therefore,
let no one act as your judge…”
“therefore”
– Very important word in writings of Paul…when-ever come to therefore need to stop and see what it
is there for…in this case looks back
to the previous paragraph where Paul made a great declaration about the complete
sufficiency of Jesus…saw in our last session that Paul stressed full deity,
full humanity, and absolute sufficiency of Jesus in vv.8-15…in Jesus we have
complete salvation, forgiveness, and victory…now he is saying, “All that being true, here are some things
you need to be very careful to avoid.”
“let no one act as your judge” – Does not mean that we should not care what others
think of us. Does not mean we should be
obstinate and contrary just because we can.
There are plenty of Bible verses instructing us to live in peace with
others and be gracious to others. But we
should not be slaves to the consciences of other people. The idea here is we should not give up our
freedom in Christ for a set of man-made rules and regulations. Don’t let the rules of others determine how
you relate to Christ. Don’t let anyone
judge your standing before God based on only outward religious ritual.
If you were asked to describe the Christian life in a
single word, what word would you choose?
I can’t think of a better, more comprehensive word to describe the
Christian life than the word relationship. As one writer put it, “Christianity
is a relationship. To be a Christian
means to live in a right relationship with God which then enables us to live in
a right relationship with other people.” [Harbour]...and in this paragraph
Paul warns us against approaches to the Christian life which value other things
over relationship with Jesus...
The last part of verse 16 through verse 19 list five
examples of outward religious practices that some people substitute for
relationship with God…
1)
The eating/drinking or refraining from eating/drinking
certain foods and drink…”…let
no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink…” - What a person ate and drank became
a big issue in the 1st century church…two reasons…
o
Some, who came
from Jewish backgrounds, insisted that it was necessary, even for Christians,
to maintain the dietary laws of the OT…those laws (cf. Lev. 11) were given to
mark Israel as a unique nation set aside for God and probably also for reasons
of hygiene…Jesus in Mark 7:14-19 clearly set aside those laws for His
followers…it took a vision from God for Peter to understand that it was not
necessary for followers of Christ to obey the OT dietary laws (cf. Acts 10:9-16)
o
It was an issue
among Gentiles because much of the meat sold in the market places came from the
pagan temples where it had been used in sacrificing to the idols…some
Christians felt that eating such meat was sacrilegious…Paul has wonderful
discussion of this issue in Romans 14…
2)
The observance of certain religious holidays… “…let no one act as your judge … in respect
to a festival or new moon or Sabbath day…”
“festival”
– Annual celebrations such as Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles,
the Feast of Lights…
“new moon”
– Monthly celebrations…some people made special sacrifices at the beginning of
each new moon…
”Sabbath day” – Weekly celebrations…Jewish people went to great (and sometimes
absurd) length to observe the Sabbath day…(mirror, cotton, Sabbath’s journey…) It’s not that followers of Christ should not
observe a special day of worship, but
should not be absurd about it.
Verses 17 and 18a explain why outward religious acts
alone are insufficient.
“…are
a mere shadow…” – Just as our shadow is not the reality of who we are,
outward religious acts are not the essence of Christianity. If such acts do not point us to the reality,
Jesus Christ, they are useless. Outward
ritual is a poor substitution for inward relationship with Christ.
“…defrauding you…” - Some Bibles translate “defrauding” as “disqualify”…good
translation because the word comes from the athletic arena…it was word used
when a judge would disqualify an athlete because he has not obeyed the
rules…the idea is that we should not let anyone rob of us what is rightfully
ours based on their distorted ideas of the rules…
3)
Radical self-discipline - “self-abasement”
o
Could be
referring to a physical self-abasement… Gnostics said the body is evil…one
branch of Gnostic thought said because body is evil, it needed to be abused,
beaten down, battered into submission…
o
Could be
referring to emotional self-abasement… think this is the more likely meaning
because the word translated “self-abasement” is usually
translated “humility”…notice they
were “delighting”
in their humility…kind of false humility
that says, “Look at me! See how humble I am.”
4) Angel worship - The worship of
angels was a heresy that plagued the region where Colossae was located for
centuries. In A.D. 363 a church synod
was held in Colossae ’s sister city, Laodicea , that declared:
“It is not right for Christians to abandon the church of God
5) Relying on visions
“taking his stand on visions…” – The gnostics prided themselves on their claim to
have visions/revelations not open to ordinary people. These supposed visions gave them information
about God that others did not have. It
is always dangerous when a person thinks he/she has reached a spiritual level
that allows him/her see things others cannot see. The danger is that such a person sees what
he/she wants to see. Paul made clear in
Colossians 1:26-27 that God’s plan is not secret. It has been revealed to all who care to see
it. It is “…Christ in you, the hope of
glory.”
The last part of v. 18 points out that those who rely
on outward religious observances rather than looking to Christ are “…inflated
without cause by [their] fleshly mind…”
That is, they are spiritually arrogant and they have no good reason to
be!
Verse 19 explains why such people have no reason to be
spiritually arrogant. They have missed
the main thing! They are not “…holding
fast to the head…” Back in
Colossians 1:18 Paul described Jesus as “…the head of the body, the church…” Instead of focusing on Jesus, the ultimate,
complete, full revelation of God, they were focusing on lesser things. Verse 19 is a restatement of a recurring
theme of Colossians. Jesus holds
everything together (cf. 1:17) and in Him we are made complete (cf. 2:10).
Verses
20-23 contain one of the most scathing denunciations of legalism to be found in
the Bible...legalism is the belief that we can win God’s favor by keeping
certain laws, rules, regulations... if we just don’t do the wrong things then
everything will be alright between us and God...
One
of the negative by-products of a legalistic mind-set is that it makes us
judgmental toward others...if others don’t follow the same rules and
regulations we choose to follow, we tend to look down on them and question
their commitment...the Pharisees in the NT are a good example of that...no-one
could follow rules as religiously as they did...they had a rule and regulation
for just about everything...and they often criticized Jesus and His disciples
because they weren’t as strict about obeying their myriad of petty religious
rules and regulations...they thought religion was a matter of keeping the
rules; Jesus taught that true religion is a matter of right relationship with
the Father...
What’s
wrong with an approach to Christianity which focuses more on rules than
relationship?...if you’ll look at Col.2:20-23 you’ll see that Paul points out
three things—
·
A
legalistic approach to Christianity minimzes our union with Christ - First part of v.20 says that we have “died
with Christ”...that is, our lives are governed by Him, not by the rules
and regulations of this world...doesn’t mean that we are lawless rebels...means
that we live right because of Christ in us, not because of conformity to
external regulations...
·
A
legalistic approach to Christianity invariably focuses on things temporal
rather than things eternal -
Notice what v.22 says...man-made rules such as “Do not handle, do not
taste, do not touch...” always refer to things of this world...and
those things, by their very nature, are temporary...will not last
forever...they are passing away...
·
A
legalistic approach to Christianity focuses on the symptom but not the disease - V.23 points out that while it may look profitable
and spiritual to obey a bunch of outward rules, rules alone are “of no
value against fleshly indulgence.”...what does that mean?...is Paul
saying that it doesn’t matter what we do?...is our conduct unimportant to
God?...of course not!...saying God always look beyond our outward conduct to
inward motive...quite possible for person to appear dedicated and disciplined
on the outside, but on the inside be full of anger, resentment, bitterness,
jealousy, pride, and a host of other things that are repulsive to God...[That’s precisely how Jesus describes the
Pharisees...said on the outside you look great...take great care to keep the
law...to observe you traditions and practices...but on inside your heart is not
right...like whitewashed tombs...sparkle and glisten in the sun, but if looked
inside would find the rotting flesh and decaying bones of those who have
died...]...we don’t change from the outside in...we change from the inside
out...and a legalistic approach to Christianity can’t understand that...
Let
me tell you about my Granddad Reynolds...was a great man and one of the mentors
of my life...Granddad was an old-time Baptist preacher...first church to which
I was taken as a baby was one which he started...Granddad was from that
generation of preachers who had very strong feelings about certain
activities... I remember when he and Grandma Reynolds would visit our home, we
had to put away any games we had (such has monopoly) which used dice because of
his strong convictions that dice were in someway evil...also, he would never
touch a deck of playing cards, even to play something as innocent as
solitaire... however, in our home we had a pool table...and even though my
brothers and I played constantly, we never got good enough to beat Grandad
Reynolds!...I never could figure out how this man who wouldn’t touch dice or
play cards got so good at shooting pool!...
Being
a Christian is not about what rules and regulations you choose to follow...it’s
about having a living relationship with Jesus...and we’re to be on guard
against those who would reduce the Christian life to a set of external rules to
live by...
