Introduction
Paul has been writing to the believers in Colosse to warn them not to be taken in by false teachers who were promoting a Christless religion, which, as far as we can tell, was an amalgamation of Judaism and paganism. So, in today’s passage he refers to various prohibitions from Judaism; and in last week’s passage he referred to hollow and deceptive philosophy and to the basic principles of this world, ideas which may have come from paganism. And some commentators believe that the false teachers were promoting this religion as a way to ward off evil spirits. So, if the misery in our lives is caused by evil spirits, then here’s a way to protect yourself from them. Follow our directions and you’ll be fine. And then other commentators think that they were promoting this religion as a way to gain a higher spiritual life. So, do you want communion with God in heaven? Do you want to gain access to the heavenly temple? Do you want to enter heaven and see the angels who are in the presence of God? Then follow our directions in order to reach a higher spiritual life.
And, as I’ve said before, none of this is ancient history, because people in every generation turn to religion to help them deal with the sin and misery of life. But instead of turning to the true religion, which is Christianity, they turn to other religions. They turn to religions or to cults and to sects and, as I said last week, to all the modern day isms and ideologies which people rely on to make sense of the world and to cope with our sin and misery. These religions and philosophies and beliefs offer a way to control our destiny and to remove problems from our life and they offer a way to obtain a happy life here on earth. And so, what Paul wrote to the Colossians about is still relevant to us today.
But as Paul makes clear, why would we settle for anything less than Christ, when Christ is the image of the invisible God and he’s supreme over the old creation, because all things were made through him, and he’s supreme over the new creation, because he was the first to be raised from the dead? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, in whom all the fullness of God dwells and through whom all things are reconciled to God in heaven and on earth? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, when he is the mystery, once hidden, but now revealed, and the only Saviour of the world? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and he now lives in us by his Spirit? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, because in him we have died to our life of sin and unbelief and we have been raised with him to live a new life of faith and obedience? Why would we settle for anything less than Christ, who bore the penalty we deserve for our sins, when he suffered and died for us on the cross? And because of what he suffered for us, we now receive forgiveness from God. So, why would we settle for anything less? Why would we settle for a Christless religion, when we can have Christianity and Christ?
So, Paul has been writing about these things, so that we won’t be taken in or deceived or led astray by a Christless religion or philosophy. And in today’s passage, Paul tells his readers that we shouldn’t listen to false teachers with all their rules and regulations about what we should and shouldn’t do. We shouldn’t listen to them, because what we have in Christ is far better.
Back in verse 8 of chapter 2, he issued us with a warning: ‘See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy….’ Today’s passage contains two more warnings. Verse 16: ‘Therefore do not let anyone judge you….’ And then verse 18: ‘Do not let anyone … disqualify you for the prize.’ The warnings in verses 16 and 18 are similar to one another and each one is followed by a Christ-centred explanation. So, verse 16: do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, because there are a a shadow of the things to come; and the reality is found in Christ. And verse 18: do not let anyone disqualify you from the prize, because that kind of person has lost connection with the Head, who is Christ. And Paul follows up these two warnings and explanations with a question in verse 20: Why do you submit to these Christless rules and regulations? And he mentions some of the rules and regulations, before concluding that while they may have an appearance of wisdom, they are worthless. So, let’s turn to the passage now to study it in a little more detail.
Verses 16 to 19
Let’s turn first to verses 16 to 19 which contain the two warnings. And this part begins with the word, ‘Therefore’. Paul is building on what he said previously. And so, he means: Therefore, in view of what I’ve been saying about continuing to live as a follower of Christ and about watching out that no one takes you captive by their Christless religion, in view of that, make sure you don’t let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink and with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon festival or a Sabbath Day.
Paul is referring here to the kind of thing we read about in the book of Leviticus and all the Old Testament rules and regulations about clean and unclean food and about the various religious ceremonies which were given to the people from God in the days of Moses. As I say, you can read all about them in the book of Leviticus; and we went through the book of Leviticus on Wednesday evenings a few years ago. And there are lots of things we can learn from those laws. But one of the first things we learned, when we went through them at the midweek, is that those laws were for God’s people at that time. Those laws and rules and regulations were for the people of Israel in the time of the Old Testament. Those laws and rules and regulations about what to eat and what not to eat and what festivals to keep were some of the terms and conditions of the old covenant, which God made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. And while they were useful for them at that time, they were for the time-being only and they have now expired. You put some milk in the fridge and you can make use of it for a time, but not forever, because eventually the ‘use by’ date will expire and the milk, which was once good and useful, will be bad and useless. And that’s the way it was with all those Old Testaments laws concerning food and festivals.
If you’re interested, you can take a look at Leviticus 11 for the rules concerning clean and unclean food. In the first 24 verses there are laws concerning animals and fish and birds. Some were regarded as clean and they could be eaten; and others were regarded as unclean and they could not be eaten. Pigs, for instance, were regarded as unclean, and practicing Jews still will not eat pork today. Those laws about food are in the first 24 verses of Leviticus 11. In the rest of that chapter, there are rules about touching the carcasses of unclean animals. So, if anyone eats an unclean animal or if anyone touches an unclean animal, that person becomes unclean. But we’re not to think of physical cleanliness here. This has nothing to do with hygiene and with preventing the spread of disease. This is all to do with ceremonial cleanliness. If someone was ceremonially unclean, then they were not permitted to enter the tabernacle or temple to worship the Lord. So, in those days, God was said to dwell in the tabernacle and temple. And his people were invited to come before him to worship him. But if you were unclean, you couldn’t come before the Lord. You had to stay away. And you couldn’t come and offer sacrifices to him for your sins. And so, no one wanted to become unclean; and they did what they could to avoid eating unclean meat and they did what they could to avoid touching an unclean carcass. And there were many similar laws. If a women had a child, she became unclean. If you had skin disease, you became unclean. If your clothes had mould, you became unclean. And so on. There was normally a way for an unclean person to become clean, but it always took time. And so, people preferred to avoid uncleanness. Again, this had nothing to do with physical hygiene; it was all to do with ceremonial cleanliness.
And then, Leviticus 23 lists all the different religious festivals which the people were required to celebrate in those days, beginning with the weekly Sabbath. And then there was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There was the Festival of Firstfruits. There was the Feast of Weeks, which was also known as Pentecost. There was the Feast of Trumpets. And there was the Day of Atonement. And finally, there was the Feast of Booths. The people were required to observe these special days every year; and Leviticus 23 outlines what they had to do on those days and what offerings they had to bring before the Lord.
These laws were for those people at that time. They were for the people of Israel in the time before Christ. But now that Christ has come, those laws about food and festivals have expired. They no longer have any hold over us. The food laws taught the people that they needed to be clean in order to come into the presence of God. But now that Christ has come, we know that we are made clean, not by eating certain foods, but by trusting in Christ, whose blood cleanses us from the guilt of our sin. And each of the festivals foreshadowed some aspect of the gospel. For instance, on the Day of Atonement, a sacrifice was offered to God to cleanse the tabernacle and the people from their sins, so that God’s wrath did not break out against them for defiling his dwelling-place with their sin. But that Day of Atonement was for the time-being only and it was to make do until Christ came and offered himself as the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice for sins. He suffered the wrath of God in our place and by his blood we have been cleansed.
So, those laws about food and festivals were for the time being only. They were to make do until Christ came into the world. As Paul says in verse 17, they were a shadow of the things that were to come. What was to come? Christ was to come. He is the reality. He is the substance. So, think of your shadow on the ground on a sunny day. That shadow may resemble you in a way and someone might be able to look at the shadow and recognise that it’s you. But it’s not really you, is it? It’s not really you, because it’s only your shadow. And the food and festival laws resembled Christ in a way, because they illustrated the gospel. The food laws resembled the gospel of Christ, because they foreshadowed Christ who makes us inwardly clean. The festival laws resembled the gospel of Christ, because they foreshadowed his perfect sacrifice on the cross. They resembled the good news of Christ, but they were not the real thing, were they? They were not the substance. Christ is the real thing. And now that Christ has come, those laws have expired. We are no longer required to keep them.
But it seems from what Paul says in this letter, that the false teachers were saying to the believers that those laws were still in force and the people still has to abide by them. And the false teachers would judge and condemn anyone who did not keep them. But Paul says to his readers: Don’t let them. Don’t let them judge you. Those rules were only the shadow; and now we have the reality, because now we have Christ.
And in verse 18, we have the second warning of this passage: ‘Don’t let anyone … disqualify for the prize.’ This second warning is virtually the same as the first one, because both are warning us about the false teachers who were judging and condemning and disqualifying Paul’s readers. And Paul describes the false teachers as those who delight in false humility and the worship of angels. And he says that such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind is puffed up with idle notions. The Greek word translated ‘false humility’ can also be translated ‘asceticism’, which is about denying yourself. So, what’s the connection between asceticism and humility, so that the same word can be translated both ways? Well, an ascetic person abstains from certain foods. And that’s what the false teachers said we should all be doing, because we should abstain from ceremonially unclean foods. And they saw this as a way of humbling themselves under God’s law. So, instead of putting themselves above God’s law, they humbly submitted to it.
At least, that seems to be what they were saying about themselves. But it was having the opposite effect on them, wasn’t it? According to Paul, these people were not humble; instead they were puffed up and proud. They were proud of how humble they were.
And Paul also refers to the worship of angels. Some of the commentators think that the false teachers worshipped angels. And it’s not too hard to imagine, because some people believed the law came to Moses through the angels. And so, if the law was important to them, then angels may have been important to them too. But it’s possible that when Paul refers to ‘the worship of angels’, he’s not saying the false teachers worshipped angels. Instead he’s talking about the angels and how they worshipped God in heaven. In that case, the false teachers were perhaps saying that they had seen visions of the angels worshipping God in heaven. And this makes sense when you realise that the words translated, ‘Such a person goes into great detail’ can also be translated, ‘Such a person goes into the sanctuary’. So, think of Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6 when he had a vision of the Lord in his heavenly temple. And there were angels around the Lord, worshipping him. It’s possible the false teachers were boasting about receiving visions of the heavenly temple. And they may have been saying: We have seen these things and we can show you how to see these things too. And it’s also possible that they taught that one way to receive these visions was by eating certain foods and by avoiding other foods.
But Paul says that they have lost connection with the Head, who is Jesus Christ. And it’s only in connection with him that the church will grow. Spiritual growth comes, not by being careful what we eat, but it’s by continuing to live as a follower of Christ. We must remain united to Christ through faith and we must not turn from him to a Christless religion.
Verses 20 to 23
So, in verses 16 to 19 we have two similar warnings from Paul: don’t let anyone judge you; don’t let anyone disqualify you. And Paul follows up those two warnings with a question in verse 20.
He prefaces the question by saying that we have died with Christ to the basic principles of this world. We came across the phrase ‘the basic principles of this world’ last week, when I explained that he’s referring to an ancient belief that the world is made up of earth, fire, air and water. These are the building blocks of the world. However, it also seems that people associated these basic elements with spiritual beings and with magic and astrology. That’s what I said the last time. But since Paul goes on in the next verse to refer again to the Old Testament laws about ceremonial cleanliness, then we should take it that when Paul refers here to the basic principles of this world, he’s referring more broadly to their old way of life and to the old ideas which people followed before Christ came into the world. And so, before Christ came into the world, God’s people followed all of those Old Testament rules and regulations and laws about what they could and couldn’t eat and touch. And the people in other nations followed similar rules and regulations.
But now that Christ has come, we have died to that way of thinking, because we now know that we are cleansed from sin through faith in Christ, who gave up his life to pay for what we have done wrong. The blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse us, but the blood of Christ, his death on the cross, can and does cleanse us.
And since that’s the case, Paul asks his readers: ‘Why do you submit to its rules: Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ Since you now believe that we are cleansed from our sin and guilt through faith in Christ, why would you bother keeping to all those old rules about what makes you ceremonially unclean.
And he goes on to say that these things are all destined to perish with use. Those things were for the time-being only. They were designed to be temporary. They were designed to expire and wear out and to become redundant. Remember how Paul referred to these things as a shadow? He said they were a shadow of the good things to come? Well, shadows are not permanent, are they? They appear for a while when the sun shines; and then, when the sun moves behind a cloud, or when the sun goes down, the shadow disappears. Shadows are always temporary. And the Old Testament sacrifices and the Old Testament food laws and the Old Testament festivals and the Old Testament temple were never designed by God to be permanent. They were always meant to perish and expire and to become redundant.
On the other hand, the reality, or the substance, to which they pointed, is permanent. It’s forever. So, Christ is our Great High Priest forever. And his blood, or his death on the cross, cleanses us forever. And the heavenly temple, unlike the earthly temple, is forever. God dwells there forever and we will dwell with him forever.
And so, when Paul says that the rules and regulations about what to handle and taste and touch are based on human commands and teachings, he’s referring to what the false teachers were saying, because they were taking what God designed to be temporary and they were saying, in contradiction to God’s word, that these things are permanent. And what Paul says about them recalls the Lord’s complaint in Isaiah 29, where the Lord said that these people come near to him with their mouth; and they honour him withe their lips; but their hearts are far from him and their worship is made up of rules taught by men. And these false teachers have made up their own brand of religion, drawing on Judaism and paganism, taking bits and pieces from the Old Testament and bits and pieces from the pagan world, bits and pieces from the culture around them, and they have come up with their own Christless religion.
And the same thing happens today, doesn’t it? I’ve said before how people turn to religion to help them deal with the sin and misery of life. But instead of turning to the true religion, to a Christ-centred religion, they turn to Christless religion. It may be one of the world religions. Or it may be a cult or sect. Or it may be one of the modern isms or ideologies. And even in the Christian church, there’s a brand of preaching and there’s a brand of book which you can read which is all about following the preacher’s or the author’s rules and regulations and laws for spiritual growth or for church growth or for how to obtain a higher spiritual life or for a better life or for a better marriage or for a better family. Four steps to this; and five steps to that. Follow these six steps and it will lead to a better, higher, fuller spiritual life. And these things are very popular and some people can’t get enough of them. And perhaps the reason for their popularity is that these things are always about me and my life and what I can do to make my life better. And they’re not about Christ and who he is and what he has done for us on our behalf.
Paul says about these things that they have an appearance of wisdom. They have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship and their false humility or asceticism and their harsh treatment of the body. So, we look at someone who follows all these rules and steps, and we admire their commitment and dedication and their zeal and their seriousness and their discipline. It all looks so impressive. But, says Paul, these things lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. That is to say, these things lack any value in restraining their sinful flesh or their sinful nature. When it comes to killing their sinful nature, their rules and regulations are useless. And do you know why they’re useless? Because their rules and regulations lead them into the sin of pride. By their rules and regulations, they have climbed up onto a perch from which to judge and condemn those who don’t measure up to their rules. And sitting up there on their perch, way up high, they feel proud because of what they have done.
And in this way it becomes clear that their religion is a Christless religion, because a Christ-centred religion does not lead to pride. It leads to humility. It leads to humility, because Christianity makes clear that we all like sheep have gone astray and each one of us has turned to his own way. Christianity makes clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Christianity makes clear that there is no-one righteous, not even one. And Christianity makes clear that we are pardoned and accepted by God only on the basis of what Christ has done for us. So, God pardons us and accepts us, but it’s got nothing to do with us and what we have done. The only thing we contribute to our salvation is our guilt; and Christ has done all things necessary to reconcile God to us. And since we’re unable, by ourselves to believe, he’s the one who had to come into our lives by his Spirit to enable us to believe. And he’s the one who then fills us with his Spirit and works in us to make us more and more willing and able to do God’s will here on earth.
And so, instead of boasting about ourselves, we will boast in Christ. Christless religions lead to the sin of pride, whereas a Christ-centred religion leads us to praise God for Jesus Christ.
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