Last week in the previous passage we looked at what Paul describes as the fullness of our salvation. We said that in Christ we have all the benefits of our salvation complete. There is no need to seek some sort of higher knowledge, or add some philosophy or experience in order to have all that need. We are made completely saved in Christ.
This week, we’re looking at the remainder of this chapter in which Paul continues with that line of thought, but he now is going to counter specific false doctrines which were being circulated in the church of Colossae. In these last eight verses, Paul gives us three areas of false teaching that were pervasive in the Colossian church, and I believe are still in effect in the 21st century church as well.
These three areas of false teaching Paul addresses are legalism, spiritualism or mysticism, and asceticism. And I hope to explain what those doctrines look like as we go through this passage. There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says, “Know thy enemy.” And I think it is very helpful to us to unmask these false doctrines so that we might know better how to defend our faith against the deception and attacks of the enemy.
So first of all, Paul warns against what we may call legalism. He says in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—“ Now as we have always been taught to do, we must look back to see what “therefore” refers to. Because what he says after “therefore” is contingent on what he said previously. And as I said a moment ago, “therefore” refers to the fullness of salvation which we have in Christ. Our salvation needs nothing other than what Christ has procured for us through His death and resurrection. We don’t need Christ plus mysticism or Christ plus legalism, or Christ plus asceticism. Christ alone is sufficient for all our spiritual needs.
But Paul wants to address some specific issues that were being taught at the church in Colossae. And the first one is that of legalism. In previous messages we have called the false teaching that was being offered in the Colossian church Gnostic Judaism. You’re not going to find that title in Wikipedia. Gnosticism would seem to have become popular a number of years after this epistle. But it seems with Paul’s emphasis on the worship of angels and the subject of spirituality that the roots of Gnosticism had already begun infiltrating the church.
Judaism of course is a reference to the religion of the Pharisees - Jews that put a great deal of emphasis on the outward appearance of things in relation to the law, but of whom Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs - clean and white on the outside, but rotten and corrupted on the inside. But the system of Judaism claimed spirituality based on keeping the law and ceremonies, as well as certain traditions passed down from their leaders.
So combining those two false teachings produces what we call Gnostic Judaism. Paul first describes those areas which we might term as legalism. They have to do with the law, or the keeping of the law. It would seem that they refer to Judaism and the practices of eating only certain foods and drink.
Some of those restrictions on food and drink had been given to the Jews in the Mosaic law. The purpose of them was either to create a unique situation or to keep them from eating something that would be harmful to them physically or nutritionally. Primarily the issue, in the old covenant was that God wanted a peculiar people. God wanted a people set apart from the rest of the world by a different lifestyle, and one of the ways He did that was by prescribing a different diet. Because of their diet, the Jews were socially distant from the people of the country they were living in because they couldn’t eat together. And that was the plan of God for them. He didn’t want them to intermingle. He wanted them to be separate from the pagan world.
So God gave these laws to the Jews, but in the new covenant, those laws were set aside. In Acts 10, there is the account of Peter on the rooftop when God gave him a vision of all sorts of clean and unclean animals and God told him to kill and eat, and that all meat was declared clean. Then in Acts 15 that principle is elaborated upon by the apostles in Jerusalem to say that none of the old dietary restrictions were to be put upon the Gentile church. And that principle is echoed repeatedly in the New Testament. For instance, Romans 14:17 says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
But as we probably all are aware, the Jews didn’t stop with just restrictions on food, but they had added all types of traditions to the law, very often with elaborate ceremonies like hand washing which were not dictated by the commandments. And it would seem that sort of thing was being advocated in Colossae.
So to paraphrase Paul, he says, “Don’t be deceived; don’t be tricked. Don’t let anybody judge you on the basis of what you eat or drink. Don’t let anybody evaluate your spirituality on that basis. And you know the same thing happens in Christianity today in many circles. Some sects teach that you must keep the dietary laws of the Jews. Others teach you must be vegetarian. There will always be people who want to judge everyone’s spirituality by what they do externally: how they eat, what they eat, how they drink or what they drink, whether they keep certain rituals and requirements which they think are necessary to be spiritual.
But the problem with that kind of spiritual evaluation is this: that somebody who isn’t a true Christian can qualify on the basis of their works. So a test of your Christianity, it produces a false positive, so to speak. It’s not that true Christians won’t manifest some different behavior than the world, but the problem is that those who aren’t can always conform to some external standard. And so judging by that type of standard doesn’t reveal true spirituality.
Galatians 5:1 speaks to this principle, saying, “For freedom, Christ has set us free; therefore, stand fast and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Christ set you free to live as free; so don’t go back to legalism. That’s the yoke of bondage which Peter said neither they nor the patriarchs had been able to bear.
And then Paul adds in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—” - don’t let these false teachers try to define your spirituality by whether you go to the Passover, or the Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Lights, or any of those ceremonies and holy days which were prescribed by the law – “or a new moon” – Numbers 28 tells us that the sacrifice was made on the first day of the month of the new moon – “or of a Sabbath day.”
So you have annual observances, and monthly observances and weekly observances. Rituals, ceremonies, what were called holy days. That’s where we get our word holiday, by the way, from holy days. There are a number of various groups through the centuries who have advocated either a return to the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, or they want to ascribe Sabbath restrictions on Sunday, as the Sunday Sabbath. But the scripture doesn’t teach either one of those.
I remember though back in my twenties when I was not living for the Lord. And I came under the influence of someone who was a Seventh Day Adventist. And I had never given much thought to the Sabbath before that time. And I became really confused about whether or not it was necessary to keep the Sabbath and return to Saturday observance.
But this passage here makes it clear that no one is to be your judge in regards to keeping the Sabbath. Romans 14 says “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.” And in the early days of the church there were people who were being converted out of Judaism, and their conscience bothered them concerning the Sabbath. Paul allowed such to do as their conscience dictated. But it was never ok to be taught that that keeping the Sabbath is a necessary requirement for salvation, or to achieve some higher spiritual plane. It’s a ceremony that speaks of a future fulfillment in Christ. Hebrews 4:9 teaches that the Sabbath rest is fulfilled in Christ for us, having accomplished His finished work on the cross, having sat down at the Father’s right hand. So as was the practice of the early church, we worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, which is Sunday. And we have been set free from the restrictions of the Sabbath.
And I will make one last point about the Sabbath. And that is that those who practice it do not really practice it according to the Law. You can be very glad that we are not under that yoke any longer. In Judaism it was a burden, it was not the rest that God intended it to be.
Now the rebuttal to all these legalistic doctrines is found in vs 17. [These] “things which are a [mere] shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” These ceremonial, ritualistic things are a foreshadow. But the reality, the fulfillment is Christ. All these laws and all these legalistic things, they were just shadow. A shadow just anticipates the arrival of somebody, and when He comes, and you no longer need the shadow. Or another way of saying it, they were pictures, and when you have the reality, you no longer need the picture.
Here’s the principle. Spirituality is not a matter of adding some external ritual or ceremony, but its’a matter of the invisible attributes, a matter of the heart and your relationship with Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying don’t let anybody intimidate you by the fact that if don’t do something, therefore you’re not spiritual.” It’s a matter of the heart, not external rituals.
Now the second area of concern in this false teaching in Colossae is what I am calling spiritualism or mysticism. And we find Paul’s admonition concerning that in vs 18 and 19. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on [visions] he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
Now don’t be confused, we are to be spiritual, but spiritualism is not spiritual. It’s perhaps better called mysticism. What is mysticism?” Mysticism is a deeper or higher experience which one believes gives them an exalted knowledge of God or the mysteries of God. It’s like saying, “Well, I’ve had an experience that I can’t define, but I’ve touched God, or have come to understand something from God.”
Now what Paul says is that kind of thing can make you believe you have missed out on all that God has for you because you haven’t had a particular experience. He says that teaching defrauds you of the prize. What is the prize? It’s a full, complete, relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s knowing all that He has for you and being content in that knowledge. It’s peace with God. It’s assurance. And as Paul indicates in this statement about the growth of the body it’s spiritual maturity. You cannot have spiritual maturity if you think that it comes from a false source rather than from following Christ completely. If you’re seeking spiritual maturity from some sort of fake mystical experience then you’re going to miss out on the real prize of spiritual maturity.
Now Paul gives some examples of mysticism, or false spirituality which were being promoted in the church. “Delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.”
Delighting in self-abasement is another way of saying they delight in humility. I would suggest he’s talking about fake humility. It’s humility on parade. The Pharisees loved to be seen fasting and wearing sack cloth and ashes. That’s a false humility on parade. I’m afraid we see a version of that today often times at Lent, with people advertising that they are fasting by going around with ashes on their face. Another way that is done is through restrictions in dress, by only wearing certain somber colors, or not allowing cosmetics or jewelry, or even avoiding hygienic practices. A look at church history reveals many things like that in practice from time to time. But whatever means by which it occurs, they were advocating some sort of self abasement by which they thought they achieved spirituality.
And next, Paul says they worshipped angels, verse 18. What does that mean? This is where the Gnostic influence comes in, by the worship of angels. They believed that they could achieve higher knowledge through the angels. But the scripture says that there is one mediator between God and man. And who is that? Jesus Christ. But they were being urged to worship angels, denying the one mediator between God and man.
There is ample evidence at this particular time in Colossae that angel worship was very prevalent. But the scripture tells us that angel worship is forbidden. In Revelation, when John tried to worship an angel, twice the angel said, “Get up, do not worship me; I am a fellow servant of yours. Worship God.” Even the angels forbid us to worship them, unless, of course, they are fallen angels. And I think that perhaps a lot of angel worship is really worship of fallen angels who reveal themselves as angels of light.
The next example he gives of false humility is those that take their stand on visions they have seen. You know, the funny thing is, I’ve never had a vision. In 62 years I’ve never seen anything. But these people who want to tell you the latest dream they had, the latest vision, the word that God spoke to them can be sort of intimidating. They are typically super pious, self-humiliating, having talked with angels, seen visions, received special revelations, claiming all sorts of amazing stuff. And the rest of us poor folks, we’re left to sitting around at Bible study, just trying to understand what it says on the page.
And that indicates the heart of the problem. Rather than the word of God being sufficient, these people seek another revelation, a more distinctly personal word from God, a special vision from God. And that serves to undermine the authority of God’s word. They dare not say that God’s word is not authoritative, but in practice they reveal it’s not enough, they want God to speak directly to them. I cannot tell you the number of people that I have talked to that claim that God has verbally, distinctly spoken to them in a verbal way. And when those people say that sort of thing, there is nothing you can really say in return, other than “that’s nice.” But in my mind I want to say, “why you?” I mean, the prophets of old may have only heard from God once in their lifetime or not at all, and there are hundreds of years in history when no one heard a word from God, and yet God seems to speak to these people frequently, and about the most mundane subjects, like where to find a parking space at the mall. It’s amazing. It’s false spirituality. It’s false humility. But as Peter said, we have the prophetic word made more sure. We have God’s word written down for us. And it is more than sufficient for every need.
The last example may just be more of summary of their attitude, rather than a false doctrine, per se. Paul says they are “inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” In other words, they have a big ego, but they have no basis for it. A big ego is a person that is prideful. Paul says they have nothing to be prideful about. They are fleshly. That’s the opposite of spiritual. They think they are spiritual, but they are fleshly. I see that every time I turn on TBN. I try not to turn that stuff on. About the only time I ever see it is when I’m in a hotel room and I turn on the TV. But these people parading around as super spiritual, claiming all sorts of special powers, hearing from God, naming and claiming all sorts of things, and yet their lifestyle reveals that they are all about the flesh. They are all about money. And they fly private jets and live in lavish houses and so forth. Inflated without cause in their fleshly minds.
Against that false spirituality Paul gives the correct principle in vs19 “and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, comes from holding fast to the head. And the head of the body is Christ. It’s not Christ plus something else. It’s just Christ. He is sufficient. His word is sufficient. Obedience to Christ produces spiritual maturity. It’s very notable that those who want to claim all these experiences tend to put a very low value on obedience. They value experience, but they don’t value obedience. But that does’t produce spiritual maturity, it only produces mysticism, which is the devil’s duplication of the real thing.
The third area of false teaching pervading the church of the Colossians is asceticism. The dictionary defines an ascetic as somebody who lives a life of rigorous self-denial. An ascetic is somebody who sells everything and goes and lives in a monastery. Self imposed discipline and abstention. The idea that the only way to be truly spiritual people are the people is to become monks or nuns and go live in a monastery. Or the only truly spiritual people are the people who have nothing, sell everything and live in absolute, abject poverty.
Paul speaks to that false teaching in vs 20-23; “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all [refer] [to] things destined to perish with use)--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, [but are] of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
Paul says if Christ is your representative, and you are in Christ, then you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. Things like eating, drinking, being consumed with bodily functions, with the basic principles of living. With Christ we have died to the natural man, and now we live in the spirit. That doesn’t mean we stop eating or sleeping or working, etc. But those things are no longer the reason for our life. We have a higher purpose. And since these elementary things no longer control us, neither does neglecting them or depriving yourself of them lead to a higher spirituality.
Spiritual purity, holiness is not found in denial of the body. The ascetics of the past have thought that the path to holiness was to deny any bodily pleasure, to eat only bread and water, to forego sex in marriage, to go live on a mountain alone, to go without washing, or living without basic human necessities. But Paul is saying if we are saved, then the body has already died with Christ. Those things do not rule us. But we now live in the Spirit. And to deny these things of the flesh does not affect our spirituality.
Look at vs 21, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” You can almost hear the super pious tone in which someone might say that. As if denying such things invoked a higher spiritual quality. He says saying such things refer to things destined to perish with use. The question then is why are you attributing eternal value to that which is passing away?
Now when he says “in accordance to the commandments and teaching of men” I think Paul is referring here to the commandments and the traditions of the Jews which had the semblance of holiness, but in fact were not a means of holiness. They were for a time and a particular people, to be a picture of what was to be true in Christ. I think this is further evidence of the Gnostic Judaism type of false doctrine that was pervasive in the church. It somehow incorporated these ascetic restrictions on food and handling and touching of various things which were considered unclean.
Paul gives his rebuttal to this false teaching in Vs23, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
On the outside, it looks like you are holy because of these restrictions you have. But Paul says that these outward manifestations are of no real value when it comes to indulging in the lusts of the flesh.
So how do we guard against fleshly indulgence? Gal 5:16 tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Walk by the Spirit is not worshipping angels, or seeing visions, or having experiences, it’s simply living according to the word of God which is authored by the Holy Spirit. There is nothing mystical about it. There is no mystical bypass around the spiritual discipline which produces spiritual maturity. Just trust and obey. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. As Jesus said, “you are my disciples if you do what I command you.” God has given us His word that we might know all that He has for us, and all that He requires of us. Let us devote ourselves to that, and do not let anyone mislead us to think that we can achieve spirituality apart from clinging only to Christ.
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