Weekly Devotional on Colossians (Week 5 - Colossians 2:16-23)

MONDAY: Colossians 2:16-17

Last week we talked about how in Christ the fullness of God dwells. We quoted verse 17 there, and now we will unpack what it means. 

Paul says that the Colossians should not let anyone pass judgment in regards to certain, likely Jewish, activities, including food and drink. But why shouldn’t someone pass judgment? For starters, the Lord is our judge. He is the one who sits on the judgment seat, and He has ordained that we do not gain His favour with these earthly things. The reason is because these things are a shadow of something else. And it is to Christ that the substance belongs! The issue here is Jesus, and the role that He has in our salvation replacing the rules of food and drink and festivals, as those do not cause us to be judged rightly. Christ is our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, the one you celebrate with festivals, the one who gives you rest. These things were a shadow of the one who is our light. So when we give into judgment, and think that our salvation rests on abstaining from food and drink, then we are not holding fast to the light but to the shadow. 

So why does Paul start this with a therefore? He is saying don’t act like you are alive to these things. Don’t act like you find your life in these things—you don’t. Your life is in Christ now, so don’t let someone pass judgment on you about these. You don’t live in the realm of these earthly restrictions anymore; no, you live according to Christ since you were buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 7:1-8; Gal. 4:9-11; Heb. 10:1; 1 John 2:15-17

TUESDAY: Colossians 2:18-19 (Part One)

When Paul uses the word disqualify, he is likely referencing verse 16 where he tells the Colossians not to let anyone pass judgment on them. The word “disqualify” has a more literal meaning of being defrauded of a prize. So Paul is saying that if anyone is successful in passing judgment and they allow themselves to be disqualified, those who judge them will have eliminated them from the promise of eternal life. Paul is warning them not to let anyone rob them of their eternal prize, which is heaven, because there are those who would seek to disqualify them.

But how do we avoid disqualification? Paul describes four signs of those who might disqualify us. The first sign is their insistence on making ourselves low in order to show homage to angelic beings (but Paul already said that the angelic beings have been stripped of power and put to open shame in verse 15). The second sign of those trying to disqualify is going on about visions and what they claim to have seen. This likely refers to the seeing of angels and the seeing of angelic beings that they are insisting on the worship of. The third sign is that they are puffed up with an unspiritual or sensuous mind. The Greek here is literally “the mind of the flesh.” In 2:11, we learned that the body of the flesh was cut off. Not the physical body, but the removal of the fleshly desires of the body. Here is the same idea. The mind by itself is not evil, but governed by the flesh it is evil and boasts without reason. Here, likely it boasts and becomes puffed up because of the visions that it proclaims, as well as the worship of angels and its grovelling before them. They are using their minds in sinful pride to be puffed up. Tomorrow we will talk about the final, most severe sign of those who may disqualify us. 

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Rom. 14:13-23; Gal. 5:2-4; Heb. 1:4-14; 2:5; 2 Pet. 3:15-17; 2 John 8

WEDNESDAY: Colossians 2:18-19 (Part Two)

Paul gives a fourth, and final indicator of people to watch out for. They are not holding fast to the head, which is Christ! Christ is the head of the church, His body, which we learned in Colossians 1:18. Those worshipping angels are clearly not keeping Christ preeminent in everything. They have not been filled with the one who is head over all rule and authority (2:10). Someone who might disqualify the Colossians is someone who is not firmly fastened to Jesus. But what does that mean? There are three descriptions as to what happens when you are not holding fast to the head, that is Christ.

Christ being the head means that we, the body, the Christian fellowship, are nourished by Him, knit together by Him, and through joints and ligaments grow by Him. This is important—the growth is from God! This growth from God comes when we are nourished by Christ, when we hold fast to Christ, and when we rely on Christ! The growth does not come from ourselves, and does not come from the regulations that are being pressed on the Colossian people. You can’t be disqualified for not holding fast to a shadow—those who hold the shadow without holding fast to the head are the ones who will be disqualified. They cling to things which bring no growth, but as we hold fast to Christ, we experience growth that is from God. So the implication here is that in order to not be disqualified, in order to not be defrauded of the eternal prize of salvation in heaven, we need to be those who are holding fast to Jesus. We need to be those who are growing with a growth from God as we cling to Christ.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Eph. 4:15-16; Heb. 10:23; 13:9; 2 Pet. 2:1-3

THURSDAY: Colossians 2:20-23 (Part One)

You did die with Christ, if you are one who was buried with Him in baptism (2:12). Here, Paul takes us back a few verses, saying if, if that’s true, then what are you doing? If you have died with Christ, then you have no business acting like your source of life is still found in regulations. Here we have to test ourselves—are we actually those who have died with Christ? Sometimes a neglected aspect of our faith is to test it. To ensure that we are those who have died with Christ. Do we find our life in Him, or do we find it in the desires of the flesh? If you have died with Him, then this section pertains to you.

But what did we die to? We have died to the elemental principles of the world. This is the same phrasing as 2:8. These elemental principles are likely the regulations that Paul is against. But how do you die to something? It seems as though Paul is saying that dying to something means dying to its power over you. He makes very similar points about dying to the law and to sin in Romans. So he says if you died to these principles with Christ, then why are you still submitting to them as if they hold power over you? Why are you acting like you still find your life in the world, as if it is in regulations that you have life? We are dead to the fundamental things of the world and self-made religion because we are those who have died to its power with Christ Jesus our Lord. Further, Paul has just told us that the regulations are a shadow, whereas Christ is the substance. So not only do we submit to that which we died to, we submit to an empty shadow. Yet when we submit to Christ, it is in Him that we actually find our life. Our submission now belongs to Him, rather than regulations. Tomorrow, we will look at what these verses tell us about these regulations. 

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Rom. 6:5-11; 7:4-6; 14:13-23; Gal. 5:18

FRIDAY: Colossians 2:20-23 (Part Two)

Paul explains a lot that we can know about these regulations that we should not be submitting to. He includes what appears to be a direct quote of one of the false teachers that he is refuting throughout Colossians. And the quote refers to regulations about things that perish. They are not about someone’s heart, but rather their cleanliness. These principles are not from Christ, but rather they come from the world. They are simply perishable as they are used. They have no substance and no abiding value, but we turn them into the means by which we relate to God. They are merely human teachings, without any divine authority and reason. And they even have an appearance of wisdom. They appear to be wise through lowliness and severity to the body, which we often see in different world religions. If someone can be totally disciplined in their life, they will look more wise and more religious. But in this case, that is self-made. It is worldliness disguised as wisdom. It is from the self, and it is by the self. It is made up, and performed by man. And Paul says that this self-made religion with all the regulations and disciplines is of no value to stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Those who do this are just as likely to be in the flesh and be boastful in their triumphs over their body. They become their own god, and do not live according to Christ. 

Let’s be careful here: throughout history, Christians have had a tendency to throw out all good actions whatsoever as being legalistic. That’s not true. We know this, as this is where Paul is going (Colossians 3:5-11). Paul is referring to these actions as ways to earn salvation from Christ. Good works are good, but they are good as a response to our salvation from God, not as a means to earn it.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Matt. 15:1-9; Mark 7:18-23; Gal. 5:19-21; Heb. 10:26-31

SATURDAY: Colossians 2:20-23 (Part Three)

Why is this all the case? Why do we avoid regulations if we have died with Christ? This again points to major themes that we have been learning throughout Colossians. And again, it all points to Christ being preeminent in everything. Let’s look at how this week relates to everything that we have learned so far in Colossians.

The whole point is to realize that through what Christ did on the cross and His resurrection (2:13-15), we have also died to the grip that this world has on us (1:20-21; 2:20) and have been raised to new life with Christ in baptism through our faith (1:13-14, 2:12) that is in the hope of the Gospel (1:4-5; 23). Our hope is in Christ, who is the image of God (1:15), over all things (1:16-17), and preeminent in all things (1:18). This mysterious and glorious hope is for all people (1:26-27), and because this is true, Paul and others (1:1-2) will go to great lengths to express Christ’s love in themselves to advance the Gospel (1:6-8, 24-25, 29; 2:1-2). But there are those who thwart it and insist on plausible, yet empty and worldly teachings (2:4, 8, 16-18, 20-23). Paul seeks to refute them, and protect the Colossians’ faith (1:9; 2:5), because it is only by holding fast to and being filled by Jesus (2:10, 19), in whom is the fullness of God and all wisdom and knowledge (1:19; 2:3, 9), that Christians will actually grow into the maturity and walk for which they were reconciled (1:10-11, 22, 28; 2:6-7, 11). And for all of this, we thank God (1:3, 12; 2:7). 

That might seem like a lot (it is almost everything we have touched on so far), but that is the reality that is at stake. When Christians begin to think that their salvation is found in worldly teachings, or in self-discipline instead of Christ, they do run the risk of being disqualified from eternal life. There is no life in those things! The one who is our life is here, so let’s seek to hold fast to Him above everything else in this life, to the praise and glory of God the Father. 

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

1 Cor. 1:18-25; Col. 1:1-2:23; Heb. 6:1-6