Colossians 2:16-23

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 9

Bullies

As we approach the half way point of this epistle it should not come as any surprise what Paul’s focus and preeminent point of instruction has been, Christ Is Supreme!  Far and above any other secondary topics, if we fail to more fully grasp the utter supremacy of Jesus Christ in this letter we have missed it.  And I mean missed it badly.  Thus far, Paul has presented Christ as:

• The beloved Son of the Father. – 1:13
• The redeemer.  – 1:14
• The visible image of the invisible God. – 1:15
• The Head over all creation. – 1:15
• The creator of all things. – 1:16
• The sustainer of all things. – 1:17
• The Head of the Church. – 1:18
• The preeminent one. –1:18
• The fulness of God. – 1:19
• The peacemaker. – 1:20
• The reconciler. – 1:22
• The one who presents us holy and blameless. – 1:22
• The Hope of Glory. – 1:27
• The mystery of God. – 2:2
• The possessor of all wisdom and knowledge. – 2:3
• The fulness of deity. – 2:9
• The head of all rule and authority. – 2:10
• The circumciser of the heart. – 2:11
• The resurrected one. – 2:12-13
• The sin canceller. – 2:14
• The triumphant one. – 2:15

It is upon these truths that Paul directs his readers to live lives worthy of The Lord Jesus Christ.  Their calling was a high one.  The God of all the seen and unseen universe had reached down and plucked them out of the deadness of their sin and given them life in His Beloved Son.  They had been set apart from the world around them to live distinct lives that would resound the glory of This King.

In our last session we came face to face with the trouble in town.  False teachers are abounding with various answers to the question of where ultimate knowledge is to be found.  From the days of Genesis a frantic race has ensued for more and more knowledge, all the while ignoring the source and giver of perfect knowledge.  Eve’s temptation in the garden was brought about by an insatiable demand for knowledge.  The serpent’s offer was such, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5, ESV)  At the heart of this temptation, to be sure, was ultimately a question of authority, but the thirst for knowledge brought it to fruition.  Today we are awash with all varieties of knowledge and information.  Just this past week Google estimated the total number of books written worldwide at 129,864,880.  We parade what we know on game shows, in class rooms, in meetings at work, on the cooking channel, on our bumper stickers, in our FB statuses.  We crave it, consume it and covet it.  Paul has made his case that all knowledge is found in Christ.  To be sure, that doesn’t mean that we will read of the third law of thermodynamics in the book of II Chronicles.  But it does mean that the sole reason we are able to state that “As a system approaches absolute zero, all processes cease and the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value.” is because that understanding first existed in the Godhead and then is permitted to be understood by the creature.  Information acquisition does not a wise man make.  For our purposes, we’ll define wisdom as Correctly Applying Truth.  This is what distinguishes the wise man from the fool.  “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ” (2 Timothy 3:7, ESV) is how Paul describes the fool.  The wise man understands that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”.

Having already characterized the troublemakers as those who would enslave by virtue of “empty and deceitful philosophies”, Paul now identifies the specifics of their heresies.  All of which are designed to distract the believers minds away from the supremacy of Christ in favor of the foolish wanderings of men.  No poorer exchange can be made.  In the previous eight verses Paul made a rather convincing argument as to why Christ is to be preferred, let’s read it again before we continue.

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. ” (Colossians 2:8–15, ESV)

Paul’s thesis, as presented in these verses, is that Christ is to be supremely desired as a master over and above the mastery of human tradition.  Not just preferred as a master because He is the lesser of the evils of the slave pictures.  NO!  Christ is not merely to be preferred as someone would choose celery over broccoli.  Or even a peanut butter sandwich over liver.  He is all satisfying, both then and now.  They, on the other hand, are like drinking sea water.  It is so prevalent, and holds out the hope of satisfaction, yet the results are fatal.   Let’s go to our passage.

“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. ” (Colossians 2:16–23, ESV)

Did you know that there are, at least, 234 isms, each representing a philosophical, political, moral doctrine or a belief system?  Try these on for size.

• adamitism           nakedness for religious reasons
• aspheterism       denial of the right to private property
• henotheism       belief in one tribal god, but not as the only god
• undulationism   theory that light consists of waves

We are going to cover three in our study.  Legalism, Mysticism and Asceticism.  Each served to set themselves up against the superiority of Christ.  And unless someone fails to see the seriousness of these attacks, consider the final words that we read about one of the recipients of this letter, Laodicea.

“‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, ” (Revelation 3:15–17, NAS)

Sadly, each of these belief systems is alive and well.  Some operate covertly, others under different names, but be sure they are thriving.

Legalism

First up, is my favorite and yours, please give a big round of applause to legalism. Let’s define our terms so we are all on the same page.  I’m going to stick with an easy definition.  Legalism is salvation by means of human achievement.  Simple enough, but let’s clarify the implications.  Here’s what I mean.  We all know that salvation is spoken of in scripture as a past, present and future act.

• Justified at a point in time in the past.
• Sanctification as an ongoing work presently.
• Glorification as the final perfecting work in the future.

There is the kind of legalism that arose in the early church having to do with the mingling of circumcision as a prerequisite for the justification of gentile converts.  This was an action that was plainly rebuked by Paul and others in the NT.  As equally as repugnant is the form of legalism that is in view here.  “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ” (Colossians 2:16, ESV)

Paul states that in light of all that I’ve just gotten done telling you, don’t let anyone set themselves up as your judge.  Let me ask us all a question, given all our study so far, who is the judge over all the earth and its inhabitants?  If you said Christ you just won your freedom.  The man or tradition that you permit to act as your judge will be your master.  It is him that you will answer to.  It is him that you will seek approval from.  We are to be held captive by Christ and Christ alone.  These particular men set themselves up as the arbiters over the spiritual well being of Colossian believers by passing judgment on two areas of their lives.

1. Diet
2. Days

The reference to what the Colossian believers were eating and drinking most likely had to do with OT dietary laws.  Those Levitical laws were never considered meritorious as they pertained to salvation, but were merely external signs given to mark God’s people as distinct from the nations surrounding them.  These OT symbols had been abrogated by virtue of the new covenant.  The fact that we know that these laws were no longer in force can be seen in vision Peter saw in Acts 10.

“On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. ”

These visions primary message was to confirm the opening of the door of salvation to the Gentiles, but the choice of metaphors to demonstrate it was illustrative as well.  The abolition of the dietary laws was formally affirmed later at the Jerusalem Council which is recorded in Acts 15.  “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking”.  Nor does it consist in the observance of special days.  Whether they be the festivals of Passover, Tabernacles, Lights or the Sabbath.  Compliance with these dates on the calendar contributed not a single lick to their justification or sanctification.  Paul refers to all of these as “merely shadows”, not the real thing.  When you set off on a trip to Disney World, as soon as you get onto I95 you will see a sign for Orlando, FL 602 miles.  The sign serves to provide anticipation for your final destination, but you wouldn’t pull over and rejoice and cling to the sign.  It’s just a shadow of that which is to come.  “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ” (Colossians 2:17, ESV)  Who cares about that stuff now?  It’s ancient history.  It’s serves to instruct us how God dealt with His people in times past, but the destination and fulfillment for which all of those signs pointed to is now here.  How foolish to cling to the sign.  Cling to Christ.

Mysticism

So what exactly is a mystic?  It may conjure up in your mind visions of swamis with bath towels wrapped around their heads chanting around a chanting around a crystal ball.  And yea that is pretty mystical sounding to me too, but often it manifests itself in far more subtle ways.  Try these on for size and see how they fit.

• God gave me this message especially for you tonight
• The Lord put it on my heart to start a cake baking ministry
• Another one here********

Each of these smack of a mystic feel because they necessarily contain revelation exclusive to the individual.  Mysticism at its core is a belief in subjective experiences that are self authenticating and independent from any objective truth, namely scripture.  Paul writes, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. ” (Colossians 2:18–19, ESV).  It’s quite a racket to be sure.  The shaman, witch doctor or in our case the pastor, tells us that he has been uniquely spoken to by God to be the deliverer of special revelation.  Let me give you an example.

Gail Riplinger is one of the leading proponents of a movement called King James Onlyism, which sole tenet is that the KJV of the Bible is the only uncorrupted and proper translation of the scriptures.  She has written several books on the topic.  One of the more fascinating and hard to understand proofs she presents to aid in this assertion is something she calls Acrostic Algebra.  This is a chart from her book New Age Bible Versions (p. 149).

What exactly is acrostic algebra you might ask?  Dr James White asked her the same question in a radio debate in 1993.

I began by asking about the “acrostic algebra”… I had never heard of “acrostic algebra,” so I asked Gail what it was, and why it was that while she consistently used the abbreviation NASB throughout the book, to make her “algebra” work she switched to the abbreviation NASV. Her response was tremendously revealing. She first indicated that “the Lord gave that to me one night.” Hence, “acrostic algebra” is a revelation given by God to Gail Riplinger.  Obviously, then, the validity of such an argument cannot possibly be evaluated. When asked about the switch from the NASB to the NASV, we were told that “the Lord calls it the NASV.”

How exactly do we as children of God evaluate a subjective revelation from someone?  If this was the OT when God was in the habit of giving particular revelation to individuals, we all knew whether what the guy said was correct because it actually came to pass.  “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. ” (Deuteronomy 18:22, ESV)

The Colossian believers nor us are in any need of hidden knowledge or special revelation of any sort from any man.  There are no hidden mysteries for us to seek out.  Why do you think Paul wrote in 1:25-26 “the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ” and in 2:2 “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, ”.  It’s as if he’s saying, “come on people, are you serious?  All the fulness of deity dwells bodily in the person of Christ, who is the Sovereign Lord over all, even the head of the body, which is the Church.  Don’t you dare let these empty headed, power hungry, sensually driven charlatans take what God has given to you.”  Let’s hear from Peter on the issue.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ” (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)

So be careful, every mystic does not carry tarot cards, some might be carrying a King James Bible.

Asceticism

Now let’s look at asceticism.  It’s the least familiar ism to us.  According to Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary, asceticism is a philosophy that “denotes strict self-control as a means of spiritual discipline”.  Didn’t help, how bout this one?  No Pain, No Gain.  That’s essentially the meaning.  The more comforts you can withhold or in some cases pains you can inflict the better, towards heightening your spiritual awareness.

“If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ” (Colossians 2:20–22, ESV)

In the 5^th century Simeon played this out.  Reportedly under the influence of his mother Martha, he developed a zeal for Christianity at the age of 13, following a lecture of the Beatitudes. He subjected himself to ever-increasing bodily austerities from an early age, especially fasting, and entered a monastery before the age of 16.  On one occasion, moving nearby, he commenced a severe regimen of fasting for Great Lent and was visited by the head of the monastery, who left him some water and loaves. A number of days later, Simeon was discovered unconscious, with the water and loaves untouched. When he was brought back to the monastery, it was discovered that he had bound his waist with a girdle made of palm fronds so tightly that days of soaking were required to remove the fibres from the wound formed. At this, Simeon was requested to leave the monastery.  In order to get away from the ever increasing number of people who frequently came to him for prayers and advice, leaving him little if any time for his private austerities, Simeon discovered a pillar which had survived amongst ruins, formed a small platform at the top, and upon this determined to live out his life. It has been stated that, as he seemed to be unable to avoid escaping the world horizontally, he may have thought it an attempt to try to escape it vertically. For sustenance small boys from the village would climb up the pillar and pass him small parcels of flat bread and goats milk.  This first pillar was little more than four meters high, but his well-wishers subsequently replaced it with others, the last in the series being apparently over 15 meters from the ground.  After spending 39 years on his pillar, Simeon died on 2 September 459. He inspired many imitators, and, for the next century, ascetics living on pillars were a common sight throughout the area.  He has the distinction of holding the Guinness record for the longest pole sit.

As you might be able to imagine, there is a bleed over from both the legalist and mystical worlds in the life of the ascetic.  Strict adherence to man-made observances that brought special knowledge.  I’m gonna throw another ism at you that was the foundation of asceticism, that is dualism.  The teachings of dualism go back to the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.  Its very premise had to do with the pursuit of freeing the mind or spirit from the prison of its body.  And as you might be able to guess, the ascetic’s pursuit of self depravation and punishment of the body was his key to enlightenment.  It is a useless pursuit in that it focuses all of its attention upon “things that are destined to perish”.  Paul points out the pointlessness of physical pursuits in vs.22 “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

The nineteenth-century Scottish preacher Alexander McClaren wrote, “Any asceticism is a great deal more to men’s taste than abandoning self. They will rather stick hooks in their backs than give up their sins and yield up their wills. There is only one thing that will put the collar on the neck of the animal within us and that is the power of the indwelling Christ. Ascetic religion is godless, for its practitioners essentially worship themselves.

The children of God are complete in Christ and lack nothing.  Therefore we cling to and follow hard after Him.