Rooted in Jesus - Freedom from Legalism

You’re rooted in Jesus, not in the judgment of others.

(16) 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. (17) These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (18) 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, (19) 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.

Let no one pass judgment on you

(16) 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.

Judgment = “the judgment which people customarily pass upon the lives and actions of their fellow men, so trying to influence them” (O’Brien WBC, 138).

Judgment about food & drink

Probably not merely normal Jewish OT dietary regulations (the only “drink” rules were specific priestly regulations), but more strict - more like Nazirite vows (example: Samson)

Judgment about festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths

Like previous judgment, this may go beyond simple Jewish feast days and include more astrological ideas associated with “elementary principles” of human philosophy.

Because Christ has defeated our enemies

“Therefore” builds on what Paul just described: Jesus has taken the spiritual enemies, defeated them, and thoroughly shamed them.

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 (2.13-15)

This implies a comparison between those supernatural enemies and the humans who were judging the Colossians believers: if Jesus defeated their powerful spiritual foes, he’s certainly strong enough to handle little human people enemies too.

Because those things only pointed to Christ, he supersedes them

(17) These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

As much as those sources of judgment line up with Jewish OT expectation or those points of Greek philosophy hint at real truth, they’re only a shadow of what’s real and true. Jesus is the real substance that shadows only reveal hints about.

The Jewish flavors of this shadowy, insubstantial false teaching remind us of Hebrews 10.1-10:

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

On the Greek philosophy side of things, the words “shadow” and “substance” may connect with Plato’s philosophy. Plato taught that physical, tangible things were actually just shadows of heavenly realities. Paul might be kind of one-upping Plato here: the elements of Greek philosophy that had slipped into the church at Colosse were (in Plato’s own words) just shadows that pointed to true reality. Unlike Plato, Paul isn’t picturing vague heavenly realities: he’s specifically pointing at Jesus as the total fullness of God incarnate and the be-all-end-all of ultimate reality. Let that sink in for a minute. Nothing else you experience will ever be as real as Jesus. No one else you know will ever be as real as Jesus. Nothing else that gives you joy or pleasure will ever be as real as Jesus. The most convincing philosophies, that most religious-feeling experiences, the most precise definitions of holiness - at best those things are shadows, revealing hints about the real thing. Have you ever tried to reconstruct a person you’ve never met based on their shadow? If you know where they were standing and what time of day they cast a shadow, you can probably figure out their height & body shape. If they have distinctive hair or clothing, you might be able to guess their gender too. But look at a shadow and try guessing the person’s eye color. How about their name? Occupation, hometown, hobbies, likes, dislikes? Favorite food? At this point you’re starting to realize how vague and distant a shadow is from reality.

It’s like if we sat down in a restaurant and I said, “order what you want, dinner’s on me tonight,” and you pointed to the photo of the bacon cheeseburger with bbq sauce and fried onions and said, “I like that.” I say, "Great, order it when the waiter comes back, and you reply, “No, I’m good with the menu. I just want to look at it. The photo looks really juicy and flavorful and those fries look crispy and that’s really just fine - that’s all I’m really about.” As I eat my dinner, everyone at the table can hear your stomach growling. I remind you, “hey, that burger’s on me, just order it” and you repeat, “no, this picture is still good enough for me.” You’re interested in the shadow, not the substance.

Let no one disqualify you

(18) 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.

Paul has a whole different list of issues to judge over: the last list was heavily influenced by Judaism, this list is much closer to Greek philosophy. Paul identifies asceticism & angel worship, visions, and sensual pride as points over which someone might “disqualify” the Colossian believers.

“Disqualify” is primarily a way to restate “don’t let anyone judge you” but adds the idea of being disqualified from an athletic competition and forfeiting the prize. It’s like a quarterback throwing a 40yd touchdown pass, only to have one of his team members get a penalty, and having to re-play that down. I don’t think Paul’s talking about an actual loss of reward for the Colossians here, though. Just like no false teacher could actually pronounce spiritual judgment on these believer, no one could actually disqualify them in God’s eyes - these instructions are commands not to submit unnecessarily to human judgment and pressure.

This is a very Gospel-centered issue here. Why can no one actually spiritually disqualify or defraud you? Because there’s no way on earth that they can separate your from Jesus and the fullness of God that dwells bodily in him! So go ahead and dispel from your minds the idea that anyone is going to disqualify you from any aspect of your completeness in Christ. What the false teachers in Colosse were doing a kind of faux-disqualification that, while not spiritual or ultimate, was nevertheless a very real and hurtful process. Can you imagine how it would feel to have a leader attempt to publicly proclaim you disqualified in front of the church, even if they’re doing so on bizarre and spurious grounds. False teachers in Colosse were wrongly disqualifying Christians based on issues like asceticism, angel worship, and revelatory visions.

What are some of the ways Christians wrongly disqualify other Christians today? In other words, what are some of the issues that Christians (even ourselves!) elevate to the point of judging others or breaking fellowship with them?

Some Christians have treat various aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry as a bar for disqualifying others. In Acts we saw the Spirit raise people from the dead, provide the gift of tongues, heal the sick, and give apostolic authority to the men who guided the Church through its early years. Some Christians today treat tongues like a litmus test to separate true from false Christians. Other Christians do this with Bible translations, musical preferences, dress codes and movie ratings. If you run afoul of their standards on any of those issues, they treat you like your disqualified: like you’re not really worthy of a real reward from Jesus.

It’s easy to pick on people stricter than we are, though; especially for those of us who have had experiences with people who were strict and judgmental. But we don’t apply Scripture by pointing at the guy in the next seat over. What non-essential or fringe issues are we guilty of judging others over? What quirks or hang-ups do we use to wrongly disqualify other Christians? I’d like to suggest one that I think Christians in our position are especially prone to: we’re tempted to use our Christian liberty as a standard to judge others by. What we do is take our expressions of liberty and assume that anyone who doesn’t experience those same liberties is a legalist or “doesn’t really understand the Gospel” or isn’t really walking in grace and love. A Christian who doesn’t wear a coat and tie to church is tempted to judge the church full of dressed-up members as “stuffy, old-fashioned, and externalistic.” A Christian with broad musical tastes may see a Christian who only enjoys classical music or traditional hymns as “weak, limited, or old-timey.” A Christian who drinks alcohol in moderation is prone to judge Christians who abstain completely as “fearful, grumpy Prohibitionists.” Do you see how easy it is to take liberties and turn them into broken yard-sticks that we use to “disqualify” other Christians?

Those things ignore Christ’s position as head

In the first half of this section, Jesus is the real substantial body that throws a shadow. Here, he’s the head of his church. False humility, angel worship, visions - these issues fit in just fine with human philosophy, but they clash horribly with a biblical view of Jesus’ authority.

Because those things can’t contribute to the growth of the Body

(19) 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.

This kind of false teaching can change a church from being a faith-family into a faux-holiness (fauxliness?) competition. Trying to one-up one another in “self-denial” or special visions is extremely unhealthy for us as members of Jesus’ body. His position as head is a clear call to us to be unified under his authority. Fake spirituality is a disease in the body of Christ.

The words of verse 19 are intensely positive: I don’t want us to miss that. While most of this paragraph is phrased in the negative (“don’t let anyone judge or disqualify you; here’s how wrong their philosophy and rules are”), this verse gives us a powerful description of the way things ought to be:

We should be consumed with Jesus: “holding fast the head”
We should be unified: “the whole body … knit together through its joints and ligaments”
We should be growing: “nourished …, grows with a growth that is from God”

So if you want to know that the opposite of all this false teaching, externalistic rules, and bogus philosophy looks like, hunker down in verse 19. It’s a very picturesque description of being rooted in Christ. It’s very physical: all about the body: the head is the most important, the body is knit together (not knitting needles, but a broken bone “knitting”), and we grow up together.

You’re one with Jesus, no longer under the control of man-made regulations.

(20) 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— (21) “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (22) (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? (23) 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.

Reality: you died to the elementary principles of the word in Christ. These are the building blocks (ABCs) of human philosophy that can sound convincing, but are really naïve and childish. [“I’m an architect” - shows you a house built out of foam blocks.] They’re principles not just of mental philosophy but of behavior as well. In vs 20, the opposite of “dead to elementary principles” is “submitting to regulations.”

What kind of rules is Paul opposing?

External rules: “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”
Temporary rules: “referring to things that all perish as they are used”
Man-made rules: “human precepts and teaching”
Enticing rules: “have an appearance of wisdom”
Idolatrous rules: “promoting self-made religion”
Strict rules: “asceticism and severity to the body”
Worthless rules: “no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh”

We’re brought face-to-face with the utter emptiness of legalism here. We’ve seen bits of Judaism in Paul’s description of the false teaching as well as notes of Greek religion: the thing that ties it all together is that it’s an attempt to use external behaviors to get close to God. It’s hollow.

[Personal testimony of seeing the end of externalistic Christianity]

Application

Grace

Sensitivity to the human rules that we allow to creep into our lives: complete in Christ - there is no human moralism that can add to that

Love

Liberty not just for the sake of shaking off rules, but to grasp the reality and authority found in Christ: more time in 1Co8-10 someday, but for now, just remember to think of others first when you act on liberty

Security

Rooted in Jesus = freedom from judgment / disqualification in the court of human opinion: if you’re prone to fear men or be crushed by their opinions, this is your shelter & strength: nothing can diminish the fullness of God that belongs to you in Jesus; human attempts to disqualify you on petty grounds have no real sway over you