Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of feast, or new moon, or sabbaths,
Paul has just said that the cross cancelled the record of debt that stood against us. Now he draws the practical result: rules about food and holy days, once given by God Himself, have no hold on a believer's conscience.
Three times in this chapter Paul puts up a caution sign, and each one points at a different danger.
The Apostle's warnings seem to fall under three headings. Look at verses 8, 16 and 18. Each opens with a word of caution about the activities of men. Those activities run in different directions, but all are hostile to the truth. The first danger comes from philosophy, the second from Judaism, the third from superstition.
The word "therefore" points back to what the cross did to the whole system of legal rules.
The cross blotted out our sins truly, but it did more: it also blotted out the whole system of legal ordinances that stood against us. The law itself was not blotted out. Far from it — the death of Christ vindicated and magnified the law. On the other hand, we died out from under the law in His death. We are now under grace, and all the old legal ordinances no longer stand. Verse 16 gives samples of them. The word translated "blotted out" is one "used for annulling a decree of law."
The rules ended at the cross, so anyone who presses them now has no claim on you.
Do not allow anyone to put you again under these legal ordinances, for the death of Christ has ended them.
The items named cover the year, the month and the week. Each one was a picture of something still to come.
Take eating and drinking, or ordinances about the year, month, and week. The Apostle takes particular care to speak not merely of feast or new moon but of sabbaths. Remember that these things are only pictures of the body — the real good found only in Christ. In fact, these times and seasons point mainly to what God will give His people later on. The new moon was a striking picture of Israel renewed after fading away. The sabbath pictured the rest of God, which He will yet enjoy and share.
A festival was a day set above other days. Bringing such days back is no small matter.
A "holy-day" — it is worth calling it that, since the name shows its meaning — was a day God had made to be regarded above another. That day, and the foods, drinks, various washings, and outward ordinances of Judaism, all had their time and use. "The body is of Christ." In Him we have what they were designed to picture. If I take them up now, I take up the shadow and not the substance; it is a mere shadow, but by setting it up again, I make it the real thing and deny Christ.
The shadows were accurate as far as they went. But they could not show the whole.
It was true that the instructions about new moons and sabbaths, and the rules about food and drink, came from God. They really were shadows of things to come. The body, however, of which they were true shadows, is of Christ. As shadows they were correct, outlining truth about the One who has come. But they could not even hint at all that He is… Why turn to the shadow after the substance has appeared?
Freedom from another's judgment is real, and it comes with a responsibility.
We have everything in Christ, and nothing outside of Him: completeness in the presence of God, and perfect deliverance from all that we are in ourselves, and from everything that is or could be used against us. What perfect liberty! We need to see that we use it in a holy way, but it is a perfect liberty.
The pressure Paul described has not disappeared; it has changed clothes.
Someone may ask what these things have to say to us today, since no active Judaizing party is at work in the church now. The answer is that they are still very much to the point. There is not much active Judaizing because the professing church itself has been so largely Judaized for centuries… The word here is not exactly "sabbath days," but "sabbaths" — covering sabbaths of all kinds, whether of days or of years.
The sabbath named here is not the day Christians gather.
They prove that the Lord's day occupies a place that is quite unique, quite heavenly, quite divine. But they equally prove that the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's day are entirely distinct. The New Testament keeps the two days as distinct as we keep Saturday and Sunday.
- Cross — The cross annulled the decree of legal ordinances. That work is finished, so no one may put it back on you.
- Shadow — Food, drink, festival, new moon and sabbath were God-given outlines of what was coming. "Sabbaths" here covers every kind, days or years.
- Substance — Shadows could sketch Christ, but never show all He is. Taking one up again makes the shadow the real thing and denies Him.
- Liberty — Completeness in Christ brings perfect liberty. Use it in a holy way.
- Today — The same pressure survives in a church long since Judaized. The Lord's day stands apart from the Jewish sabbath, as distinct as Sunday from Saturday.
which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ.
Some people were pressing Jewish food rules and sacred days on the believers at Colossae. Paul does not call these things worthless — he calls them a shadow, an outline cast ahead of a Person who has now arrived.
The rules about food, new moons and sabbaths were not human inventions. They came from God, and they really did sketch what was coming.
It was true that the instructions about new moons and sabbaths, and the rules about food and drink, came from God. They really were shadows of things to come. But the body, of which they were true shadows, is of Christ. As shadows they were correct, and they outlined truth about the One who has come. Yet they could not even foreshadow all that He is. Judaism could never give those raised in it the full truth about Christ.
Older translations read "the body is of Christ," where the ESV has "the substance belongs to Christ." The word does not mean a physical body. It means the solid reality that casts the shadow.
"Body" here is plainly substance in contrast to shadow — that is, "All that was shadowed had its origin as well as its fulfilment in Him," as has been well said.
One writer pictures it from daily life. The shadow arrives first; then the person does.
I am standing at a street corner, waiting for a friend. The sun is shining behind him as he comes round the corner. The first thing I see is his shadow. I have the body, the Person, and I am occupied with Him. What a Person! Where is there room for food and drink, and the sabbath?
Israel's calendar was prophetic. The monthly and weekly cycles pointed to blessings God still intends to give, and one writer marks off the Lord's day from all of it.
The new moon was a remarkable type of Israel being renewed after fading away. The sabbath was the type of the rest of God which He will yet enjoy and share... The Jew had the shadow, and by God's grace he will have the things to come under the new covenant by and by. We are given the substance of Christ now. It is a question here of Jewish days. The Lord's day has nothing to do with Judaism; it is not only separate from that system, but in contrast with it.
These ordinances had their time and use. So what happens if someone takes them up again now?
The food, the drink, the various washings, and the outward ordinances of Judaism had their time and use. "The body is of Christ." In Him we have what they were designed to picture. If I take them up now, I take up the shadow and not the substance. It is a mere shadow, but by setting it up again I make it the real thing and deny Christ.
This is not only an ancient problem. Writers trace the same mistake in religion today.
The Colossian believers faced this snare, and it has developed into the ritualism of our day... Sadly, Christendom has fallen into this snare. In turning back to the shadows it has lost much of the Substance.
Refusing to live under the shadows does not mean throwing them away. Once a believer knows Christ, the old ceremonies start to speak.
Now that the body, Christ, had appeared, the shadow received a meaning and an interest. By itself it had been uninteresting and unbearable. We can now use the shadows with profit to show the reality: the many riches of the graces of Christ. This is so because "the body is of Christ." But to impose them again as duties would deny Christ.
Commentators differ here. Some take "body" in the wider Colossian sense of the body joined to Christ as Head, stressing that it did not grow out of the old system at all.
The body is not a development of the shadows. Neither is it a product of man's philosophy — "the body is of Christ." The body is derived from Christ...
- Shadow given. The food rules, new moons and sabbaths came from God. They outlined what was coming, but an outline cannot show all that Christ is.
- Shadow explained. "Body" means substance, not shadow. Everything the old system pictured has its origin and its fulfilment in Christ.
- Substance owned. The shadows pointed to blessings still to come for Israel. Believers have the substance, Christ Himself, now.
- Shadow refused. Setting the ordinances up again treats the outline as the reality, and so denies the One who has come. Commentators trace today's ritualism to this step.
- Shadow reread. Kept in its place, the old picture displays the riches of Christ. Use it to show the reality; never impose it as a duty.
Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,
Paul warns the Colossians about a teaching that looks humble and reverent while it robs them. Three questions follow: what prize does it steal, what makes its humility false, and why is prying into the unseen so serious?
The verse opens with a verb found nowhere else in Scripture. The ESV renders it "disqualify you"; older versions read "beguile you of your reward."
The verse could be translated, "Let no one get round you," or "cheat you." It is as if he said: do not let such things into your mind. If you do, a self-chosen humility and the like will cheat you out of what Christianity has given you in Christ. The passage has no separate word for "reward," but you need that word to bring out the full sense of the verb. Those extra English words all stand for a single word in the original: "Let no man beguile you of your reward." That word appears nowhere else in Scripture.
The picture is of a prize stolen by fraud. Even true believers can be the victims.
One translation of the verse's opening reads: "Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels." That makes the whole position clear. The procedure all looks very humble. It is really self-will, a thing very hateful to God. Those who fall for it may well be true believers. But the fraud turns them away from Christ, and they lose their prize.
The humble tone is the disguise. Talk about heavenly beings sounds modest, but it puffs up the very mind it claims to lower.
I may talk a lot about saints and angels in heaven, about their glories and the like, and call this humility. It is not humility. It is the very opposite: my own fleshly mind, puffed up over nothing. What do I know about them? Have I been in heaven? While I intrude into things I have not seen, I am losing knowledge needed by all saints. The weakest believer is as much one with Christ as an apostle, and as complete in Him. It might seem more humble to say, I am this, that, or the other thing; but can we do without Christ? Do you reply, I have not arrived at such a position? Then you are expecting to attain it — that is presumption.
The error had a logic to it. Paul rejects it anyway.
Verse 16 deals mainly with a Jewish form of the evil; but verse 18 goes further and shows a prying into the unseen. It is not so much the religious use or misuse of what can be seen, which was the Jewish trap, but dabbling with philosophy, especially eastern philosophy. There was a great appearance of humility in all this, as there always is in false systems. The worship of angels seemed right and proper, especially since it used no word that belongs only to the worship of God... It is true there are such beings; but it is the prying into such subjects that is so evil. They have to do with us, but not we with them. Our business is with God. Now it seemed a reasonable conclusion. If angels have to do with us, then we must have to do with them. And since they deal with God directly, why should we not turn to them to approach Him?
Reaching after what God has not revealed is no harmless extra. It says something about the heart that reaches.
Prying into what God has not revealed, and man has not seen — speculation about angels, for example — is the clear proof of one thing. The heart is not satisfied with its portion. This is not holding the Head. He who keeps hold of Christ, in conscious union with Him, could never be craving after angels. In Christ the saint is above them, and leaves them to God without anxiety or envy.
The loss falls twice: now and later.
Legalism is not true law-keeping. It thinks it humble to use angels as go-betweens, as if we were not worthy to approach God directly in worship. This is completely false humility. It intrudes into what a person does not understand, and it puffs up the mind of the flesh... God warns His people strongly against this. It is a cheat. It robs a person of true blessing now and of reward in the future, because it puts something other than Christ between the soul and God.
- Cheated. The warning word means to defraud. No one argues you out of your prize; someone steals it.
- Disguised. The theft wears a costume of humility. Choosing your own way to God is self-will, and it puffs up the flesh it pretends to lower.
- Diverted. Angels look like a reasonable stepping-stone to God. But the traffic runs one way: they have to do with us; we do not have to do with them.
- Dissatisfied. Prying into the unseen is a symptom: a heart content with Christ has no craving for what God has left unrevealed.
- Deprived. Whatever comes between the soul and Christ costs twice: blessing now, reward later. The safeguard is holding the Head.
and not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.
Paul has just warned about people taken up with angel worship and with speculation. Now he names the root of it: they are not holding fast to the Head. The verse then turns to what God has built — a body that receives everything from Christ, and only from Him.
So what does it mean to hold the Head?
These are the people described as "not holding the Head." That tells us what "holding the Head" involves. It means knowing the truth that Christ is our Head, and acting in line with it. It means letting nothing come between Him and ourselves. And it means letting Him direct us.
Communion with Him widens the heart to every member of His body.
Saints may well hold the doctrine that Christ is Head of the body, and speak of it in the words of Scripture. But "holding the Head" is much more than that. Those who are "holding the Head" are in communion with Him about the members of His body. Their hearts and minds are interested in what interests Him. Their sympathies, affections, and care reach out to no smaller circle than "all saints."… We believe there is no other way to prevent or cure sectarianism.
Curiosity about angels exposes something about the heart.
So people pry into what God has not revealed and man has not seen, such as speculations about angels. This is clear proof that the heart is not truly satisfied with its portion. This is not holding the Head. Someone who keeps hold of Christ like this, in conscious union with Him, could never crave angels. In Christ the saint is above them, and leaves them to God without anxiety or envy.
The same problem appears in other helps brought in from outside.
Some brought in foreign helps such as philosophy and strict self-denial. In reality these hindered the simplicity of the gospel. They did not help the soul into real union with Christ. Such helps drew the soul away from dependence on Christ. Those who valued them did not "hold the head."… Direct "holding the head" is the only safeguard against it.
Holding the Head rests on being already complete in Him.
I bless God for many means that help me on in my walk. But take my standing with God. If anything at all were still needed, it would mean I was not already perfect in Christ. Faith says, Christ has presented me in the presence of God, according to the mind of God, and I have nothing to seek. This is what the apostle means by "holding the Head," Col. 2:19.
Older translations call the joints and ligaments of this verse "joints and bands." Supply travels from the Head through them, much of it unnoticed.
Joints of supply help spread nourishment to the members of the body. Joints help in the movements and exercises of the body. Bands bind the members together in spiritual help. A believer may not be a prophet or a teacher, and yet be of great help to the saints. He does this by bringing Christ before them, by encouraging them in exercises that lead to spiritual progress, or by fostering divine love and faithfulness to Christ, so as to draw the saints closer to each other.… In 1 Corinthians we read of shining gifts, in which some sought to display themselves. They stand in marked contrast to the often hidden but effective working of the joints and bands.
God Himself sets the measure of this growth.
If we were not drawing from the Head we might forget these hidden joints and bands. Every saint of God draws from this blessed One who is Head of the body. That must result in a knitting together and an increase which is according to God.… We do not want an increase of doctrine and knowledge only, important as that is. What we want is an increase that is of God, so that He becomes truly real to us.
One Head supplies one body. So human systems set over the church cut across the verse.
In practice, this shows that the idea of a denomination directly contradicts the truth that Christ is Head. It introduces a division within the body of Christ (1 Cor. 1:12–13). It also interferes with Christ's headship, for He is the Head of the entire body. Man-made denominations also tend to come with man-made leadership. In other words, men (or women) take the place of the head of the "church."
- Cause. Every error just described traces back to one failure: they did not hold the Head. The safeguard is not a better argument but a direct hold on Christ.
- Grip. Holding the Head is more than agreeing with a doctrine. It means letting nothing come between you and Christ, and letting Him direct you.
- Supply. All nourishment comes from the Head through joints and bands. That is quiet service which strengthens saints and binds them together, unlike gifts put on display.
- Reach. A heart in communion with the Head cannot settle for a circle smaller than all His members. Commentators call this the only cure for sectarianism. It is also why man-made systems clash with His headship.
- Result. The growth is God's own increase. Not more information, but God becoming real to a body knit together and depending on Christ alone.