Colossians 2:8–23

"Beware lest any man spoil you". It means "make a prey of you". It is like a captured animal, unable to move where it would normally move, taken out of its own surroundings. And all through philosophy and empty deceit — there is nothing in it at all.

Nothing captures intellectual people more easily than the philosophy of the world's teachers, because it is so hard to follow and so involved. It stands for the highest flights of human thought and imagination. But here Paul joins it to "vain" or "empty" deceit. That shows us clearly what it really is as God sees it.

The first of these is philosophy and vain deceit. As we understand it, this is philosophy that is nothing but empty deceit. It has to be described that way. It comes from man's mind. Human reason shapes it into a system. Its aim is to corrupt the revelation God has been pleased to give by His Spirit in His inspired Word. It is Rationalism, pure and simple, judging everything by its own idea of what suits man. So sinful man would sit in judgment on the thoughts of God!

Faith rejects philosophy, not only as a rival but as an ally. It rests on God's Word alone. It takes that Word as absolute and as the only authority.

Tradition may be described as teaching handed down by word of mouth. It may come from God… teaching handed down before the word of God was complete. Or it may come from man, like the tradition of the elders of Israel. The Lord condemned that tradition strongly. He said it overturned the commandments of God… In Colossians 2:8 it is the mere teaching of the moralists, and much of that has survived to this day. What man sets up, man holds on to most tightly.

The rudiments or elements of the world are every subtle principle and motive that comes from the world, apart from God. They take in everything that makes up the spirit and character of the world, whether religious or not.

Here, I take it, we have the mixing of natural man's philosophy with religious man's tradition. At first sight these two look far apart, but they are not so in the end… Nothing shows an active spirit of evil at work in the world more than the way he draws up and combines these two armies, which on the outside look like enemies… They may look completely hostile to each other. In fact both are hostile only to the truth.

The apostle now names certain traps the believers faced. They were opposed to full Christian teaching, and ruinous to souls: philosophy (verse 8), teaching that pressed the Jewish law (verse 16), and Gnostic speculations (verse 18). The test that detects each of them is the teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Apply that test, and the evil is exposed.

Our reasoning powers do not detect evil doctrine, since false doctrine always enlists them on its side. Its harmful character may not show at first. Yet a God-fearing soul refuses it, because it is not "as it is written" — "not according to Christ."

Then, as if he did not want us to dwell too long on the evil, he points us at once to the Divine Source of all good… He sweeps aside every rival and sets us in the presence of Christ, the all-sufficient One… Here then is the great antidote! The fullness of the Infinite One dwells in Him in whom we are complete.

But God answers the whole deception with three words of contrast: "not after Christ." Christ is the exact opposite of it all, the pattern and the test — "for," it says, "in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." There is not a lack, not a gap, not one single quality that goes to make up that fullness, that is not found bodily in Christ... So what room is left for poor human philosophy, or teaching, or worldly elements? Nothing can be added to God's fullness! It is enough for Him, and therefore enough for faith.

It is well known that theiotes (from theios, meaning divine), also translated "Godhead" in the Authorized Version, has a completely different force from theotes (from Theos, meaning God) in Colossians 2:9. In this second case it would fall far short of the apostle's aim to say only that the person of Christ is divine: all the fulness of the Deity, or Godhead in the strictest sense, he says, dwells in Him bodily.

We know God in Christ as a living Person who once lived bodily in this world, who still has His body above the world... in the Person of Christ "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," not only in His spirit, but really in Him bodily, though He is now glorified. He had a real, true body from the incarnation, and in that body all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. The fullness of the Godhead never dwelt in the Father bodily, or in the Holy Spirit, but only in Christ.

There is a strong likeness between Col. 1:19 and verse 9 of our chapter; only there it refers to that which was true of Him in the days of His stay on earth, while here it stands true of Him today. It is hard to imagine a stronger statement of His deity. Yet the word "bodily" plainly implies that He is still Man.

There is something wonderfully blessed here. It is not seeking after God, hoping that we might feel after Him and find Him... but, as John says, "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life" (1 John 1:1) — something brought home to the senses of men. Instead of working up our feelings to seek after something, God has come down to us, poor wretched creatures that we are... There is not a trouble, not a distress, not a feeling in the heart of man, that is not met in Christ... not as a doctrine only, but bodily.

Christ has taken a body and appeared in flesh. So the fulness of the Godhead is shown in a way the simplest people can know. It may take a giant mind to understand even the words in which philosophy struggles to express its guesses. Yet simple fishermen of Galilee can see the fulness of God in Christ, and so enter into truths the greatest natural mind cannot grasp.

First, all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. Instead of the misty speculations of men, we have the fulness of God bodily, in a real human body, and so with real effect for us, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Second, we are complete in Him; we need nothing outside of Christ. On one side, we have in Him God perfectly presented in all His fulness. On the other side, we have in Him perfection and completeness before God.

The word comes from a Greek verb meaning "to fill full." The believer is complete in Christ, or filled full. This points to all fullness dwelling in Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is in Christ, as toward the believer. And the believer, as toward God, is complete in Him.

Here then is the grand antidote! The fullness of the Infinite One dwells in Him in whom we are complete. He came down beneath all for our salvation, and He is now above all in exaltation. He is the glorified Man who glorified God on earth and is now crowned on high. In Him the Godhead fullness dwells bodily, and we too are filled full in Him.

"You are complete in Him." This surely covers everything. What can anyone add to a person who is already "complete"? Take philosophy, human tradition, the basic principles of the world, food and drink, festivals, new moons and Sabbaths, "Do not touch" this, "do not taste" that, "do not handle" the other, the commandments and teachings of men, days and months and seasons and years. Could any of these things, or all of them put together, add the smallest thing to one whom God has pronounced "complete"?

This is not experience, but a fact which all believers have title to enjoy. Also, Christ is the Head of all rule and authority. That is, the highest ranks and powers are under Him and depend on Him. So we do not depend on them. We depend on Him.

"You are complete in Him." Notice this: far from having anyone between us and Christ, we are in Him who is the Head of all rule and authority. We lose our standing if we allow an angel to come between Christ and us, even though an angel, as a creature, is far above us. There is no mediator between us and Christ. There is one between us and God, and that mediator is Christ Himself.

To bring angels, or any other creature, whether the Virgin or saints, between our souls and Christ is to deny our direct union with Christ. He is the head of all rule and authority. As Head to the body, He Himself gives all spiritual nourishment, through the spiritual help that the members of the body supply. In this way the soul's spiritual growth is kept up, and the body of Christ grows with the increase of God, quite apart from any ministry of angels.

There is a Man upon the throne of God in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. All the mighty resources of God are in Him for us; we are complete in Him. That means there is no necessity to go outside Him for anything we need. We do not need philosophy, the wisdom of man, religious organizations, or anything men can produce.

"In Him," says the apostle, "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." All is in Christ, nothing is lacking in Him. But in verse 10, it is we who have all in Him. Nothing is lacking for us: "You have been filled in Him." So we cannot seek to add anything to ourselves apart from Him. Now we come to circumcision. Not only, says the apostle, is there nothing to add, but there is nothing to cut off from those who are in Him. The body of the flesh is judged, you are deprived of it; it is a thing done, it is the circumcision of Christ… Here, then, we have two great truths: we are complete before God in Christ, and perfectly delivered from all that we are in ourselves.

This stands in clear contrast with the outward rite of circumcision. It should be "putting off the body of the flesh," not the body "of the sins" of the flesh. The true reading makes it a fuller thing. It is not a question of sins, but of sin in the nature… It does not refer to the literal act of circumcising, but to Christ's death. When we believe in Christ, all the value of His death is made true of us… We are brought into association with His death. When we receive Him by faith, we have all its value in parting with our own ruined condition, "the body of the flesh." This circumcision supersedes all others, which in no way stripped off our evil state as man in the flesh.

This outward rite — a cutting around and off of man's flesh — pointed forward to what the death of Christ accomplished, as Colossians 2:11 shows… As Christians we are to recognise that we have put off the flesh in its totality in the death of Christ. We are "circumcised" in His "circumcision"; that is, His death.

The word translated "concision" means a mere lopping off, in contrast to the complete cutting off of death, which was pictured in circumcision. The men Paul calls "the concision" believed in lopping off the uglier outgrowths of the flesh. But they would not have that bringing in of death, "by the circumcision of Christ," which is the truth of Christianity… Men cannot really boast in the grosser expressions of the flesh. So they aim at lopping them off, to encourage more likeable and refined expressions in which to make their boast. But it is still boasting in the flesh.

In his religious hopes, man looks to cut this and that evil thing away from himself, and so make himself fit for God's service. But in Christ we are complete. In Him we are also circumcised, and by nothing less than the putting off of the body of the flesh itself!

Circumcision means that I disown and put the flesh to death, I will have nothing to do with it and put it off. It is the practical working out of what I have in title in Christ (Col. 2:11), being a figure of having put off the old man, not that one has to put him off. Having Christ as my life, Christ dead and risen, I can say that this is not I, but sin in the flesh… "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you." This assumes power in Christ. It means, not that I am to die, but that I am to put to death.

Baptism means, in one word, separation. It is only an outward ceremony, yet it has a meaning, and that is its meaning. It rests on the death and resurrection of Christ, for we are "baptized into His death" (Rom. 6:3), and so we are "buried with Him" (Col. 2:12). Nothing cuts our links with the world, and separates us from the present order of things, more completely than death and burial.

Since we are circumcised, or cut off, in "the circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11), we have lost the old position we once held before God as men in the flesh linked with Adam. Now that we are risen with Christ, grace has given us a new standing with Him, completely different from the old one.

Here the doctrine carries one a little farther than either Romans 6 or 1 Peter 3. There is death and burial of all we were; but there is here at least resurrection with Christ — death and resurrection. In Romans the emphatic point is simply death, because the argument of the apostle in chapter 6 does not admit of going beyond the truth that the baptized believer is alive from the dead — not exactly risen, but alive unto God. In Colossians the argument requires that our resurrection with Christ, as well as death and burial, should be distinctly stated.

In Colossians baptism does more than show what the death of Christ means for our old state. It is the door through which, by faith in God's working, we come into association with Him who is in a new and risen state. In Romans baptism is tied to justification from sin. Justification frees me. Here it is tied to being complete in Him.

Baptism was the sign and expression of this. Faith in the working of God who raised Him is the means that brings about in us this wonderful resurrection with Christ, into a new state and scene… But it is the power of God Himself, the same power that worked in Christ, that works in us to give us the new standing in life. Seen together with our resurrection with Christ, it means — by the very fact that we receive it — that we are forgiven perfectly and for ever… Raised up with Him, sharing the life He has as risen from the dead, we have left behind — like Him and with Him — all that burden of sin and condemnation, along with the death from which we have been set free.

Notice how this comes in. The faith is not faith in my being risen, but faith in Christ's having been raised. That difference matters greatly. Many a sincere soul keeps turning inward to find out whether it is risen. But that is not "faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

This leaves baptism with its own true meaning: the person baptized is buried to death… Faith in God's working comes in at that point and frees baptism from the thought of resurrection — though resurrection does follow where there is faith in God's working.

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col. 3:1) — that is, since you are risen with Christ, let the power of resurrection show in daily life. "Raised with Him" (Col. 2:12) is the reality, and the appeal calls us to live up to it.

As we begin verse 13 we pass from what has been accomplished in Christ to something accomplished in us. As to our spiritual state we were dead; dead in our sins — what we had done; dead in the uncircumcision of our flesh — what we were. But now made alive — made to live — together with Christ; our new life being of the same order as His.

Verse 13 reminds us of our sad previous condition. We were dead in sins, with no spark of life toward God. We were also in "the uncircumcision of your flesh" — that is, in the state of unjudged corruption. A person in such a condition is totally unfit for God. Out of such a state God has made alive together with Christ every believer. This is God's own direct gift of eternal life. It reminds us of the words of the Lord Jesus: "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:25). This being made alive is tied to the full forgiveness of all trespasses. So the work done in us and the work done for us go hand in hand.

We meet with it both in Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13 — we have been made alive "together with Christ." Both letters describe us as dead — "dead in the trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), and "dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh" (Col. 2:13). Nothing short of being made alive would meet our case. So being made alive was a necessity. But there was no necessity that we should be made alive together with Christ. That is the fruit of the counsels of God in grace.

Instead of its being a question of the flesh getting better, not only is it condemned already, but we have been made alive together with Christ. This is no mere doctrine: Christ is our life. I am in this new man before God. And what has become of all my sins? They are gone. He has made me alive out of Christ's grave, and they are left behind. Christ went down with my sins into the grave. They were put away on the cross — "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" — and the grave is the expression of that. When He rose again they were all gone.

The very life we have received as believers is the token that our trespasses are gone. If God has made us alive with the life of Christ, He has forgiven us all trespasses. It is impossible that life in Christ dead and risen could have anything against it. Once there was everything against the believer. But having life in a risen Saviour is itself the proof that all is righteously forgiven to the one who believes.

Every believer in Christ is completely and eternally forgiven. He can never again, during his whole life, be in a place where sin can be laid to his charge, as to his salvation. He is out of that place forever… Our union with a risen Christ is tied to our forgiveness. If we are a people made alive, if we have life with Christ risen, we are out of the place where sin is charged to our account, and we are out of it forever.

The Father always greets the confession of His child with forgiveness of sins and cleansing (1 John 1:9). That is quite distinct from the forgiveness spoken of in Col. 2:13. That forgiveness was granted once, and for that reason it is never repeated.

He applies the truth to the case in hand after this… He does not say "against you," because, in truth, the Colossian saints had never been under the law and its ordinances; they had been Gentiles. But whereas he said, "you, being dead," were now thus raised, so he says, "cancelling it against us"; for all that we, poor Jews, could boast — the ordinances — were against us instead of being for us, and they are gone now.

The word translated "blotted out" is one "used for annulling a decree of law." "Handwriting" carries the idea of an "obligation to which a man is subject by his signature." Paul used a very graphic figure. We had bound ourselves by our signature to Jewish ordinances. Christ's death has cancelled that document. As far as we are concerned it was nailed to the cross when He was nailed to the cross.

All the ordinances were blotted out too. They belonged to the basic principles of this world and applied to man in the flesh. They weighed on the Jews as an unbearable yoke, and the Jews tried to bring others under it as well. They kept the conscience always under the burden of a service man had never completed, and a righteousness that never satisfied God. In them the Jew had put his signature, so to speak, to his own guilt. But God destroyed that obligation and nailed it to the cross of Christ. We receive liberty as well as life and pardon.

"The handwriting of requirements that was against us" points to a legal document that binds a person by his own signature. Israel fully committed themselves to keep the law in Exodus 19:8: "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." Every honest conscience knows it should obey some standard of conduct, such as the ordinances of the law of Moses. But we find the law is against us because of our disobedience.

So the "handwriting in ordinances" stood against us and was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way. Paul is not speaking of the law itself, but of our obligation to it. That is what the "handwriting" means, and that is what the cross wipes out for us, since it was nailed there. The law is not dead, as we have seen in Romans, but we have died to it.

The cross blotted out our sins truly, but it did more than this: it also blotted out the whole system of legal ordinances which had been against us. The law was not blotted out — far from it, for it was vindicated and magnified in the death of Christ. We died from under the law in His death, and we are now under grace.

He does not say "against you," because the Colossian believers had never been under the law and its ordinances. They had been Gentiles. He had said, "that you, being dead," were now raised; so now he says, "blotting it out against us." All that we, poor Jews, could boast in — the ordinances — were against us instead of being for us. And they are gone now.

Their sins are discharged, like an account settled for ever. Christ has taken that record out of the way, "nailing it to His cross" (Col. 2:14). This is true of the Jew. It is just as true of every man who has put himself under law and then turned to Christ to have his debt to God discharged.

"Taken out of the way," with the nail run through it, so that it can never appear again against the believer.

Christ has taken ordinances out of the way; it is the flesh that performs them. Let it be penance — it is the flesh that does it. But the flesh is dead. The same thing that put away sin put away ordinances. The man who had the sin and was to keep the ordinances is dead, because Christ has died. I do not need to gain a standing before God through any ordinance. Suppose I had to perform the smallest act to be complete before God. That would deny the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever these spiritual powers may be, from Satan downwards, in the cross the divine triumph has been shown. On the surface it looked like the triumph of the powers of evil. Really it was their undoing. Since this is so, we can see what verse 10 meant when it called the Lord Jesus "the Head of all principality and power." That was true not only on the ground of creation, but also on the ground of what He accomplished at the cross.

The word can describe those who hold the first place, as rulers among men (Titus 3:1). But it especially refers to the spiritual high powers in the unseen world, whether good or bad. They were created by the Lord, and He is head of them all. Col. 1:16; Col. 2:10. Some fell from the position of trust given them: they did not keep their first estate or principality. Jude 6. Others contend against the heavenly position of the saints. Eph. 6:12.

One stronger than Satan spoiled his kingdom. The Lord Jesus did it when He cast demons out of the people they held, and above all when He brought Satan's power to nothing on the cross. Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14. The Colossians were warned in case anyone should spoil them — make a prey of them — through philosophy (Col. 2:8), a caution surely needed today.

It was a far greater sight when the seemingly defeated Man rose from the dead, not only rebuking but scattering His spiritual foes... It was all done in the open. The triumph was over opposing evil spiritual powers, and it was public in the sight of all the holy spiritual powers.

When Satan defeated the first Adam, he became master of Adam's possessions and of his inheritance: "the creation was subjected to futility." Then the Second Adam defeated Satan and spoiled him of all that he had taken from the first Adam.

Here we have the effect of the work of Christ upon these powers — He led them in triumph on the cross. It is not so high a tone of triumph as in Ephesians 4, where it says that Christ "led a host of captives." The powers that led believers into captivity were themselves defeated... Here we hear of what was done on the cross, the power of the cross. There it is the public showing of the victory, in His going up on high. The great battle was won.

We come in verse 18 to what we may call the ritualistic snare. We shall easily see that it is a snare if we go back to the truth of the cross as it was presented to us in verse 15. The only angels that desire to have our homage are evil ones. The holy angels always refuse human worship, ascribing all worship to God... Now the evil angels have been stripped and defeated at the cross. Who then would wish to worship them?

Does Satan come and accuse me? It is all true, but my sins are gone. God has said He will remember them no more. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Why flee? Because he has already met Christ. Is it temptation through the agreeable things of the world, or the sorrows and trials of life, or the power of death? He has been "spoiled," and as far as faith is concerned his power is gone. Death, to the believer, is only a departing to be with Christ.

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 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."

Do not allow anyone to put you again under these legal ordinances, for the death of Christ has ended them.

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 "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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

This is not at all about being dead to the natural life a man had in the world. That is not the Christian life. The Christian life is really the life of Him who died and rose again. He died — that is the point here — and therefore I am dead too. But if I am dead, what do I have to do with things that only affect men as long as they live?... A man alive in the world is under these regulations, and owns them. That was the position of Israel.

These first exhortations rest on the great truth that believers have died with Christ to the elements of the world. The Apostle's own words and the general tone of the letter show plainly what "the elements of the world" are. They are the religious regulations invented by men or borrowed from Judaism.

The rudiments or elements of the world are every subtle principle and motive that comes from the world, apart from God. They take in all that makes up the spirit and character of the world, whether religious or irreligious... Note the special term Paul uses in verse 20: "if you have died with Christ [not TO the world, but] from the rudiments of the world." The believer must still stand in many relations towards the world... bodily needs, earthly duties.

"As if you were still alive in the world." These words do not mean the simple fact of being in the world. They mean having lived in it and of it, outside of Christ. That is the kind of life regulations apply to. It is remarkable that the very things in which Christianity seems to give place to man declare man to be dead — baptism and the breaking of bread, which the flesh would turn into regulations.

Since we have died with Christ, our true interests lie clean outside the world and its rudiments, or elements... The world, and especially the religious world, has many regulations about using or not using perishable material things. They tell us not to handle or taste or touch this or that. But if we really grasp our identification with Christ in His death, we find ourselves outside the world where such regulations hold sway. That settles all such questions for us, and settles them decisively.

If I am really dead to the flesh, I cannot be looking to ordinances to get the flesh improved. But the tendency of our hearts is always towards this... Here is our danger: religiousness in the flesh is what this special warning is against. And with all its plausible appearance, what does the apostle call it? "Will worship." It may have a great reputation for humility, but before God it is the most positive and terrible pride.

How many poor weak believers are in just this state — not walking as those whose citizenship is in heaven, but living down on earth and in the world, and making their religion consist largely in self-imposed ordinances... Such a state is not merely a loss of comfort to themselves, or a state of Christian weakness; it is a state most inconsistent with the faith they profess.

Now if Christians had died with Christ from all this, they were also risen with Him. So they were to seek the things where He sits at the right hand of God. They were to set their minds on things above, not on things on earth. For they are dead, their life is hidden with Christ in God, and they look forward to appearing with Him in glory.

Colossians 2:20 asks this: if you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why do you still submit to ordinances, as though you were alive in the world? The apostle gives a sample of these ordinances in the three prohibitions which follow, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch. This was Jewish legalism all over again. It suited a people in the flesh like Israel, people who, as he says here, are "living in the world." But it does not fit the spiritual condition of the Christian at all, for the Christian has died with Christ.

We have done with such language as "touch not, taste not, handle not," which may suit men alive in the world, not those dead in the Christ. This is the manner of human safeguards; this is man's way of preserving flesh in this world.

Since we have died with Christ our true interests lie completely outside the world and its elements. Having died out of the world system we cannot go on as though we are alive in it. That is the argument of verse 20. The world, and particularly the religious world, has its many ordinances about using or not using perishable material things. According to these ordinances we should not handle or taste or touch this or that. But if we really understand our identification with Christ in His death we find ourselves outside the world where ordinances hold sway, and that of course settles all such questions for us in a very decisive way.

The religion of the world is a religion of "ordinances", or human regulations that the natural man can submit to. Such ordinances call for no work of God in the conscience or heart, and raise no question of new birth or conversion. Such ordinances mean giving up certain material things on certain days that men count holy, such as new moons and sabbath days. One negative formula sums them all up: "Touch not; taste not; handle not".

The principle, "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle" describes the whole negative character of legality. If this is the sum of one's religion, he is certainly left empty, though sadly puffed up as though he were full. These things perish with the using. A balloon is only for amusement, quickly deflated and gone. Christianity is not ordinances, but Christ who has in His own blessed Person displaced the whole system of Judaism.

Harsh treatment of the body, as the apostle shows here, does not subdue the flesh and put it to death. It tends to satisfy and exalt it instead. We are taught here a most important truth — the difference between the BODY and the FLESH. Neglecting the body and treating it harshly, giving it no honour or respect, may actually inflate the flesh. The BODY may be set apart to God, may be nourished and used for God, may glorify God; the FLESH never.

"Touch not, taste not, handle not," are among the most effective ordinances and commandments of men; while the living God, who calls His children into the gracious liberty of Christ, is here found using very similar language. But between these outward similarities there is an essential and irreconcilable difference, and noticing it is one of the first duties of a true believer… One mark sets every kind of false holiness apart from "true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). It always aims at presenting the natural man as someone God can accept.

In our Bibles verse 21 and the first part of verse 22 are printed in brackets... The words in the first bracket give us samples of the ordinances the Apostle had in mind... And then the words not in brackets read, "subject to ordinances … after the commandments and doctrines of men … to the satisfying of the flesh."

the climax is turned upside down in our common English Bible... it is a descending climax: the most familiar thing of all, the handling, comes first; then the tasting, which might be much less; and finally, not even a touch. This is the way of human safeguards. This is man's way of preserving the flesh in this world.

such ordinances occupy the soul with material things that perish as they are handled. A religion that consists only of obeying such ordinances must perish when the things it consists of perish. Faith puts the believer in touch with spiritual and unseen things that are eternal in the heavens.

If this is the sum of a person's religion, he is certainly left empty, though sadly puffed up as though he were full... Christianity is not ordinances, but Christ, who in His own blessed Person has set aside the whole system of Judaism — the order God Himself set up by His commandment and teaching. How much more, then, the commandments and teachings of men that have been added to Judaism?

the New Testament uses a particular and uncommon Greek word for commandments when they come from man. The usual word translated that way is entole, but entalma occurs only three times: in Mark 7:7; in the parallel passage, Matthew 15:9; and in Colossians 2:22... In all these passages the word seems to point to those moral maxims and set rules of conduct which men tried to lay as heavy burdens on the shoulders of their fellow men, but which the Lord showed had no authority behind them.

Wherever we impose with absolute authority something that does not come from God Himself, it is a tradition... it matters more than anything that we strengthen each other in this: nothing but the word of God has the right to govern the conscience. When we let go of this principle, and let a rule come in and become binding, so that whatever is not done by that rule counts as a sin, we have moved from the authority of the word of God to the authority of tradition, perhaps without knowing it ourselves.

Since we have died with Christ, our true interests lie right outside the world and its basic principles... But if we really understand that we are identified with Christ in His death, we find ourselves outside the world where ordinances hold sway, and that of course settles all such questions for us in a very decisive way.

How strikingly, by contrast, the New Testament brings out the great importance of the body! It declares, for instance, that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is most important. It is itself the effect of redemption, and it is the true ground of Christian morals. "Present your members to God as instruments for righteousness"; "present your bodies as a living sacrifice," and so on.

These rules made by men do have an appearance of wisdom in the eyes of the world. It seems wise to avoid things that people are likely to misuse — things that harm the body when they are misused.

Worship that springs from the will of man and satisfies the flesh. Rules commanded by man belong here, even though the worshippers may think that keeping them pleases God.

It is not the power of the Spirit of God opening up the things of Christ. It is something to do with self, and mostly negative… This is not God's will. It is man inventing ways to please Him out of his own head. The whole thing dresses itself in what looks like great humility, and it prizes harsh treatment of the body.

With all its convincing appearance, what does the apostle call it? "Will-worship." It may have a great reputation for humility, but before God it is the most definite and terrible pride. It does not look like pride. It looks like putting the flesh to death and holding it down.

You deny the body certain foods on certain days. You treat the body harshly. This feeds the flesh with the feeling that you have done something praiseworthy.

Harsh treatment of the body, as the apostle shows here, does not subdue and kill the flesh. It satisfies and lifts up the flesh instead. So we are taught a most important truth — the difference between the BODY and the FLESH. Neglecting the body, hurting it, and giving it no honour or respect may help to swell the flesh. The BODY may be set apart for God, fed and used for God, and may glorify God. The FLESH never can be.

We are urged, for example, to "put to death the deeds of the body," but never to put the body itself to death. The body belongs to the Lord, and we are to care for it… harsh self-denial tends to starve the body and feed the flesh.

Let me paraphrase the last part, since it is quite different from what our translation gives: "These things are not of any value; they are only for the satisfying of the flesh."

He applies the principle of death to all the rules, and to the harsh self-denial that treated the body as something evil in itself, which ought to be rejected. Then (Col. 3:1) he uses the resurrection to lift their hearts into a higher place, and to bring them back to Christ by looking up, since they have died as far as the old nature is concerned.