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Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. 20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:16-23 NIV)We defend our freedoms in many ways. If someone were to intrude upon our personal freedom in some way we would let that person know that they were intruding and ask them to back off. If the behavior persisted, we may take stronger action, even to the point of using our legal system to assist us in guaranteeing our personal rights and liberties.
If someone were to physically attack our family, or us we would respond strongly, perhaps even with violent force in order to protect ourselves and the ones we love. We value our freedoms.
Of course, right now we are engaged militarily to defend our freedom as a country and to defend the rights of the world to live in freedom from the assault of terrorism.
Just as we value, defend, and guard our personal freedoms, we should guard our spiritual freedoms in Christ. The good news of the message of the New Covenant is that we have been set free to live in the power of Christ. We have been set free from the law of sin and death and given a new life to be lived by faith through his glorious grace.
Sadly, far too many Christians are unaware of the extent of this freedom in Christ. Many live as though they were still under the Old Covenant. In our text today, Paul points to our freedom in Christ and lets us know something of the length and breadth of that freedom. He reminds us that we have been set free, firstly, from…
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Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17 NIV)Have you noticed that within Christianity there is sometimes a judgmental spirit? Far too often you’ll encounter a Christian who is that way. You feel like they are always looking at you and scrutinizing your behavior, comparing it to some standard that they have for you to live up to. Sometimes you hear Christians talking about other people in a very negative way, putting them down for something they did or failed to do. Sometimes you’ll find an entire church like this. Why is this so?
The answer is found in one word–– legalism. When Christians or churches become legalistic in their approach, they will always become judgmental in their attitude. And it is so easy for people to adopt a legalistic approach.
You see, as followers of Christ, we desire to be obedient to him. Indeed, that is what following Christ is all about–– seeking to hear his voice and follow where he leads. Christians are concerned about righteousness and right behavior, and we should be. We want our children to learn the values of honesty and integrity, to do things that are right, to become good fathers and mothers, and to have a good reputation among their peers. We certainly do not want to be found condoning sinful behavior. And we are told that we need to stand for righteousness and let our voice be heard. After all, if Christians do not stand up for what is right, who will?
The problem comes in how we stand for righteousness. And it comes down to the attitude of our heart toward those who practice unrighteousness. How do we relate to them? How do we share the truth with them? The Bible is clear that in everything we operate by the principle of love. We are told in Ephesians 4:15 that if we’re going to speak the truth, we must speak it in love.
There is nothing wrong with our being angry over the unrighteousness that we see in the world, but our hearts ought to be broken for the people whose lives are being destroyed by this unrighteousness. When we move from a brokenhearted attitude of love and compassion to a hardhearted attitude of self-righteous judgment, we have become unrighteous ourselves. This does not mean that we condone sin, or excuse sin at all. But it does mean that we reach out in compassion to those in the bondage of sin.
What we’ve been considering so far is our attitude as Christians toward those who are not Christians. But what about the legalism we find in the church itself? Often you’ll find Christians judging other Christians because those Christians are not living up to certain standards they believe the Bible teaches. This is what Paul had in mind in our text.
We are told not to let anyone judge us with regard to the keeping of the laws found in the Old Testament. For the Christians at Colosse, he pointed out two areas of concern–– diet and days. There were some Christians teaching that in order to be a follower of Christ, one must observe the ceremonial Jewish regulations concerning their diet and the observance of holy days. But Paul points out that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He says that these things are simply a shadow of the reality that is to be found in Christ.
For the Jews, these laws were given to point to the coming of Christ. The laws concerning diet reminded them of the clean and unclean, or pure and impure. Festival days spoke of some aspect of Christ’s character or work. For instance, the Passover celebration was symbolic of Christ as the Lamb of God. Sabbath days spoke of the coming rest we would enjoy in Christ–– resting from our own works and relying upon his finished work. Once Christ came the Old Testament (Covenant) was ended and the New Testament (Covenant) was inaugurated. And now we are called as Christians to live by the New Covenant.
That doesn’t mean we don’t read the Old Testament. It doesn’t mean we don’t believe the Old Testament is the inspired and inerrant word of God. We do. We believe, however, that in the New Covenant we have revealed for us a new way of living that fulfills the old. And Paul says we don’t need to go back and try to conform to every standard that we find written in the Law because we now live by a new law of obedience to Christ. We live now by the New Covenant, which means we live by an utter dependence upon our relationship to Christ, not upon rules and regulations. We have been set free to live for Christ.
Many Christians don’t understand that. They are still trying to live by the rules and regulations. And some people get pretty upset when you preach that we are not to live by rules and regulations because they think, if you do, people are going to go out and live like the devil. They think that you have to put laws on people to restrain them. But here we are talking about a relationship that is spiritual in nature and enables us to live by a higher principle of life. We’ve been set free to live for Christ. We are free to do anything and everything that we can do in Christ. So, don’t let the Pharisee spirit of some judge you by their so-called righteousness. We have been set free from the judgmental spirit of legalism. And we have also been set free from…
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Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (Colossians 2:18-19 NIV)There were those in Colosse teaching a certain kind of mysticism. By that I mean an emphasis on the subjective and experiential in their faith. Now, not all mysticism is bad. Not all emphasis on the subjective and experiential nature of our relationship with Christ is bad. It can be very good and is indeed necessary. Our relationship with Christ is not just simply an intellectual relationship whereby we come at the Bible from an academic perspective and try to understand intellectually the things the Bible teaches. We must experience God. We must experience Christ. Our relationship with Christ encompasses our mind and our emotions. And so we need to enter in fully, feelings and all, to our relationship to Christ.
But it needs to be focused on Christ. When it is focused on Christ and balanced by the teaching of the Scriptures, then we stay on course. But often the Scriptures get set aside. And when that happens, people begin to base their understanding of God and their relationship with Christ on subjective and experiential "encounters" with God. And some end up far away from what the Scripture teach.
Paul says that such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen. They are the people who make much ado concerning their own personal revelations and visions, even when none of it can be backed up by Scripture. Be very careful here. While I do believe that God does lead us and speak to our hearts and can certainly reveal his will to us in many ways, I also know that God never contradicts Himself. And he is not currently finding a need to go back and rewrite the Book!
We pastors never get it perfect, but God has already gotten it right. And so when someone comes along with a notion, however spiritual it may sound, a vision, however authentic it may seem, if it contradicts the plain teaching of the word of God, we have to say they were tuned to the wrong channel that day. You have to understand that the devil is perfectly capable of giving you all kinds of spiritual experiences. So you have to always judge the experience by the word of God.
And another problem with this kind of mysticism is that it ends up just like legalism. A legalistic approach always ends up in a judgmental attitude. A mystical approach always ends up with a condescending attitude, whereby some look down their spiritual noses at those who have not yet arrived at that place in their spiritual walk that they have. This is just judgment from a different perspective. Don’t be subject to it for a minute. They have nothing you do not have, if you know Christ.
If you’ve come to know Jesus Christ, I want to tell you that all that you need, you already have. The reason why so many Christians are not showing what they have is because many don’t even know they have it. They don’t know what they have in Christ. They don’t write checks on their spiritual account because they really believe there’s nothing there and that the checks will bounce. They don’t realize that God has made the deposit already and we’re overflowing with riches. And that’s the message of the New Covenant. The message of the New Covenant is that you have all that you need in Christ. You just need to learn to step out and walk in what you have. Finally, we have been set free from…
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Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:14 NIV)The third danger is asceticism. And this is another twisting of a good principle. Asceticism focuses on self-denial. But when this self-denial is then elevated into a Christian virtue that becomes mandatory is where you begin to have problems. This can become a distortion of a good principle.
The good principle is that we, as Christians, should be disciplined. If we are going to be disciples, we need to be disciplined. And that’s the good principle. A disciple is a disciplined follower of Christ. We need to focus on the basics, and there are a lot of Christians who are not disciples because they refuse to be disciplined. They refuse to focus on the basics. They refuse to set up devotional time with God where they read and study the Scriptures and pray. They refuse to give. They refuse to serve. They refuse to order their lives in a disciplined fashion to follow Christ.
But when you take it to the extreme and then put that extreme on everyone as the only true path to holiness, you’re walking down a path that becomes oppressive. That’s what Paul is saying here. He talks about the harsh treatment of the body–– how it seems spiritual but in fact has no power, no value in restraining sensual indulgence. And why is that? The reason why is because it does deal with our heart. You can discipline yourself. You can fast. You can crawl up stairs on your knees. You can beat your body with whips. And your heart can remain unchanged. That’s the problem. It doesn’t deal with our hearts. As a matter of fact, it can generate a sinful pride in you because of how disciplined you are. Discipline is good if it focuses on Christ and enables you to follow Christ. But taking it to the extreme doesn’t make you a more holy person, because it doesn’t deal with your heart. Only God can deal with your heart.
The New Covenant is all about what happens on the inside. We have been set free from all of these laws not so we can come back under them when we become Christians, but so we can pursue a living relationship with Christ. I don’t worry one minute about people going out and using their liberty for license. If they do that, they will quickly wake up to the fact that they are not following Jesus. Their lives are poor imitations of the real thing. And it’s not our responsibility to compel anybody to live a certain way. You don’t change the world by getting the world to live by certain laws. You change the world by having people come to Christ, one person at a time and surrender their lives to serve him. And if we are serving the living Lord, we are not going to act in an ungodly way. We are going to live for Christ in the way that pleases him–– not because we’re compelled to by some outward force, but because the life of Jesus Christ causes it to happen.
We need to come to understand, to believe and to live by the principle that God loves perfectly. Nothing more is required on your part. Often, we think that we have to do something so we can deserve this grace. That’s the point of grace. You’ll never deserve grace. There’s no something that’s good enough for you to do. You can do it a thousand times and it’s still not good enough. You don’t deserve grace. But God gives the grace anyway. There’s nothing you need to add. God cannot love you anymore than He already loves you. Whenever that gets hold of you, it will change your whole perspective. Now you can relax. You will not do things because it’s your obligation. You will do them because you delight in serving Jesus. When you operate out of a sense of obligation it becomes a chore. When you operate out of a sense of delight in serving God, it becomes an offering of worship. And that’s what your life is to be. That’s the good news.
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