The Word Made Fresh
1I want you to know how hard I am working for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2I want them to be encouraged and united in love so that they might share all the riches that come from understanding, and that they fully understand God’s mystery, Christ himself. 3All the wealth of wisdom and knowledge are in him. 4I tell you this so that you won’t be deceived by anyone’s counter arguments. 5Even when I’m not physically with you, I am with you in spirit, and I am glad to see your morale and the strength of your faith in Christ.
6So, since you have accepted Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live in him. 7Be rooted and grow in him and continue to walk with him as you were instructed, and be thankful.
8Make sure no one captivates you with doctrines that are deceitful, rooted in human ideas and based on human understandings of this world, instead of on Christ, 9because it is only through Christ that the whole fulness of God can be seen. 10And you yourselves have grown up in the One who is over every ruler and authority. 11In him you were spiritually circumcised – you have put off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ. 12When you were baptized, you were buried with him and then raised with him through faith in God who raised him from the dead. 13When you were as good as dead in your sins and in your lack of physical circumcision, God raised you up alive with him by forgiving all our trespasses 14and erasing the legal accusations against us. He cast all of it aside and nailed it to the cross and triumphed over them.
16So, don’t let anyone condemn you because of what you eat or drink, or because you participate in festivals and observe new moons or sabbaths. 17These things are only shadows of what will yet come, but the reality belongs to Christ. 18Don’t let anyone cast you aside, insisting on humiliating themselves and worshiping angels or claiming visions, because they are absorbed in a human way of thinking. 19But you, hold on tightly to the head through whom all the ligaments and sinews of the whole body grow.
20If you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why live as if you still belonged to this world? Why do you still live according to their rules? Why do you give in to regulations that tell you, 21Don’t use; don’t taste; don’t touch? 22All these rules refer to things that don’t last. They are simply human commands and human teachings. 23Oh yes, they appear to be wise when they insist on piety and humility and treating the body with severity. But they have no value at all in restraining sensual indulgencies.
Commentary
1-7: Laodicea was some ten miles down the river from Colossae. The churches in Colossae, Laodicea and Hieropolis (5 miles across the Lycus River valley from Laodicea) were close and had much in common. Paul says he is struggling for them, but the nature of the struggle is not specified. Perhaps he is struggling for his freedom in Rome so that he can visit them. He is obviously concerned that they might be led astray by “plausible arguments,” and encourages them to continue just as they were taught.
8-15: His concern about false teachings is amplified in verse 8. He cautions them to guard against philosophy which he sees as an enemy of faith, against the “empty deceit” of those who promise what they cannot deliver, against human tradition that nullifies the law and the will of God, and against “the elemental spirits of the universe,” probably a reference to pagan beliefs in demons and such. He now refers to faith as “a spiritual circumcision,” making us wonder if the so-called circumcision party was active in Colossae as well as Philippi. Faith, expressed in baptism, is a kind of death, he says, out of which we are resurrected with Christ into freedom from the law.
16-19: A number of issues are mentioned here over which the Colossians are apparently jousting with religious peddlers: dietary restrictions, observance of holy days, self-abasement, angel worship and vision mongering. Hold on to Christ, he says, and don’t be distracted by false teachings.
20-23: The Colossians have apparently been impressed by some who are teaching strict religious practices based on the idea that certain human-made things are holy. They are not, says Paul.
Takeaway
We live in a world where, and in a time when, we are daily besieged with suggestions that promise to enrich us in some way. But these things can impoverish us spiritually. Make a habit of praying before deciding, and that will help to keep you on the path that leads upward.