Reflections on Colossians 2

Colossians 02 (Contemporary English Version)


1. I want you to know what a struggle I am going through for you, for God's people at Laodicea, and for all of those followers who have never met me.
2. I do it to encourage them. Then as their hearts are joined together in love, they will be wonderfully blessed with complete understanding. And they will truly know Christ. Not only is he the key to God's mystery,
3. but all wisdom and knowledge are hidden away in him.
4. I tell you these things to keep you from being fooled by fancy talk.
5. Even though I am not with you, I keep thinking about you. I am glad to know that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
6. You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him.
7. Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful.
8. Don't let anyone fool you by using senseless arguments. These arguments may sound wise, but they are only human teachings. They come from the powers of this world and not from Christ.
9. God lives fully in Christ.
10. And you are fully grown because you belong to Christ, who is over every power and authority.
11. Christ has also taken away your selfish desires, just as circumcision removes flesh from the body.
12. And when you were baptized, it was the same as being buried with Christ. Then you were raised to life because you had faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from death.
13. You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make you alive, when he forgave all our sins.
14. God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.
15. There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory.
16. Don't let anyone tell you what you must eat or drink. Don't let them say that you must celebrate the New Moon festival, the Sabbath, or any other festival.
17. These things are only a shadow of what was to come. But Christ is real!
18. Don't be cheated by people who make a show of acting humble and who worship angels. They brag about seeing visions. But it is all nonsense, because their minds are filled with selfish desires.
19. They are no longer part of Christ, who is the head of the whole body. Christ gives the body its strength, and he uses its joints and muscles to hold it together, as it grows by the power of God.
20. You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don't have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as,
21. "Don't handle this. Don't taste that. Don't touch this."?
22. After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up?
23. Obeying these rules may seem to be the smart thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don't really have any power over our desires.
    
    

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    Paul comes directly to the issue at hand: the presence of false teaching among, but not from, the Colossian Christians. It was a teaching that developed out of Judaism becoming what eventually is known as Gnosticism. It stressed observance of Old Testament laws and ceremonies, emphasized a special knowledge, involved worship of angels, stressed a special privilege for those who belonged to this philosophical elite, but included a teaching of Christ. However, it denied Christ's deity.
    
    It does not appear that the Colossians had yet embraced this false teaching and this letter from Paul was aimed at exposing the folly of the teaching and at furthering their understanding of true Christianity. Paul, in fact, spoke of his "rejoicing to see your good order and the strength of your faith in Christ." (2:5) And so he encouraged them to continue walking in Christ in the same manner in which they received Him and not be taken captive "through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ." (2:8) This is a good test of true Christian teaching. Any teaching not based on Christ is false even if it includes Christ. It is based on Christ if He is seen as the embodiment of "the entire fullness of God's nature." Nothing less will do. Nor will anything in addition to Christ be acceptable. It is not Christ plus circumcision or Christ plus special observances either of food and drink or of festivals or a sabbath day. It is Christ alone. Everything else that comes from Old Testament practice is only "a shadow of what was to come." The substance of what they alluded to is the Messiah." (2:17) Since we now have the Messiah we don't need these other things. He alone is sufficient.
    
    Therefore, the Colossians should "let no one disqualify" them as true Christians or from being truly spiritual by "insisting on ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his fleshly mind." (2:18) "All these regulations" are "human commands and doctrines." Though they "have a reputation of wisdom . . . they are not of any value against fleshly indulgence." (2:22, 23) Only Christ can free us from the enslavement of sin.