Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Col 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, Col 2:19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Big Picture Context

Paul was in Prison in Rome. He had heard from Epaphras that the saints in Colosse were doing great and probably the biggest a threat to their faith had to be the growing Gnosticism. In fact, some commentaries would say that there were, in fact, a lot of isms that were being embrace in that region of Colosse –oriental-philosophical mysticism, Gnosticism, asceticism, and Judaism, among others.

It would also appear that the people of Colossae seemed to have been a type of wealthy intellectual class to whom those kinds of philosophical, mystical, and ascetic teachings would have had an appeal in some weird way. They hadn’t yet abandoned Christ, but they were certainly at risk. So this epistle is a loving warning and very Christ-centered.

Paul emphasizes Christ, the glory of Christ, the preeminence of Christ, to keep their minds firmly focused on Christ and Christ alone. Did these philosophies and all these isms increase anyone’s sense of the value of the gospel? Did these isms help anyone understand better who they were in Christ, or the perfection of their standing before God, or help with their own goals in their own spiritual lives?

Gnosticism was a real threat at the time because it attempted to explain creation, the origin of evil, explain God, etc., in ways that totally contradicted God’s own revelation in His own Word. The Gnostics denied that God created the world, that an inferior half-god had called it into existence, which is why we have in the middle of chapter one this strong emphasis on the Lord being the creator of all things and Him having and deserving all the pre-eminence. In Col. 1:15 Christ is the image of the invisible God, which means that as the image of God, the invisible God, He therefore IS God. Vs 16, Paul writes, For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… Vs. 17, And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Perhaps one of the worst features of these Gnostic teachings was a denial of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption, which is why we also have this strong reinforcement in chapter one of the fundamentals of the faith. Vs 14 – In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Vs 20 having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself… All these isms attacked the pre-eminence of Christ and the all-sufficiency of His work of redemption, which makes the epistle of Colossians still so vital to the church.

So in the first chapter alone, we have the love of Paul pouring out to these believers, how he prays for them. We have their validation as legitimate saints, delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son, and he praises them in vs. 4 for their model faith and love toward each other. Then we have a kind of celebration of fundamentals and an emphasis on Paul’s apostleship before we get to the warnings in chapter two.

Then, in chapter 2:9-10, we come to the centerpiece of the Epistle. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power.” It’s simple math. The believer is in Christ. Christ is the glory of God. In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. Therefore, Christ IS the fullness of the believer.

We are complete in Him. We are lacking nothing spiritually in Christ, who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Thus, Christ IS the fullness of the believer.

None of these isms could possibly add anything to the believer’s perfection that he already has in Christ. His perfection IS Christ.

Then after you get to the heart of the letter, being complete in Him and how a believer who is risen with Christ and perfect in our standing before God in a myriad of ways, we’re then given exhortations and warnings about rituals, ordinances, legalism, and not holding the Head.

The Heart of this Epistle

To me, the heart of this epistle will always be Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power… This is a fantastic refutation of any legalist or Judaizer or Gnostic who may come along to try to deceive the Colossians. The Gnostics taught that God and the material world could never meet. Paul twice addressed that point. In the first chapter, Christ was presented as the Incarnate One, the one who pre-existed eternally as God, the one who walked upon earth, in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and thus, He was able to make peace through the blood of His cross. In chapter two here, we see Him as the Risen One, who is in glory, the Glorified Son of God, and in Him continues to dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The fullness of the Godhead bodily resided in Him both during His earthly ministry and now in His glorified state seated at the right hand of the Father, and out of this fullness we receive all of His grace. Now our standing before God is perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

In verse 10, Paul tells us we are complete in Him, one of the most oft-quoted verses in grace today. I would just point out the context: philosophy and vain deceit in vs. 8. You have this wonderful contrast. Philosophy and vain deceit vs. our completeness in Him. Why would you go searching elsewhere to improve yourself and your standing before God when you are already complete in Him? To be complete is to be filled up, made full, perfected, lacking nothing. Why would you look elsewhere to go fix yourself when God is telling you, “I’ve already fixed you. Now go live in the reality of everything I made you in my Son.”

How are we made complete? Paul lists the ways:

Vs 11 – Circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

This is a complete break from the past and freedom from sin. A spiritual circumcision is also a spiritual form of identification.

Vs 12 – Buried with him in baptism, and risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

This is a complete identification with Christ. We are through His spiritual baptism forever identified with Christ and His atoning work for you in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Vs 13 – Forgiven all trespasses.

This is a complete forgiveness, the reality of your identification, which is to be as holy and righteous as Christ Himself.

Vs 14 – The handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, which was contrary to us, has been taken away nailed to His cross.

This is a complete freedom from the law. Why would you need the law if you’re dead, buried, and risen with Christ?

What is the ultimate result of these 4 operations by which God has made us complete? It means that in Him, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. In Him, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. In Him, nothing can take you away from the righteous standing you have before God. In Him, nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ. In Him, you are blessed with all spiritual blessings. In Him, you are accepted in the beloved. In Him, you are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption. In Him, you are freed from sin and alive unto God. In Him, Christ lives in you. In Him, you are empowered by His grace to become like Christ. In Him, you are filled full. In Him, you have a blessed hope. In Him, you are perfect and complete before God. In Him, you are not wanting in any way whatsoever as to your position before God. You are in Christ before God, not as a result of what you do or according to your service, but IN WHAT GOD MADE YOU IN CHRIST BECAUSE OF YOUR FAITH IN HIM and your acceptance of the perfection of what He accomplished for you at Calvary.

This Brings us Back to the Verses we Read at the Beginning

After emphasizing our completeness in Him, the perfection of our standing before God because of the all-sufficiency of the Lord’s redemptive work on the cross, Paul starts giving us warnings in vs. 16. He writes, Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

After fully grasping the perfection of Christ’s work and the completeness of your standing before God, Paul says you need to have the attitude of not letting anyone judge you because you’re not observing food laws and Jewish holy days, or the Sabbath. I love that fact that Paul writes about observing the Sabbath. One of the 10 commandments! Did the Lord observe the Sabbath? Of course, He did. Did the Lord have his disciples observe the Sabbath? You know He did. The Lord said in Matt 23:2-3, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Do you think the scribes and Pharisees would have all their people observe the Sabbath? Do you think they’d judge someone who DIDN’T observe the Sabbath? Of course they would! And yet Paul says, let no man judge you about observing the Sabbath.

Paul also talks about not being judged over meat, or drink, or our observance of holy days. Food laws and observance of Jewish holy days is a turning away from Christ’s perfect work on the cross and chasing after shadows. He said, these are are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. The commentaries all said that the substance has already come but I don’t think that’s what the verse is telling us. The verse says, “Which ARE a shadow of things to come.” It’s still a shadow because we’re living in an interruption of the prophetic program. The whole purpose of the OT rituals was to picture the reality that would come through Christ in the kingdom. The killing of the Passover lamb pictured the sacrifice of Christ, the lamb of God, which will be the foundation of the new covenant for the Jews in the earthly kingdom. The many baptisms and washings ceremonially pictured the purifying and consecration and identification of the Jews with their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. To go back to those rituals is to be chasing shadows of things still to come but for an earthly program that doesn’t involve us. We have a heavenly calling, a heavenly identity. Our substance has already come, and WE are to celebrate what WE are now IN CHRIST.

Then he the writes in vs. 18, Col 2:18, “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, Col 2:19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.”

Now Paul moves on to another warning. He says, Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head… Here, Paul is warning them to let no man, let no deceiving man within their congregation or without their congregation to come and corrupt their thinking so that they are focused upon something other than the Head, which is Christ.

Let NO ONER undermine the fact that Christ is everything in your life.

Let no one stop you from keeping the main thing the main thing in your spiritual life, which is Christ, His pre-eminence, the all-sufficiency of what He accomplished for you at Calvary, and also the application of you putting on Christ, of you shaping your thinking to be like His and your emotional life to mirror His emotional life.

It’s this hypothetical deceiving man he’s warning them about who may fool them by a show of a voluntary humility and (red flag) he is also worshipping angels. It’s this deceiving man he’s warning them about who is not keeping the main thing the main thing in his life because he’s worshipping something other than Christ, like angels. It’s this man he’s warning them about who is guilty of not holding the Head in vs. 19. Why is he not holding the Head? Because he’s not keeping the main thing the main thing. He’s focused on worshipping something other than Christ in his life. We are to be aware of people like him who are not holding the Head, not keeping the main thing the main thing in their lives and that main thing is Christ.

In vs. 18, Paul writes, “Let no man beguile you of your reward…” To beguile is more than just deceiving. Beguile is to deceive by craft. The method of deception is a craft to him, carefully honed skills designed to deceive believers. And so by being deceived through his careful craft of voluntary humility, the worshipping of angels, not holding the head, he will rob them of their rewards at the Bema Seat.

I’m reminded of Paul’s prayer request in Col. 1:9, that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will IN ALL wisdom and spiritual understanding. The amazing thing about that verse is that we’re not just filled with the knowledge of his will but we’re filled with the knowledge of his will IN all wisdom and spiritual understanding!

How can you become filled with His will IN ALL wisdom? How does that work? Wisdom in Webster’s 1828 is, “The right use or exercise of knowledge; the choice of laudable ends, and of the best means to accomplish them… it is the knowledge and use of what is best, most just, most proper, most conducive to prosperity or happiness…” See, this is why we’re to be filled with the knowledge of His will IN ALL wisdom, because this is about us learning the knowledge of His will, and we develop wisdom in ourselves when we figure out how to apply God’s will to the details of our lives. Wisdom comes from the application of God’s will to our lives.

Then we have this next phrase, “the voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.” This phrase, voluntary humility is interesting. He’s acting. He’s putting on a show. The end of that verse would say that he’s vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. He’s putting on this willful, calculated act of humility that is in stark contrast to the way he really thinks. In other words, he’s honed his acting skills to act in a humble way that is diametrically opposed to how he thinks. Mastering the art of fake humility when you’re not really humble does nothing more than puff yourself up in your mind because you’ve got great acting skills to get followers, rather than be humble to glorify Christ.

When we read about the mind of Christ in Phil. 2, aren’t we also voluntarily being humble like Christ? Yes, but for us it isn’t unnatural in the sense that we’re faking something that doesn’t align with our thinking. It’s part of the nature of the new man to be humble, because he’s created in the image and righteousness of Christ. It should be natural for us after we get saved to be humble and grateful in our thinking because we’ve acknowledged the height of His grace that covered the depths of our sins and we’re grateful. So when we choose to be humble like Christ, we are merely putting on the natural attributes of a new man that already exists in us, which mirrors our thinking. It’s not a calculated deception. We’re merely putting on a nature that already exists in a new man that we already have.

But the bigger point of the voluntary humility is that Paul is merely highlighting how false teachers get you. They fool you into thinking they’re Godly because they’re humble, when the reality is, it’s all just an act. The red flag is what he teaches.

This brings us to the next phrase, worshipping of angels.

So many commentaries, both non-grace and grace, including Bullinger, kept trying to say that it’s not the worshipping of angels but that this man somehow has the same humility and form of worship to God like the angels.

That makes no sense at all.

If this man has the same humility as angels and he worships God in the same manner as the angels, then I dare say, he’s doing everything correctly and there’s nothing to warn the believers about. Why? Because the angels do, indeed, have true humility. They do, indeed, display a proper worship of God. The angels do, indeed, hold the Head. They keep the main thing the main thing. The angels do not put on a show of worship that is in stark contrast to their thinking.

Only the worshipping OF angels can make any sense of the point Paul is trying to make and everything that follows it.

The fact that this man is not holding the Head is proven by his worshipping of angels. He’s distracted. He’s not focused on Christ. He’s not holding the Head. He’s not keeping the main thing the main thing evidenced by his worshipping of angels. This is more than just someone who is fascinated by angels. This is someone who is downright worshipping angels. He’s giving too much reverence, too much divine honor, too much of his own love, to something other than God. He is prostrating himself in a spirit of reverence to angels instead of God.

You might today come across someone who loves angels, and you might think, “Well, it’s cute that this person is maybe a little too obsessed about angels but at least he’s humble and he’s interested in something that has to do with the kingdom of God.” But the point of this verse is that men like this angel worshipper are more than just obsessed about something cool and they’ve somehow swept you up into their own little obsession.

That’s not what he’s talking about.

He’s talking about being on guard when it comes to intentional deceivers.

We’ve made the point in our angelology series that angels appear in the Bible to draw attention to something other than themselves.

The same is true about this passage.

The angels aren’t referenced here to bring attention to themselves or even the idea of the worship of angels. The worshipping of angels is used to draw attention to the method of all deceivers as a warning. All deceivers are focused upon something other than Christ. All deceivers are not holding the Head. All deceivers are trying to draw your mind away from Christ to be focused upon something else. The bigger point about the worshipping of angels is not the angels, per say, but that we’re to be on guard of anyone who wants to pull your mind away from the Head whether it be the worship of something else or putting your heart and energy into a works-based acceptance system that doesn’t exist in the age of grace all of which will rob you of your rewards.

Then Paul says something unique.

He writes, “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind…” What did he mean by that? “Intruding into those things which he hath not seen”? It may be possible that Paul is talking about Judaizers who have seen Christ in the flesh, and now they’re investigating, or intruding into, things they haven’t seen, like angels. But I suspect the sense here is that this man is invading certain heavenly territory. He is making comments and assumptions about things God has not revealed to us. He is intruding into those things which he hath not seen. He has overstepped his bounds by making assertions about God’s kingdom when he has no business doing that because God never revealed those details to us.

Not Holding the Head

And now we’ve arrived at the biggest point of this whole section – not holding the head. You must keep the main thing the main thing. You must always hold the Head, always keep Christ in His proper place of pre-eminence in your life. Paul writes in Col 2:19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Of all the faults that this deceiver had, the biggest fault of them all is that he’s not holding the Head. He’s focused upon something other than Christ, not allowing Christ to be his all. He’s not keeping the main thing the main thing in his life, which is Christ, His pre-eminence, the all-sufficiency of what He accomplished at Calvary, and the application of you shaping your thinking to be like His thinking and your emotional life to mirror His emotional life. We have to be on guard about staying focused upon the Head, upon Christ.

Notice there are three things the Head does for the body in this verse. And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Unity – “from which all the body by joints and bands… knit together”

Spiritual Nourishment – “having nourishment ministered”

Growth – “increaseth with the increase of God”

Touch Not, Taste Not, Handle Not

Col 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, Col 2:21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Col 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Here, Paul confronts the ideas of asceticism, which taught that matter is evil and the body is the source of sin and therefore you should deny the body things it wants. So you touch not, taste not, and handle not. But Paul points out at the end of vs. 23 that asceticism actually satisfies your corrupted flesh, because you feel like you’re doing something to earn God’s approval. While on the outside those who practice asceticism exhibit this voluntary humility, they are in reality on the inside vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds. Ascetism, neglect of body, is actually a puffing up of the flesh.

Asceticism at its heart tries to discipline the flesh, transform the flesh, control the flesh, in order to bring about a new nature that will never be exist apart from Christ. Paul admits that it all seemingly has a show of wisdom in will worship and humility but it has no value. The end result is literally nothing, because “all are to perish with the using.” So long as the flesh is corrupt, no amount of restrictions to the body will make that person any more holy. There is one remedy for sin, one that deals with sin at its roots, that will bring about real transformation and righteousness in the eyes of God, and that’s the perfect work on the cross. There’s nothing that we can add to it, but Colossians shows that you can lose sight of its value when you focus on anything other than Christ.

I loved vs. 20: “If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” “Why, as though living in the world?” Aren’t we living in the world? Yes, but we cannot live as if we are a part of this world anymore. We have a new life, which is the life of Him who is dead and risen; and the world no longer has anything to offer us, except we have something greater than their religious systems to offer them.

Philosophy, vain deceit, all these isms like Gnosticism and asceticism and it all brings about this question – what could any of these isms do to add to the fullness and completeness the believer possesses forever in Christ? Absolutely nothing. We need none of these things. We have all things in Christ. Christ is our all. Christ is our life. Christ has done everything for us to make us acceptable to God and partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Once we come into this truth, once we come into the full assurance of this truth, and the riches of this truth, once we lay hold in a practical way all of this fullness that we have, we take hold of Christ, holding the head, we commit ourselves to Christ, and we walk in the power and reality of these truths. What ideas like asceticism and legalism today are really about – they’re about us trying to do God’s work for Him, which He already accomplished in us the moment we believed.

Paul implores us to never lose sight of the perfect work He’s done for us, and His pre-eminence as the Head, which is why we are complete in Him and we don’t need any of these isms.

Keep the main thing the main thing.