This Week’s Reading
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. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have 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.
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 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
listen to the podcast
Caleb Clardy, founding pastor at Trinity Grace Church, teaching from Colossians 2:16–23 on the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, the fifth in our "In Christ by the Spirit for the City" series, speaking at Middle School 51 on November 3, 2019.
Themes to Consider
Our connection to Christ is the substance of our Salvation.
Do not be pressured into forms of religious devotion that diverge from single minded devotion to Jesus.
Do not abandon the New Covenant mediated by Jesus to return to the law.
Legalism may have the appearance of wisdom but does not lead to true spiritual growth.
There is a lot of social and cultural pressure to conform to certain norms or trends. We need to know how to make those decisions.
Discussion Questions
This section begins with “therefore” in reference to the true salvation that we find in Christ. How would you describe what salvation is?
What are times you have felt pressure to participate in social, religious, or cultural practice to feel accepted? How was that experience? When do you find integrity to your own needs and wants and integrity to your community's expectations at odds?
When Paul mentions observing certain religious days or the regulations, he is focusing attention on the appeal to pagans of Judaism’s high moral code and heavy demands, a kind of religious fundamentalism. Why does religious fundamentalism still have such appeal to different groups of people in today’s hypermodern world?
In seems that the same outward action can be taken and the motivation not always be known. Describe the difference in self-righteous religious activity and life of devotion flowing from love.
What does it mean to have died with Christ?
This Week’s Practices
We are challenging ourselves to engage two practices throughout the series as a whole and they are listed under Daily Spiritual Practice and Love in Action. Below those, we will also provide a couple other weekly practices that correspond to each passage as we move through the letter.
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1 / DAILY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE — ONGOING
Spend daily time in the Gospels; be with Jesus.
There are many ways that you might select a Gospel reading for the day. You could just pick one of the four Gospels and start making your way through a bit at a time. Or you could use a resource like the Daily Office Lectionary which always has a selection from the Gospels as a part of its daily readings. The main thing is simply to find a passage that is a manageable length for the time you have set aside.
Before you read, offer a short prayer asking the Holy Spirit to guide you. You might pray that you would like to spend this time with Jesus and ask that the person of Christ would be revealed to you during your time.
Slowly read the passage from the Gospel, asking the Holy Spirit to direct your attention to Jesus. What do you see Jesus doing? What do you hear Jesus saying? What is the situation and circumstance that Jesus is in? Does Jesus act according to your expectations or in a different way? What is challenging? What is encouraging? What is confusing?
Once you have read, perhaps a few times if needed, sit in silence for a moment and see what the Holy Spirit brings to your mind. Perhaps you have a question to reflect on later or in community. Perhaps you have an insight. Imagine Jesus being right there present to you.
You may want to end by jotting down something you sensed from the Spirit, or by worshipping Jesus, or by writing or saying a prayer.
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2 / LOVE IN ACTION — ONGOING
In our time and context it may feel challenging or embarrassing to speak openly about faith in Christ, but there are some powerful and important reasons to overcome those difficulties.
Jesus directs us to let the light of our life with God and His Kingdom shine. It is an integral part of how the relational Kingdom of God expands. We tell our story and we tell the story of Jesus. We are not proselytizing to grow the tribe of those who agree with us, but so that many others may experience the tremendous love of God that has changed our lives. It is one of the greatest joys of the Christians life to be involved in someone coming to faith in Christ because we were willing to share the Gospel with them.
We are challenging ourselves and our whole church to share the Gospel this fall. You may begin by opening up to a friend or coworker about your story and faith. You could begin by inviting a friend to Apha. You can make a list of people you would like to pray for and ask God for opportunities to speak with them about faith in a meaningful way.
You may also want to have a conversation with those in your group about the idea or experience of sharing your faith. What thoughts or feelings does it bring up for you? Do you feel like you would know some of what to say? Do you wish you had some specific help in the process. These are all things that are helpful to process in community.
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3 / sabbath — WEEKLY
Take 24 hours to remember that you are not your work.
You are loved. Trust in Christ, in His Salvation and rest this week. In addition to a sabbath day, find moments of Sabbath rest in each day. You may have to make a reminder. You don’t keep a sabbath to get God’s love but because you already have it.
Recommended resources
PDF: Excerpt from Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
Read this paraphrase of Colossians 2:16-23 as written by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat.
QUOTE: C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis states, “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
QUOTE: N.T. Wright’s Paul For Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon
N.T. Wright discusses the implications of this passage from Colossians 2: “The immediate result of this is that when people try to entice you into particular styles of piety and devotion other than single-minded devotion to Jesus, you need take no notice. Once again, the things he mentions are typical of the way Jews, not least out in the Gentile world, tried to order their life of worship: festivals, new moons and sabbaths. They’re irrelevant, Paul declares. They are like the shadows cast by a solid object, and the solid object is what matters, not the shadows. The solid object, the ‘substance’, is of course the Messiah himself, the king. The celebrations of the Jewish law look forward to him. Now that he’s here they simply aren’t needed any more.
Nor is there any need for elaborate and complex systems of prayer and meditation. Of course, there are all sorts of techniques which may help us to be attentive and obedient to God, to listen to his voice and seek his help in bringing our rebellious lives under his authority. There’s nothing wrong with finding out what methods of prayer suit you best. But what Paul is talking about here is a system imposed by a certain sort of teacher, who goes on and on about visions he or she has had, living in a fantasy world in which only that one type of spiritual experience really ‘counts’. Such people—and they’re as frequent in the modern world as in the ancient—may then try to disqualify, or rule out of order, others who haven’t had their type of experience, or who don’t see why they should dance attendance on that type of teaching.
Paul’s answer is quite simple, and by now we ought to know what it is before he says it. All you need is Christ, the king. Hold fast to him and you’ll have all you need. He is the head of the ‘body’, as Paul said already in 1:18. The body gets its life from the head, through what it thinks, sees, smells, hears, eats and drinks. In the same way, the body which is the church is nourished and sustained, in all its joints, muscles and ligaments, not by embracing this or that new teaching, but by holding fast to the Head. Can you sense the sigh of relief the Colossians may have experienced on being reassured that they were already complete in Christ and didn’t need anything else, just more of what they already had? Have you ever come under pressure to ‘add’ to your Christian experience? Do you know the same sigh of relief yourself?”
