Colossians 2:16-23
Notes
Transcript
Warning Labels
Warning Labels
Warning: Product contains Eggs
Chainsaw
Torch: Contents may catch fire
Blow dryer: Do not use while sleeping
Jet Ski: Never use a lit match or open flame to check fuel level.
Sun Shield: Do not drive with sun shield in place
Washer: Do not put any person in the washer
Superman costume: This costume does not enable flight or super strengh.
We like warning labels at times.
We drift on a addictive personality to just give me the rules to follow.
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.
He has defeated the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly
Again, the visual image is the king after winning a battle he parades through the streets show how he has defeated all the enemies and has all their goods in tow. The no longer are armed. They have been disgraced.
Through Jesus this has happened. Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection has disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly.
Therefore…
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.
Food or Drink
Jesus in Mark 7
18 And He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him?
19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated.” (As a result, He made all foods clean. )
20 Then He said, “What comes out of a person—that defiles him.
21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,
22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.
Festivals or new moon or a Sabbath day
The law still reveals the holiness of God, and in the Law Jesus Christ can be seen. The law is good if a man uses it properly.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Believer, Beware! (Colossians 2:16–23)
The Law reveals sin and warns of the consequences of sin—but it has no power to prevent sin or redeem the sinner. Only grace can do that
Warren Wiersby
17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.
The law is the shadow
Which do you want to hold on to?
The shadow or the real thing?
We want the real thing.
Jesus is the Substance
Jesus came to fulfill the law
People often like outward practices because they resemble spirituality but these don’t change hearts. People are attracted to legalism because it allows you to “measure” your spiritual life and even brag about it. This is a far cry from being filled by the fulness of Christ.
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his unspiritual mind.
This is an athletic term. Don’t let the umpire disqualify you.
(Getting thrown out of an old man softball game)
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Believer, Beware! (Colossians 2:16–23)
The peril Paul had in mind here was Oriental mysticism, the belief that a person can have an immediate experience with the spiritual world, completely apart from the Word of God or the Holy Spirit.
The false teachers in Colossa had visions and made contact with angels. They would bypass the Word of God and the Spirit of God. They opened themselves up to all kinds of Demonic activity.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Believer, Beware! (Colossians 2:16–23)
No Christian has to go through any initiation ceremony to get into the presence of God. We may have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Believer, Beware! (Colossians 2:16–23)
Trying to reach God the Father through anyone or anything other than His Son, Jesus Christ, is idolatry. Jesus Christ is the one and only Mediator between God and man
19 He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
Uses the picture of the Body of Christ
Jesus is the head
From the head who is Jesus the whole body is nourished and held together.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
19 He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
It is the body. This is the local church and Christ is the head. It encourages us to abide in Christ.
20 If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations:
21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”?
22 All these regulations refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men.
All these refer to what goes into the body and is eliminated. They are commands and doctrines of men.
23 Although these have a reputation of wisdom by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
All those who practice such way have a reputation of wisdom by promoting
ascetic self-made religion n. — the fashioning of one’s religious practice according to what one wants or what one thinks best.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Believer, Beware! (Colossians 2:16–23)
The power of Christ in the life of the believer does more than merely restrain the desires of the flesh: it puts new desires within him.
Develop a personal relationship with Jesus. Learn how to develop critical thinking/critical spirituality.
Conclusion: Critical Thinking vs. Legalism
So here is the danger Paul is warning about.
Some people want warning labels for spirituality.
“Don’t handle.”
“Don’t taste.”
“Don’t touch.”
Just give me the list.
Just give me the rules.
Tell me what to avoid and what to do so I can feel like I’m doing okay spiritually.
And honestly, rules can feel comforting.
Rules mean I don’t have to think deeply.
Rules mean I don’t have to wrestle with my heart.
Rules mean I can measure myself against other people.
But Paul says something shocking in Colossians 2:23—all of that “has a reputation of wisdom”… but it has no power to change the heart.
Legalism looks spiritual.
But it doesn’t produce transformation.
Because the Christian life was never meant to be lived by rule-following.
It was meant to be lived by relationship with Christ.
Paul keeps bringing us back to one thing:
Hold fast to the Head.
Hold on to Jesus.
Because growth doesn’t come from rules.
Growth comes from connection.
Jesus said it this way in John 15:5:
“I am the vine, you are the branches… apart from me you can do nothing.”
So instead of legalism, the Christian life requires something deeper:
It requires critical spirituality.
Not cynical thinking.
Not rebellious thinking.
But mature thinking.
It means asking:
Is this drawing me closer to Christ or just making me look spiritual?
Is this transforming my heart, or is it just a rule I’m keeping?
Am I holding onto the shadow,
or am I holding onto the substance—Jesus?
Because the goal of Christianity isn’t:
More rules.
More regulations.
More spiritual scorecards.
The goal is a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
And when you walk with Him…
He doesn’t just restrain sinful desires.
He replaces them with new desires.
You start loving what He loves.
You start wanting what He wants.
You start becoming who He created you to be.
That’s something rules can never do.
So the question for us this morning is simple:
Are we living our faith by warning labels…
or are we holding fast to the Head?
Because real spiritual growth doesn’t come from
“Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch.”
It comes from abiding in Jesus.
