Colossians 2.18-Paul Warns the Colossians to Not Allow the False Teachers to Disqualify Them From Receiving Rewards at the Bema Seat
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday February 7, 2016
Colossians: Colossians 2:18-Paul Warns the Colossians to Not Allow the False Teachers to Disqualify Them From Receiving Rewards at the Bema Seat
Lesson # 59
Colossians 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. (NASB95)
“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize” is composed of the following: (1) adjective mēdeis (μηδείς), “no one” (2) personal pronoun su (σύ), “you” (3) verb katabrabeuō (καταβραβεύω), “let keep defrauding of your prize.”
The emphatic negative adjective mēdeis is expressing a negative reference to the false teachers among the Essene branch of the Judaizers and means “absolutely no one.”
The verb katabrabeuō means “to disqualify” someone from receiving a reward since it pertains to a judge determining that someone is not worthy to receive a prize or a reward.
It does not mean “to condemn” or “pass judgment” because if Paul wanted to communicate this idea, he would have used krinō as he did in Colossians 2:16.
The imperative mood of the verb katabrabeuō is used in a prohibition which forbids an action and thus, the imperative mood of the verb is forbidding absolutely anyone among the Judaizers to cause the Colossians to be disqualified.
The present tense of this verb is a gnomic present used to describe something that it is true any time rather than a universal statement that is true all the time and thus indicates that Paul is forbidding anyone among the Judaizers “at any time” causing the Colossians to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat.
So the present imperative form of the verb katabrabeuō has the force of a general precept and makes no comment about whether the action is going on or not.
The active voice of the verb katabrabeuō is a causative active which would indicate that the Judaizers would be the ultimate source or cause behind the Colossians being disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat.
The second person plural form of the personal pronoun su refers to the faithful believers in Colossae and means “all of you” referring to them as a corporate unit and is also used in a distributive sense meaning “any one of you” emphasizing that there were no exceptions.
“By delighting in self-abasement” is composed of the following: (1) verb thelō (θέλω), “by delighting” (2) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (3) noun tapeinophrosunē (ταπεινοφροσύνη), “self-abasement.”
The verb thelō pertains to taking pleasure in a particular activity in view of its being desirable and speaks of the Judaizers “taking pleasure in” or “delighting” in false humility.
The participle form of this verb is functioning as a participle of means which is defining for the Colossians how the Judaizers could cause them to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat.
The noun tapeinophrosunē means “humility” but speaks of “false humility” which is justified by the context but there is nothing in the word which means “false.”
“Taking his stand” is the verb embateuō (ἐμβατεύω), which means “to go into great detail about something, to go on at great lengths about something” in the sense of recounting in great detail a particular event or experience.
This would then indicate that the false teachers were going into detail with anyone who would listen regarding the visions they have claimed to have seen.
The participle form of this verb embateuō is functioning as a participle of means which means that it is defining for the Colossians how the Judaizers could cause them to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat.
“Inflated without cause” is composed of the following: (1) adverb eikē (εἰκῇ), “without cause” (2) verb phusioomai (φυσιόομαι), “inflated.”
The verb phusioomai means “to be proud, to be arrogant” since it pertains to causing someone to become proud and arrogant and refers to the arrogance of the false teachers in Colossae in the sense that they had an exaggerated or distorted view of themselves.
This participle is functioning as a causal participle which indicates that the Judaizers went into great lengths about the visions they supposedly had seen “because” they have become arrogant.
The passive voice of this verb is a permissive passive which means that the false teachers permitted the sin nature to control them.
The adverb eikē is modifying the verb phusioomai and means “without cause” indicating that these false teachers had become arrogant for no legitimate reason.
“By his fleshly mind” indicates that the thought process of the false teachers was controlled by their indwelling Adamic sin nature.
Colossians 2:18 Absolutely no one must be allowed at any time to cause any one of you to be disqualified by delighting in false humility as well as worshipping the angels, by going into great lengths about things which they have supposedly seen. He does this because he is permitting himself to be arrogant for no legitimate reason because of his fleshly thinking.
The apostle Paul solemnly issues another command to the faithful Christians in Colossae in order to protect them from the members of the Essene branch of the Judaizers who taught they must obey the Mosaic Law.
Obedience to his command is essential in protecting the Colossians from this false teaching of the Judaizers.
Paul orders the Colossians that absolutely no one must be allowed at any time to cause any one of them to be disqualified.
The Judaizers would cause them to be disqualified from receiving rewards if they obeyed their teaching.
Then, the apostle Paul presents the means by which the false teachers could cause the Colossians to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat.
First of all, he asserts that they could be disqualified by the false teachers delighting in false humility.
When Paul speaks of the false humility of the Judaizers he is referring to the appearance of being obedient to God when in reality they were not.
They appeared to be humble and obedient to God when in reality they were not because they misinterpreted and misapplied the Mosaic Law and adhered to man-made traditions rather than the gospel.
They would have a godly humility which is the product of the Holy Spirit if they had a proper interpretation and application of the Mosaic Law and disposed of their man-made traditions and obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So therefore, the source of the Judaizers humility was not a submission to the gospel but rather a submission to their man-made traditions and a misinterpretation and misapplication of the Mosaic Law.
Thus, it was a false rather than true humility which is produced by the Holy Spirit in the believer who obeys His teaching in the gospel concerning Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
Then, in Colossians 2:18 Paul states that the Judaizers could cause the Colossians to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat by their worship of the angels.
They undoubtedly were worshipping elect angels rather than Satan and his angels but we must be aware of the fact that Satan and his kingdom deceived them into performing such an action.
The reference to worshipping angels might at first glance appear to refute the idea that the opponents were Jewish (2:18) but they did have a significant interest in them since Jewish writings reflect speculation about angels.
The precise nature of this angelic worship is debated among scholars since some believe angels weren’t actually worshiped but were simply thought of as guiding spirits and intermediators by which men thought they could worship or contact God.
Whatever the case may be, there seems to be little doubt that in some way, these false teachers in Colossae were advocating occult experiences with these angelic beings or guiding spirits or ascended masters as they are sometimes called in the New Age movement.
Paul then asserts in Colossians 2:18 that the false teachers could cause the Colossians to be disqualified from receiving rewards at the Bema Seat by listening to the false teachers go into great lengths about the visions which they supposedly had seen.
He does not want them to be deceived and seduced by these stories about the visions they supposedly had seen since this would cause them to forsake the gospel resulting in a loss of rewards.
Paul does not want them to be deceived with their stories of these visions since the false teachers would use these stories to persuade them that they had received revelation from angels when they in fact had not.
Then, the apostle Paul communicates to the Colossians the reason why these false teachers, the Judaizers went into great lengths about visions they alleged to have seen, namely they did so because they were permitting themselves to be arrogant.
What Paul is saying is that the Judaizers were arrogant in the sense that they had an exaggerated or distorted view of themselves.
He also asserts that they had no legitimate reason for becoming arrogant and thus, Paul is calling the false teachers liars.
Paul mentions in Second Corinthians 12 that he had seen visions of the throne room of God and that the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble.
He had a legitimate reason to be arrogant because of what he had seen but the false teachers did not have a legitimate reason like him because they did not actually see any visions.
Paul then gives the reason why the false teachers were arrogant, namely they were arrogant because of their fleshly minds or in other words, their minds were controlled by their indwelling Adamic sin nature which caused them to have a distorted view of themselves.
