DAY #296: Colossians 2:1-23

Because Christ had canceled the written code and had disarmed evil powers, believers have been set free from legalistic rules about what they eat or drink or what festivals they observe. Paul was referring to Jewish laws about diet and festival observances, pagan food laws and celebrations.

Paul’s point was that the believers should not give up their freedom for legalism. They must not let anyone condemn them by saying that certain actions would exclude them from God’s people. If the Colossians submitted to any of the regulations imposed by the false teachers, they would be saying that evil powers still held authority over them. They needed to remember that Christ had set them free.

Paul did not condemn the keeping of some Old Testament dietary laws or observing some of the celebrations. Instead, he condemned doing so in order to somehow earn credit with God. The false teachers of the day focused on the outward appaearance - how they looked to others.

Their false humility, revealed by self-abasement and self-denial, came from observances of rituals and regulations that had no bearing on salvation. This sort of humility was self-absorbing and self-gratifying, a kind of pretentious piety.

In addition, these teachers’ false humility said that the people could not approach God directly—he could be approached only through various levels of angels. They taught, therefore, that people had to worship angels in order to eventually reach God. This is unscriptural; the Bible teaches that angels are God’s servants, and it forbids worshiping them.

The false teachers took great pride in what they had seen in visions—most likely these were part of an initiation rite that climaxed in some sort of vision that supposedly revealed great secrets of the universe. While the false teachers may have thought that they had a “corner on God,” their thoughts and actions betrayed a mere human origin. Their desire for attention from others showed that, in reality, they were proud. They were putting their confidence in their visions and rule keeping, and not in Christ.

The fundamental problem with the false teachers was that they were not connected to Christ, the head of the body of believers. If they had been joined to him, they would not have taught false doctrine or lived immorally. Just as a limb that is detached from the body loses life, so these false teachers, detached from the body of Christ and no longer under his headship, had lost the most vital connection.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)

We have great freedom in Christ - no doubt. We are not to be bound by some legalistic set of rules or list of do's and dont's. This is called GRACE.

It's very important that you understand that you live by grace. If you were saved by works then obviously you could loose your salvation because if you stopped working you'd loose your salvation. If you're saved by works, then obviously you could be lost by works. If I'm saved by grace then I have to be unsaved by ungrace. If you're born into a family, how do you be unborn. There is a difference between relationship and fellowship. My children were born into my family. They may disobey me and I may be mad at them and discipline them. The harmony may be broken, the fellowship may be strained. But they will always be my child, no matter what. Because they were born into my family. Once you're born into the family of God, you're born! You cannot be unborn.

But does this give you a license to go out and do whatever you want? This is what Romans 6 is all about! Because we've got grace and we know we cannot loose our salvation do we go out and live it up, now? No! Of course not!

That's why Paul wrote Romans 6. Starting in v. 15 "What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law? By no means. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves you are slave to the one whom you obey? Whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or obedience which leads to righteousness."

Like Bob Dillan says, "You're going to have to serve somebody." It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. You will be mastered by something in life. Either by sin or by the Lord.

I read a statement by Ray Steadman that I thought was very powerful:

Why does Paul say, "You are not under the Law."? Why does he bring in the Law? He brings in the Law because he's dealing with one of the most basic problems of the Christian struggle, the thing that oftentimes depresses, discourages us more than anything else in life, the sense of condemnation we feel when we sin. The law produces condemnation. The law says that unless you live up to this standard, God will not have anything to do with you.

We have been so ingrained with this that when we sin, even as believers, we think that God is angry and upset with us and that He doesn't care about us. We think that about ourselves. We become discouraged and defeated and depressed. We want to give up. We think, "What's the use? I'll never be able to change!" But Paul says that's not true. You're not under the law. God does not feel that way about you. You are under grace. And God understands your struggled -[Remember it says we have a High Priest who understands the temptations we go through.] He is not upset by it. He is not angry with you.