Colossians 2:16-23: Don’t Let Religion Keep You from Jesus

Colossians 2:16-23: Don’t Let Religion Keep You from Jesus

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Colossians, and today the next passage we come to is Colossians 2:16-23. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, your Word is more to be desired than gold and sweeter also than honey. So help us to see its value, taste its sweetness, and experience its power this morning through the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

When my wife, Becky, and I moved into our house about 11 years ago, one of the first things I did as a brand-new homeowner was make the backyard look as nice as I could. Among other things, this involved laying down several tons of topsoil and planting Penn State grass seed. And within a few months, the grass looked amazing. It was thick and lush and green. I was so pleased with the way it turned out. However, as the years went by without me doing anything to the grass except cutting it, all kinds of weeds gradually came in and choked out the grass and pretty much took over the backyard—so that today my backyard consists mostly of weeds. 

Similarly, there are also spiritual weeds—the weeds of legalistic religious regulations—that very easily find a way into our hearts and quickly take root and end up choking out the vibrant spiritual life that previously existed. As a result, what was once a healthy relationship with Jesus is gradually replaced by dutiful rule-following, and we begin to live as if our spiritual advancement primarily consists of how rigorous we are in adhering to certain external regulations. So, even though we might think we’re doing really well spiritually, the reality is that the weeds of these legalistic regulations are actually choking out what would otherwise be a vibrant relationship with God. 

So, how can we know whether or not that’s happening within our hearts? Well, let suggest a few questions that can help you determine that. Think of this as a little self-assessment quiz similar to what you might find in a magazine or a doctor’s office or something like that. There are 13 questions that I’ll just read: (1) Do you find yourself focusing more on external behaviors than on internal motivations? (2) Do you invest tremendous energy in following certain rules but find yourself lacking in joy? (3) Do you focus more on your duty to God than your delight in God? (4) Do you think that God will love you more if you do a better job obeying him? 

(5) Do you find yourself doing religious things without always knowing why you’re doing them? (6) Do you observe certain religious regulations primarily to look good in front of others? (7) Do you frequently compare your level of spiritual devotion to the spiritual devotion of others? (8) Do you look down on Christians who aren’t as diligent in practicing religious disciplines as you are? (9) Are you critical of Christians who don’t live according to convictions you’ve developed, even if those convictions aren’t clearly stated in the Bible? 

(10) Do you view yourself as spiritually mature primarily because of how rigorously you adhere to certain regulations? (11) Do you live as though your duty to seek God is complete for the day once you’ve done your daily devotional time? (12) Do you tithe your money down to the last penny yet struggle to demonstrate spontaneous generosity? (13) Do you think God owes you something because of how devoted you are to serving him?

If you’re like me and answered “yes” to any of these questions, you need to hear what Paul has to say in today’s main passage of Colossians 2:16-23. As we’ll see, the Christians of Colossae also had some struggles with a legalistic mentality—and those struggles were actually being exploited and exacerbated by false teachers who had infiltrated the church. We might say that weeds had grown up all over the place in the Colossian church and were choking out the healthy grass. So, the Apostle Paul writes what he does in this passage in an attempt to remove those weeds. 

The main idea of this passage is rather simple: Don’t let legalistic religious regulations keep you from Jesus. Don’t let legalistic religious regulations keep you from Jesus. And you’ll see what I mean by “legalistic religious regulations” as we walk through this passage together. 

So, let’s look first at verse 16. Paul says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” This is a key verse that helps us understand what was going on in the Colossian church and what exactly the false teachers were teaching. As we see here, they were teaching that it’s necessary to observe various Old Testament regulations in order to experience real spiritual advancement and possibly even in order to be saved.  

The first Old Testament regulation Paul mentions is “questions of food and drink,” which is a reference to the Old Testament dietary laws. God had originally given these laws to the Israelites in Leviticus 11, identifying certain animals as “clean” and permissible to eat and other animals as “unclean” and not permissible to eat. The primary purpose of these dietary laws was to mark off the Israelites as distinct from the pagan nations around them and to discourage the Israelites from socializing and intermingling with those pagan nations. 

However, in Mark 7:14-20, Jesus clearly teaches that it’s not what goes into people that makes them unclean but rather what comes out of them that makes them unclean—the sins that exist first in their hearts and are then expressed in their lives. Verse 18 is especially important. It says, And he [Jesus] said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 

In addition, in Acts 10:9-16, God makes it quite clear to Peter that the Old Testament food laws are no longer in effect. And in Acts 15, as the church of Jerusalem is laying out regulations that the Gentile—or non-Jewish—churches should observe, they don’t require adherence to the Old Testament food laws. 

This is because New Testament Christians aren’t under the Old Testament law. We find this taught in many places throughout the New Testament such as Romans 10:4, which states, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” You see, the law was meant for the nation of Israel during a particular period of time in redemptive history. This means that we’re not under the law as the Israelites of the Old Testament were under the law. 

Now, by the way, this doesn’t mean that the law isn’t relevant for our lives today. There’s an incredible amount we can learn about God and God’s will for our lives from studying the Old Testament law. However, we have to be very careful in the way we go about doing that. Whenever we approach a command in the Old Testament law, we should seek to identify the timeless moral or theological principle behind what God instructs the Israelites to do. 

Now, sometimes, that’s very straightforward. Some of the laws are already given in the form of timeless principles. For example, when God tells the Israelites not to murder, the timeless principle is that we shouldn’t murder. Not murdering represents God’s will for all people in all places at all times. It’s the same with adultery, stealing, idolatry, and many other commands God gave to Israel. 

However, there are other laws that aren’t quite so easy to apply to our lives—such as the food laws we’ve been discussing. This means we have to be very thoughtful in the way we approach these laws and in seeking to extract that timeless principle behind the law that’s given. In the case of the food laws, for example, I believe the timeless principle is that God wants his people to be distinct from the world. And of course, the way we as modern-day Christians go about being distinct from the world isn’t by observing a specific diet but rather simply by living in a godly manner. So, that’s an example of how we can apply the Old Testament law to our lives. 

Unfortunately, though—returning to our main passage—the false teachers in the Colossian church were approaching the Old Testament law in exactly the wrong way. They were insisting that it’s necessary for Christians to observe certain Old Testament laws—such as the food laws—in order to “level up” spiritually and possibly even to be saved in the first place. 

We also see in verse 16 that they were requiring adherence not only to the food laws but also, as Paul says, “with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” A “festival” refers to one of the annual celebrations that God commanded the Israelites to observe such as the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks—also known as Pentecost—the Feast of Trumpets, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Apparently, the false teachers in Colossae were saying some or all of these feasts are binding requirements for Christians to observe. They were saying the same about the sacrifices God commanded the Israelites to offer on each “new moon.” You can read more about those new moon sacrifices in Numbers 28:11-14. 

Yet perhaps the most intriguing item on Paul’s list is the Sabbath. And I’d actually like to camp out here for a little while and explore this together. Paul tells the Colossian Christians not to let anyone pass judgment on them with regard to their observance of a Sabbath. And this is why I don’t believe Christians today are under any binding or absolute requirement to observe one day out of each week as a Sabbath day. Now, there are many godly Christians who would disagree with that statement, but Paul’s directive here in verse 16 seems sufficiently clear. 

Also, if you do a little digging, you’ll discover that the Sabbath was something God commanded the Israelites to observe in Exodus 31:16-17 specifically as a sign of his covenant with them. So, since Christians are under the New Covenant, there’s no need for us to observe something that’s specifically identified as a sign of the Old Covenant. 

In addition, the word “Sabbath” isn’t even mentioned in the Bible until God tells the Israelites to observe the Sabbath in Exodus through Moses. So, there’s no mention of a “Sabbath” day or of anyone—such as the patriarchs—observing the Sabbath before the time of Moses. There’s also no mention of Christians being required to observe the Sabbath in the New Testament. Paul addressed many different sins in the churches to which he wrote, but he never admonished any of them for a failure to observe the Sabbath. 

In fact, not only does Paul tell the Colossians not to let anyone judge them for whether they observe the Sabbath or not, he also writes in Romans 14:5, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” That would be a very odd thing for him to say if New Testament Christians were still required to observe the Sabbath. If Sabbath observance were still a requirement, Paul wouldn’t say, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind,” but rather, “Each one should observe the days God’s commanded us to observe.” And in Galatians 4:10-11, Paul rebukes the Galatians for thinking it was required to observe special “days.” He states, 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. 

So, even though observing the Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments, it’s not absolutely binding on Christians today. The other nine commandments are already in the form of timeless principles, so all of those transfer over pretty easily to Christians today. But the fourth commandment of observing the Sabbath isn’t already in the form of a timeless principle. So, what then is the timeless principle we’re supposed to extract from the fourth commandment? Well, as we learn from Hebrews 4, one timeless principle is to look to Jesus as our Sabbath rest.

Yet there’s also a timeless principle related to literal rest for us to glean from the fourth commandment. And the reason I say that is because of Genesis 2, which tells us that, after creating the world in six days, God rested on the seventh day. And that’s not all. Genesis 2:3 tells us, “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” Keep in mind that this happened long before God gave the Old Testament law through Moses. 

So, even though we’re not under all of the specific regulations of the Jewish Sabbath—such as the particular day of the week, the highly specific rules for what is and isn’t permissible on that day, and the death penalty for not observing those rules—it seems that God’s nevertheless naturally designed us to operate according to a general pattern of six days of work and one day of rest. So, we’re not under the Jewish Sabbath mandated in the Old Testament law, but it’s still important for us to recognize the general pattern God established in creation that predates the law—a pattern of six days of work and one day of rest. That’s how God’s designed us to function. 

You might compare it to a car that’s designed to require oil changes. You can neglect changing the car’s oil for a period of time without anything terrible happening. You might even be able to neglect it for a couple of years before something terrible happens. But sooner or later, it’s going to catch up with you. And it won’t just catch up with you in a small way but rather, most likely, in the form of total engine failure. That’s what we should expect to happen to us as people if we ignore the way God’s designed us to operate. 

We might not be bound by the specific requirements of the Jewish Sabbath—as Paul makes clear in our main passage—but we dare not neglect the way God’s designed us to operate. And by the way, I can tell you from personal experience that this isn’t something we should casually dismiss. You’re setting yourself up for burnout if you don’t rest one day each week. 

Now, perhaps you’re wondering about how Sunday fits into all of this. Should Sunday be our day of rest? Well, the New Testament does tell us about something called the “Lord’s Day.” In Revelation 1:10, the Apostle John writes, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet….” 

So, what is this “Lord’s Day” all about? Well, the expression itself seems to point to the fact that it was a day uniquely set apart to the Lord. Of course, we’re supposed to be devoted to the Lord every day, but the very existence of the expression “Lord’s Day” implies that there was something special about this day. It was a day set aside for Christians to focus their attention on the Lord more so than usual. Also, we learn from Acts 20:7 that the Lord’s Day was on Sunday and that it was the day of the week when the early Christians gathered for worship. 

Now, some Christian denominations like to use the phrase “Christian Sabbath” to refer to the Lord’s Day. The most famous example of this is the Westminster Confession. But to be honest with you, I’m really not a big fan of the idea of the terminology of a “Christian Sabbath” because it’s never specifically mentioned in the Bible and it makes everything terribly confusing. The Bible nowhere identifies Sunday as a new Sabbath or a Christian Sabbath. As we’ve already seen from Colossians 2 and Romans 14 and Galatians 4, the Bible simply says that we’re no longer obligated to observe the Sabbath, period. 

Instead, we observe the Lord’s Day—which, granted, is similar to the Sabbath, but it’s still distinct. It’s kind of like the difference between tennis and pickleball. There are a lot of similarities between tennis and pickleball. They both involve hitting balls and timing your swing and hitting the ball in the right place. But there are certainly other things that make tennis and pickleball quite distinct: different balls, different things you use to hit the ball, different sized courts. So, tennis, though similar to pickleball, is quite distinct. 

Likewise, we might say that the Lord’s Day, though similar to the Sabbath, is distinct as well. And one thing that makes it distinct is that, unlike the Sabbath, there’s no absolute requirement that we abstain from all work during the Lord’s Day. In fact, there are hardly any absolute requirements for the Lord’s Day. We simply see in the Bible that a day called the Lord’s Day existed in the early church and was the day when Christians met for worship. That’s it. That’s pretty much all the data we have about the Lord’s Day. So, practically speaking, my encouragement for you is to seek to make the Lord’s Day a day you set aside to focus on spiritually meaningful things and to pursue spiritual refreshment—especially by gathering with other Christians. 

And that just so happens to fit very nicely with the pattern God’s established in creation of resting one out of every seven days. So, the day of rest God established at creation doesn’t technically have to be Sunday, but, since Sunday is identified in the New Testament as the Lord’s Day—and since most Christians are already off of work on Sundays anyway—Sunday seems to be the most natural day for most Christians to set aside for rest. So, hopefully I haven’t made all of that too confusing. 

But, returning to our main passage after that brief sidenote, Paul’s just told the Colossians, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” He then says in verse 17, “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Think about that metaphor of a shadow. A shadow doesn’t have any reality in and of itself. It doesn’t consist of anything. Rather, it’s simply the absence of light—or a lesser amount of light—in a certain area. So, a shadow’s only significant because of what it points to—the object that’s blocking the light and creating the shadow. 

Similarly, Paul says, these Old Testament regulations are just “a shadow of the things to come” and that “the substance belongs to Christ.” In other words, Jesus is what all of these Old Testament regulations are pointing to. Every Old Testament regulation either pictures Jesus or prepares people’s hearts for Jesus. So, don’t miss the irony of what was happening in Colossae. God originally gave these Old Testament regulations in order to point his people to Jesus, but the false teachers were turning those very regulations into obstacles to Jesus. 

Paul then writes in verse 18, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.” So, in addition to requiring strict adherence to various Old Testament regulations, the false teachers were also leading the Colossians into “asceticism.” This probably included rigorous fasting requirements and other forms of physical deprivation—as if these ascetical practices could somehow enhance a person’s standing before God. Shockingly, Paul also indicates the false teachers were advocating for the “worship of angels,” perhaps by praying to angels for spiritual help or protection. 

Not surprisingly, in order to support these teachings, the false teachers appealed not to the Bible but to their own visions. And they were quite proud of these visions, which is why Paul describes them as “going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by [their] sensuous mind[s].” Unfortunately, there are likewise many people today who claim that God’s revealed things to them that aren’t in the Bible and that either contradict the Bible or—at the very least—are highly questionable from a biblical perspective. This is why it’s so important to look to the Bible as our spiritual guide. Regardless of what we feel about something or what we think God showed us about something, we can be sure that anything that deviates from what God’s revealed in the Bible is absolutely wrong—and not only wrong but quite dangerous as well. 

Notice Paul’s admonition at the beginning of the verse: “Let no one disqualify you.” Just like a runner might be disqualified from a race by starting too early or by using a performance-enhancing drug, Paul tells the Colossians that they’re in danger of being spiritually disqualified if they embrace what the false teachers are saying. 

This is because, by advocating for their legalistic religious regulations, the false teachers were implicitly rejecting Jesus and what Jesus has done to provide for our salvation. This becomes clear in verse 19, where Paul describes the false teachers as “not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

Earlier in the letter, Paul identified Jesus as the “head” of his body, the church. So, by “not holding fast to the Head,” the false teachers had turned away from having complete confidence in Jesus for salvation and were instead trusting in their own legalistic religious regulations. Sure, Jesus might be helpful in enabling us to find our way to God, but what we really need for spiritual advancement is to observe various Old Testament laws and certain ascetical practices. 

Yet that amounts to a denial of the central Christian message known as the gospel. In reality, the only way we as sinful people can ever be right with a holy God is through Jesus alone and what he’s accomplished on our behalf. Jesus was God in human flesh and came to this earth first in order to fulfill the law in our place. The Old Testament Israelites continuously deviated from the law God had given them, but Jesus succeeded where they failed. By doing this, Jesus obtained and now offers to us all the merit required to enter heaven. 

Yet it was also necessary for our sins to be dealt with. So, in an act of incomprehensible love, Jesus voluntarily allowed himself to be crucified to pay for our sins. Although we should have been the ones to suffer God’s punishment for our sins, Jesus suffered that punishment in our place on the cross. He was then raised from the dead and now stands ready to save all who put their trust in him for rescue. 

This involves renouncing our trust in our own religious accomplishments and putting our full confidence in Jesus alone to cleanse of us of our sins and make us right with God. So, hopefully that makes it clear why Paul warned the Colossians about being “disqualified.” Whenever we put any confidence whatsoever in our own religious accomplishments in order to obtain God’s favor, we’re no longer, in the words of Paul, “holding fast to the Head.” For us today, we might do this by trusting in our baptism, church involvement, outward morality, good deeds, or Bible knowledge to be right with God. Yet Paul makes it clear that if our confidence for our spiritual standing is in any of these things, we will be disqualified. 

Paul then asks the Colossians in verses 20-22, 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? Again, the idea is that external regulations are no substitute for a vibrant relationship with Jesus. 

Paul then observes in verse 23, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” In other words, all of the religious regulations in the world don’t have the power to stop us from indulging in our sinful desires. Instead, the only way we can overcome those desires is if our desires for sin are expelled by a greater desire for Jesus. 

You may remember from a few weeks ago the illustration that the Puritans liked to use of the oak tree. Apparently, there are certain kinds of oak trees that actually keep their leaves during the winter. The leaves die during autumn—just as they do on other trees—yet the dead leaves actually don’t fall off of certain kinds of oak trees but instead remain attached to the tree throughout the winter. And the thing that eventually causes the dead leaves to fall off isn’t the harsh winter elements but rather the new life that bursts forth from the tree’s branches at springtime. The new buds that develop on the tree’s branches in the spring do what the harsh winter elements couldn’t do and basically force out the dead leaves still clinging to the branches.  

Similarly, it’s our love and desire for Jesus that displaces our sinful desires and, in that way, expels the sin from our lives. As Paul makes clear in this verse, legalistic religious regulations are “of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” But there is something that is of value—and that is genuine love for Jesus and a surpassing desire for him. 

So, be very careful that you don’t allow yourself to become more focused on a following a list of do’s and don’ts than you are on cultivating a deeper relationship with Jesus. If you allow yourself to become oriented primarily around following the right rules, it’ll suck the spiritual life right out of you—just as it was doing in the church of Colossae. When you think you’re doing an okay job following the rules, you’ll become smug and self-righteous. And when you don’t seem to be keeping the rules very well, you’ll be crushed by the weight of your legalistic mentality. 

Instead, make sure that all of your obedience to Jesus is an overflow of your love for Jesus. That’s the proper order. Jesus says in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Our focus should be first on Jesus and cultivating greater love for Jesus in our hearts. And it’s this love that should fuel our obedience rather than a self-righteous or legalistic mentality. As you probably know, putting the wrong fuel into your vehicle can do tremendous damage. Like if I tried to put diesel fuel into my Honda Civic, it’s not going to work very well. Chances are I’d have a very expensive repair bill soon afterward. Similarly, it’s love for Jesus in our hearts that should be the fuel for obedience to Jesus in our lives. 

And the way we cultivate this love for Jesus is by becoming thoroughly familiar with who he is—his unrivaled glory, his tender compassion, his sacrificial love, his enduring patience, his unsearchable wisdom, his perfect justice, his abundant goodness, his unfailing faithfulness, his incomparable grace, his awe-inspiring power, and everything else about Jesus that makes him so indescribably wonderful. The more we know Jesus, the more we’ll love him. The more we grasp of all of these ways in which Jesus is glorious, the more our hearts will burst forth with love for him.