The Twofold Appeal

Here comes the application of verses 8-15, first in regard to practical matters (vs. 16, 17), and then in reference to doctrinal questions (vs. 18, 19). Because of what Christ has done for us, we are to beware of every form of error.

I. The First Appeal (vs. 16, 17)

The serious danger is that of the loss of Christian liberty, and this is the point of “therefore,” Because Christ has cancelled the bond of the law and has forever destroyed it, and since He has gained complete victory over all powers of evil, Christians are to beware of becoming entangled again in anything that would lead them from Christ and from the fulness of their privileges in Him. The argument is much the same as that in Galatians 5 :1. Because believers are free they are not to yield them¬ selves again to subjection to that from which they have been so completely delivered. It is generally thought that the dangers against which the Apostle warns the Colossians are both Jewish and Oriental, the former referring to the law and the latter to the question of angelic mediation. It is the first of these which he specially emphasises in these two verses. He urges them not merely against the observance of these things, but against those who would call them to account for not observing them, and he specifies five matters. Eating and drinking are of course questions of unimportance because God’s kingdom is not a matter of food and drink (Rom. 14:17), but of things spiritual. The “feast” is a reference to the annual festivals of the Jews, like the Passover, and the “new moon” is an allusion to the sacrifice on the first day of every month (Num. 28:11). The mention of the Sabbath Day is clearly that of the Jewish Sabbath as one of those legal institutions from which we are set free in Christ. No one must for an instant suppose that the observance of the Sabbath Day can in any way procure or help to procure salvation. But the Sabbath is something infinitely greater than a merely Jewish institution, for it was made “for man” and dates from the creation. There is scarcely anything more significant than the fact that just as the Jewish institution was being brought to an end Christ called himself “the Lord of the Sabbath.” Thus Christ’s cancelling of the bond set aside the Sabbath as Jewish, but at the same time because we are “under law to Christ,” we have the Sabbath, or Lord’s Day, as a divine institution dating from the beginning and intended for permanent observance. Christian men will therefore rejoice in their liberty from everything purely Jewish and will at the same time observe with devotion the day of rest which God has appointed for spirit, soul, and body. While Christ resolutely set aside the deplorable bondage which Jewish teaching had associated with the Sabbath, He taught that by the Sabbath being “made for man,” it was intended to prevent constant absorption in worldly affairs and to enable body, mind, and soul to have that cessation from work which would enable man to do what God intended him to do. As a thoughtful writer has pointed out, “at the creation of the human race God instituted the weekly day of worship and rest; and he did so to the universal good of man.” This is our supreme and sufficient authority for the weekly cessation from toil, and the opportunity thus given for worship and intellectual rest. When this is properly understood it will enable men to realise the will of God, and although there are those who with what may perhaps be called hyperspirituality speak of every day being a sabbath, facts prove beyond question that the observance of the Lord’s Day is one of the most essential features of all true spiritual life, and that spirituality is not furthered by thinking of every day as exactly alike.

The reason why all these things are not to be allowed to encroach upon Christian liberty is that they are a mere shadow of spiritual realities (v. 17). Like the law in general, which was a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1), these things typified what was found and fulfilled in Christ. Thus eating and drinking are symbols of spiritual food (John 6:51-56). The festivals are a type of that continuous festival which is ours in Christ (1 Cor. 5:8, Greek). The Jewish feast days were, like the Passover, anticipatory of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7), while the Jewish Sabbath was a suggestion of the Sabbath of the soul, which is the believer’s privilege today, and of the eternal rest hereafter for the people of God (Heb. 4:9).

II. The Second Appeal (vs. 18, 19)

The next call is even more imperative. The word used is very rare and seems to refer to the decision of an umpire. Lightfoot, together with the English and the American Revised Version, render “rob you of your prize,” explaining that the false teachers at Colosse are considered to be persons frustrating those who would otherwise have won the prize. Other writers translate the words “let no one give judgment against you,” and this certainly is the force of the original word, which occurs only here. In either case it means that no one is to be defrauded of his proper position by being compelled to submit to those things, because submission would involve the loss of Christian liberty. Any one who attempted to do this would be taking pleasure in a wrong kind of humility. But what is the meaning of humility here, and to whom is the reference? Most writers interpret the words of a humility which led men to worship angels thinking God was unapproachable except through the mediation of celestial beings. If this is the meaning, then of course the humility is false, the word being used ironically, because the Christian knows well that he has not the slightest need to approach God through any such channels, but can enter the divine presence direct. But it is somewhat difficult to realise that these Colossian saints needed a warning against angel-worship, unless of course they were so indoctrinated in the Oriental conception of the necessity of stages between themselves and God. One writer maintains that the reference is to the religious humility entertained by angels, to the humble position which they take, veiling their faces before God because they do not possess the same boldness of access as Christians do (Rom. 5:2). This would mean that as Christians stand before God in Christ no one is to allow them to be robbed of this standing and make them willing to accept a lower position through a false humility. Either of these views makes good sense, though the former is far more universally endorsed, and the latter is somewhat less easy to follow. Another difficulty in this passage is in regard to the reading. The Revised Version reads, “dwelling in the things which he hath seen,” while the Authorised Version inserts the word “not,” “which he hath not seen.” The textual authorities seem to be equally divided, though it is thought that the balance favors the omission of the negative as giving the harder reading, which according to the usual principle is more likely to have been the original. If we omit the negative it means that such a person as is here mentioned was only concerned with what his fleshly mind could see, the only standing he could comprehend. He could not stand or walk by faith. Or it may be that it refers to him as “going into subtle explanations regarding his visions.” These false teachers made pretensions to know super¬ natural things by means of visions, yet this pretension to a knowledge of the invisible world did not rest on faith but was the result of vanity of the flesh. The word rendered “intruding” in the A. V. is translated “dwelling” in the R. V. (margin, “taking his stand on”). Sir William Ramsay has shown that it was a technical term in the mystery-religions of St. Paul’s day, and probably means “putting foot on the threshold” or entering on the new life of the initiated. This practically agrees with the R. V. Bishop Moule favors the retention of the word “not,” and of course in this case the meaning will be that the man who talks about the worship of angels is dealing with things about which he knows nothing. In either case the thought is that these Colossian saints were not to be defrauded of their true standing in Christ.

A reason is given for this appeal. It is because such an attitude involves the Christian in the error of “not holding fast the Head” (v. 10). It would mean disloyalty to Christ, because all the false teaching was of the flesh and was not derived from Him. On the other hand, those who were right with God in Christ would find that every part of the body was receiving grace direct from God and was growing continually in and through Him Who is the Head. The erroneous teaching proved that the holder was not a member of that body of which Christ is the Head, because that body is in vital and direct connection with Christ, and is continually grow¬ ing by the intercommunion between every part of it. Indeed the passage speaks in very wonderful language of “the increase of God,” as though God grew when His people grew through union with Christ. Lightfoot defines this phrase as “that which partakes of God, which belongs to God, which has its abode in God. Thus the finite is truly united with the Infinite; the end which the false teachers strove in vain to compass is attained.” Bishop Moule interprets it to mean developing a holiness and power of which God is the Source and Secret and Environment; “nothing between.” Maclaren says the increase will come from God, and be pleasing to Him because it will be the growth of His own life in the body, since “there is an increase not of God.”

This passage suggests by its reference to Christ the essential position and privileges of the believer, (a) In verses 9 and 10 Christ is the Head, and the believer has his position in Him. (b) Here in verse 19 Christ is also shown to be the Head, but the thought is of progress. We are complete in Him in regard to our place, and we are also nourished by and built up in Him because He is our Head. Thus every part of the believer’s life is fully met by the ample provision, and because of this genuine, blessed, and satisfying substance he is urged to avoid anything that would keep him living in the shadows. We must not allow ourselves to be defrauded of any blessing that is ours in union and communion with our Divine Lord and Head.