SERIES: Colossians: Christ is the Answer
Religious Answers that Don’t Work
SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:16-23
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Few would deny that preoccupation with the world, its values, its priorities, and its possessions is a major hindrance to the growth of many Christians today. What we don’t always realize is that there are two diametrically opposed ways in which this preoccupation manifests itself.
Christians may become preoccupied with this world by indulging in its activities and priorities, which destroy spiritual insight and growth. But Christians may also become preoccupied with this world by measuring their spiritual growth by the degree of their separation from the world. In doing so, their spiritual road signs become the things of this world rather than the things of Christ.
This is exactly the situation Paul is addressing in his letter to the church at Colosse, located in the western part of modern-day Turkey. These Christians were allowing themselves to be influenced by three common approaches to the spiritual life which, though thoroughly religious, were at the same time thoroughly worldly. Amazingly, all three of these approaches are still alive and well in the Church today. Not even we in the evangelical church have escaped unscathed.
What I want us to do is to examine each of these worldly solutions, define it, describe it, uncover the reason it doesn’t work, and identify its primary effect on the Church. But first, let’s read Colossians 2:16-23:
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
The first error the Apostle tackles here is legalism: “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink.”
A warning against legalism: “Don’t let anyone judge you.” (2:16-17)
It’s very important that we take a moment to define legalism, because there’s a tendency for us to classify everyone who is more conservative than we are as a legalist and everyone less conservative as liberal or even licentious. That’s not an intelligent or fair way to deal with an important biblical topic.
The definition of legalism. Defining legalism is not as simple as it may at first seem, and perhaps we should start by noting what it is not. Legalism is not the imposition of laws or regulations on oneself or on others. If it were, then all parents, church leaders, governmental authorities, and even God Himself would have to be deemed “legalists” since all of them impose laws. Nor are we helped by simply distinguishing between divine and human laws, as though human laws are the exclusive province of the legalist. As a matter of fact, God’s laws can be observed either legalistically or non-legalistically, and the same is true of human laws.
The key is attitude. Legalism is essentially a wrong attitude toward law. If we conform or demand conformity for the purpose of exalting self and gaining merit, rather than glorifying God, then we are legalists. And if the power used to obey is that of the flesh rather than of the Holy Spirit, then we are legalists. It is true, of course, that legalism thrives on the proliferation of rules. While the flesh is weak, when it comes to actually doing spiritual things (Matt. 26:41), it is very strong at obeying rules and regulations.
The characteristics of legalism
It focuses on external issues. Paul mentions three categories: diet, drink, and days (i.e., the observance of religious holy days). These are not the only issues legalists latch on to, but it’s interesting that diet, drink, and days are still favorites 2,000 years after Paul wrote this. The reason is probably that all three were key factors in Old Testament religion, and many in the Church have yet to grasp their freedom from OT rules and regulations.
In the Mosaic Law certain foods were categorized as clean while others were unclean. But when Jesus came, those dietary laws were abolished. Jesus said to the Pharisees, who were offended by his liberated eating and drinking habits, “’Are you so dull?… Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.’ In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean.'” (Mark 7:18-20). Later God spoke to Peter three times from Heaven and said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” And Paul added in 1 Cor. 8:8: “Food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”
I would conclude from these Scriptures (and there are many more like them) that any religion, any church, any group, or any individual who places religious restrictions on what others eat or drink is by definition legalistic. Such rules are often established with good spiritual intentions, but they are worldly in essence.
Does that mean a Christian school should not have a rule prohibiting the drinking of alcoholic beverages? No, so long as the rationale for the rule is social or medical or even financial rather than spiritual. In other words, it’s o.k. to say, “Because of the proliferation of alcoholism in our society, and the behavior problems drinking is known to produce, and the difficulty of regulating its use, and our need to raise money from many constituents who expect total abstinence, we at XYZ Institution are establishing an alcohol-free campus. If you want to attend here, you must sign a pledge to abstain as long as you are a student here.”
I have no problem with that. If, of the other hand, the school said, “Alcohol is forbidden because this is a Christian campus dedicated to the glory of God,” then I have a problem. Frankly, most of the dedicated Christians I know do abstain from alcohol, but I fail to see any necessary or biblicalconnection between total abstinence and living one’s life to the glory of God.
I like Pastor Kent Hughes’ observation on this passage:
“So the New Testament is unified in telling us that all food and drink are lawful. Of course, dietary principles are a good idea. Eat too many Twinkies and you will no longer be ‘twinkletoes’; too many Snickers are no laughing matter. But dietary discipline is not a sign of spirituality. We are not to judge others or allow anyone to pass a religious judgment on us, in regard to food and drink.” [i]
I would summarize it this way: choosing to abstain from certain foods or certain beverages may make you healthy; it cannot make you holy.
In addition to diet and drink, the legalist often focuses on days. The Jews had their special feast days, their New Moon celebrations, and their Sabbaths. But when Christ came, He fulfilled them all. We no longer celebrate the Sabbath because we worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. Unfortunately, it is possible to observe Sunday in the same legalistic fashion the Pharisees observed the Sabbath. We are not required to worship on Sunday; we choose to do so because of its symbolism and convenience.
Furthermore, the observance of the religious calendar with its seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost, etc., is not required of God’s people. It’s not wrong; it’s just not obligatory. Perhaps even the question of participation in pagan holidays, like Halloween, should be included here in Paul’s call for a moratorium on judging one another.
It demands uniformity. It is obvious from our passage that the legalist is not content to live by certain rules and regulations himself—he wants the rest of us to conform to the same rules and regulations. And that’s why he delivers his moral judgments. Let’s take as an example an issue that has attracted legalistic attitudes over the past generation, namely smoking. Evangelical believers in the Midwest generally do not smoke (though they often do in South Carolina. But then in South Carolina they don’t allow mixed swimming, which is generally allowed in the Midwest. Confused?)
At any rate, the legalist generally does not smoke, nor does he allow smoking in his home or car, but that isn’t what makes him a legalist. After all, there are millions of Americans today who are demanding a smoke-free environment—some of them militantly so. What identifies the person in question as a legalist is that if he sees you smoking, he makes a spiritual judgment about your Christian maturity and demands that you conform your behavior to his.
I remember making such a judgment myself once back in Wichita about fifteen years ago. There was a man in our church who had a definite gift of evangelism and was winning people to Christ right and left. The only problem was that he smoked heavily. So as his pastor I went and talked to him about his “spiritual problem.” I remember exactly what I told him because his answer will never let me forget it. I said to him with irrefutable logic, “Jim, you wouldn’t smoke while you’re praying, would you? So why do it when you’re not talking to God.”
He looked at me rather surprised and said, “I couldn’t tell you how often I’ve burned my fingers while on my knees!” Well, I think we both learned something from that little encounter. Jim realized that burning his fingers wasn’t very smart and I had to face the embarrassing fact that a chain smoker was spending more time on his knees and winning more people to Christ than I was. I decided right then I would leave those personal lifestyle issues not addressed in the Scriptures to the individual and the Lord.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I think Jim might have been an even better evangelist if he didn’t smell like a tobacco factory, but his smoking wasn’t preventing him from being used by God as much as my legalistic judging was preventing me from being used by God.
It produces a surface faith. Legalism limits one to shallow self-righteousness, because it always emphasizes things that are relatively unimportant, while it ignores the deadly sins of gossip, slander, bitterness, and hatred, which Paul will address in the next chapter. In fact, I challenge you to produce a legalist anywhere who has a gentle, Christ-like, loving spirit. There isn’t such an animal. The legalist’s Christianity is always skin-deep.
The fatal flaw of legalism. It fails to distinguish shadow from reality. Look at verse 17: “These issues of diet, drink, and days are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” As a shadow relates to the object that casts it, these OT rules and regulations related to Christ. A shadow is inferior in that it imperfectly resembles the object. It is anticipatory, indicating that the real object is about to follow. It is temporary, drawing attention only until the object arrives in view.
The Mosaic Law was a shadow, and although inferior, anticipatory, and temporary, it was sufficient to point people to the Reality so that when the Savior Himself appeared, they could recognize Him for who He was. Returning to legalism after coming to know Christ is like talking to a shadow or trying to embrace a shadow, even after the person who casts it is in full view.
The fruit of legalism is a judgmental spirit. That’s obvious from our text: “Do not let anyone judge you.” That’s what legalists do by nature—they go around judging other people’s behavior. Now they won’t admit that. What they will tell you is that they have the gift of discernment, or they are concerned about the other person’s testimony, or they worry about the effect the person’s behavior might have on the reputation of the church. But no matter what euphemisms he uses to justify his behavior, the legalist is judgmental when he delivers an opinion about someone’s spiritual life based on conformity to rules about such things as diet, drink, and holy days.
By the way, I’ve been accused in the past of riding a hobbyhorse against legalism. Frankly, I’m not particularly offended by that charge because the Scriptures denounce legalism in no uncertain terms. Today I have certainly delivered a hard-hitting message against legalism because this Scripture passage is hard-hitting. But next week we will have an equally hard-hitting passage against the sins of the flesh, so be sure to come back next Sunday if you want the whole picture.
A warning against mysticism: “Don’t let anyone disqualify you.” (2:18-19)
The definition of mysticism. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church offers this definition:
“Mysticism is an immediate knowledge of God attained in this present life through personal religious experience …. The surest proof adduced by the mystics themselves for the genuineness of their experience is its effect, viz. its fruit in such things as an increase of humility, charity, and love of suffering. Mysticism is a widespread experience not only in Christianity but also in many non-Christian religions, e.g., Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Islam.”
Warren Wiersbe offers a somewhat simpler definition: “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.”[ii] I think we need to be careful not to write off all Christian mysticism as heretical or misdirected, especially the kind whose focus is on such spiritual disciplines as prayer, meditation, worship, solitude, frugality, Bible study, and journaling. But the mysticism facing the Colossians, as well as most of what we see today, is sub-Christian. What are its characteristics?
The characteristics of mysticism
Its false humility hides a spirit of pride. The definition I read earlier spoke of one of the fruits of mysticism as being an increase in humility, but Paul’s view is that, more often than not, the humility is bogus and actually covers a spirit of pride in one’s alleged spiritual progress. One of the spiritual disciplines widely practiced by mystics is fasting, and this discipline serves well to show how easily pride enters the picture.
If you do a study of fasting in the Bible you will discover that it is a legitimate spiritual discipline that was used for profit by God’s people at times of spiritual crisis. But you will also notice that it was more often abused than used. I think this is why there is not a single command to fast in all of the NT Epistles or even a mention of fasting after the book of Acts.
Furthermore, a large number of the references to fasting in the prophets and in the Gospels are negative, like Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount:
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
I would say that the message here is not “don’t fast,” but “be slow to fast,” at least in any public way. Don’t talk about your fasting experience because this is one of those areas where it is very easy to appear humble, all the while you are bursting your spiritual buttons with pride.
It elevates spirit beings above Christ. Did you notice the reference to the worship of angels in verse 18? This is probably another part of the humble pie these people were eating. It’s as though they were saying, “We are not good enough to go directly to God, so we begin humbly with one of the angels, which, if we are in the proper spirit, will elevate our requests through the spiritual hierarchy to God.”
The Scriptures, of course, make it clear that there is only one Mediator between God and man—the man Christ Jesus. We do not need to go through angels—good or bad—through saints, through the Mother of Jesus, through a church hierarchy, or through any priest or pastor. We can come boldly before the Father because Jesus Christ purchased access for us.
It elevates personal experience over biblical truth. Look at the phrase at the end of verse 18: “Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” The mystic is constantly talking about his experiences, his imagination, his visions, and his visualizations. It reminds me of a story I read about how Coach Johnny Kerr tried to get his Chicago Bulls to practice harder back in the 70’s. He tells the story himself:
“We had lost seven in a row, and I decided to give a psychological pep talk before the game with the Celtics. I told Bob Boozer to go out and pretend he was the best scorer in basketball. I told Jerry Sloan to pretend he was the best defensive guard. I told Guy Rodgers to pretend he could run an offense better than any other guard, and I told Eric Mueller to pretend he was the best rebounding, shot-blocking, scoring center in the game. We lost the game by 17. I was pacing around the locker room afterward trying to figure out what to say when Mueller walked up, put his arm around me and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, coach. Just pretend we won.'” [iii]
The Colossian mystics were great pretenders, not unlike many in the church today. Have you ever met someone who is constantly telling you about his dreams, his visions, or the things God has told him lately, but that same person has little time for Bible study or little interest in submission to the leadership of the church—kind of a loose cannon? I suspect that’s exactly who Paul is addressing here.
The fatal flaw of mysticism. It fails to produce growth. Why? Because it leads to a “headless” spiritual life. In verse 19 Paul says that the mystic “has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” The Head is, of course, Christ, and the Body is the Church. Many parts of a person’s body can be lost to accident or amputated because of disease. Many other parts can be removed and transplants introduced. But the head is not removable or replaceable; no medical school anywhere is doing head transplants. Any part of the body which becomes disconnected from the head cannot grow; it dies. And the person who is not connected to Jesus Christ through His body, the church, cannot grow. The Christian mystics were seeking to enrich the religious life without the source of that life.
The fruit of mysticism. It leads to spiritual disqualification. In verse 18 Paul begins this section with the warning: “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.” The prize Paul sought was the privilege of receiving a crown that will last forever (1 Cor. 9), perhaps symbolic of hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Following such teaching would lead to a loss of the joy and the spiritual benefits that are available from a relationship with Christ. In other words, the danger is very serious.
A warning against asceticism: “Don’t let anyone enslave you.” (2:20-23)
A definition of asceticism. It is a system of practices designed to combat vice and develop virtue through rigorous self-denial, with emphasis on fasting, renunciation of earthly possessions, and perpetual chastity. It may be that all three of these emphases are included in the quotations Paul alludes to in verse 21: “Do not handle” may be a reference to earthly possessions; “Do not taste” is certainly a reference to fasting; and “Do not touch” may well speak to abstinence from sexual relations.
By the way, you can probably see a definite relationship between legalism and asceticism. The difference is that the ascetic’s entire life is wrapped up in a system of rules and regulations, whereas the legalist is generally very selective in the rules he chooses. Asceticism has never been appealing to average Christians, for obvious reasons, but some of the characteristics of asceticism are not unknown even in evangelical circles.
Paul touches upon four characteristics of asceticism.
It judges spirituality by deeds of omission instead of commission. Its rules and regulations are all negative: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” I was sharing this passage with my parents on the phone last week and my mother reminded me of a story about her childhood. My grandmother had been an active member of the WCTU, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which fought hard for prohibition. My mom was a young teenager at the time and belonged to a branch of WCTU for young girls. She said their theme song was taken from Col. 2:21, “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”—applying it to the liquor trade. But it wasn’t until years later that she realized Paul was actually denouncing these slogans of the ascetics, not approving them. That has to rank as a classic misinterpretation of Scripture.
Any religious approach to the spiritual life that focuses on the negative instead of the positive is doomed to failure, for even if you take the demon out of the man, if you don’t replace it with positive spiritual growth, that demon will return with seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and the final condition of that man is worse than the first. So said Jesus in Matt. 12. The power of Christ in the life of the believer does more than merely restrain the desires of the sinful nature; it puts new desires within him. He does not need law on the outside to control his appetites, because he has life on the inside.
Asceticism deals with the temporary and the mundane. Paul puts it this way: “these things (such as possessions, food, even sexual relations) are all destined to perish with use.” While it’s possible to demonstrate lack of spiritual maturity by how one handles temporary, mundane things, it is impossible to demonstrate the possession of spiritual maturity that way.
It is based on human traditions. Paul indicates in verse 22 that ascetic rules are human in origin. God does not command asceticism, nor does he encourage it. In fact, there are virtually no godly examples of asceticism in the Bible. Jesus was certainly not one—He was even accused by his enemies of being a glutton and a winebibber, though an honest evaluation of His life shows a person well balanced between enjoyment of God’s creation and refusal to be controlled by anything temporary or mundane. John the Baptist is probably the closest to an ascetic you can find in the NT. Paul himself practiced self-denial, but only for the practical reason of carrying out his mission more effectively. He certainly would have had nothing to do with a monastic withdrawal from the world.
It appears deceptively attractive. Verse 23 reads, “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom.” In the fourth century A.D. an ascetic named Simeon Stylites mounted a pole, at first low, but gradually increased to a height of 60 feet. He lived on top of it for 36 years until his death. This novel austerity attracted to him a continuous stream of pilgrims, and he was widely imitated. A cathedral and monastery were built around his pole and the ruins are still visible today.
Now I doubt if pole-sitting will make a comeback in the 21st century, but other forms of asceticism are alive and well. Gurus from India and Tibet are highly honored today, though some have succeeded in turning a considerable profit from asceticism and have figured out how to fit a Rolls Royce, sumptuous feasts, and sexual promiscuity into the monastic life. That’s a trick much appreciated by modern seekers.
It’s easy, of course, to spot the excesses in false religions and cults, but I’m more concerned about the milder forms of asceticism that seem to enter the church, as when people take pride in what they don’t have, in what they don’t do, or in what they don’t allow their children to do.
The fatal flaw of asceticism: it fails to restrain sin. Remember the definition of asceticism: a system of practices designed to combat vice? Well, it simply doesn’t work. Look at the last verse of our chapter: “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” If anything, they eventually bring out the worst instead of the best.
Now please don’t misunderstand Paul. He is certainly not saying that unrestrained consumption, runaway gluttony, and a profligate sexual life is a valid alternative. Rather his point is that self-denial alone will not make a person spiritual—you can never measure spiritual growth negatively by what you don’t do or don’t have. There are definite connections between physical discipline and health, but there is no necessary connection between physical discipline and holiness. Of course, as true spiritual growth comes into a person’s life there will be things he will choose not to do or choose not to have, but his motive will be to please God, he won’t brag about it, and he won’t demand that everyone else not do or not have what he doesn’t do or have.
The fruit of asceticism. It leads to spiritual bondage. Paul urges us in verse 20 to not submit to ascetic rules. The implication is that asceticism brings spiritual bondage instead of freedom in Christ. A life of bondage to rules and regulations is that from which Jesus died to free us. Again, we must be careful here. There are some rules and regulations even in the NT; our governments will place more rules and regulations on us (and God expects us to obey those so long as they don’t conflict with His rules and regulations); and if you’re a child living at home, your parents will also have certain rules and regulations for the home (and the next chapter of Colossians will tell you to obey those rules and regulations).
But praise God the rules and regulations we live under are nowhere near as extensive as those required of God’s people before Jesus came, and God has granted a new source of power so that we can obey His commands. In addition, He has given us great freedom in respect to what we eat, what we drink, what we own, how we worship, when we worship, and a host of other issues. When Jesus died, we died to this world and we no longer belong to it—we belong to Him. If He is willing to treat us like adults, why go back to the childish ways of legalism, mysticism, and asceticism?
Conclusion: The basis for our freedom from these religious answers that don’t work is the finished work of Christ. Did you notice the first word in our text today? It’s the word “therefore.” Legalism, mysticism, and asceticism should be rejected because of what Paul hammered home in the previous verses, namely that Jesus is Lord and if we have Jesus, we have fullness, we have life, we have forgiveness, and we have spiritual victory. On the Cross He canceled the debt and the dominion of the Law.
A story is told about William Randolph Hearst, the late newspaper publisher and billionaire. Hearst invested a fortune in collecting great works of art. One day he read about some valuable pieces of art and decided that he must add them to his collection. So, he sent his agent abroad to locate and purchase them. Months went by before the agent returned and reported to Hearst that the items had at last been found—they had been stored in his own warehouse. Hearst had purchased them years before but had forgotten.
This is analogous to the alarming number of Christians today on a desperate search for spiritual resources they already possess in Christ. The world’s smorgasbord of religious approaches to the spiritual life, including legalism, mysticism, and asceticism, has nothing positive to add to Jesus.
DATE: February 23, 1992
Tags:
Legalism
Mysticism
Asceticism
[i] R. Kent Hughes, Colossians and Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ, 82.
[ii] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Complete: How to Become the Whole Person God Intends You to Be, 90.
[iii] Hughes, 84.