ColossiansSample

There are two kinds of people in this world: rule followers and rule breakers. And we know which one we are, right? I’ll tell you some habits of mine and let you guess which camp I fall into. The first thing I do when I wake up is making my bed. I always cross the street at a crosswalk. I use my turn signal in parking lots. Can you tell I’m a rule follower?

In the second half of Colossians 2, Paul adds another category to these: rule makers. People in the Church of Colosse were leading the congregation astray by enforcing rules that Jesus didn’t endorse.

He says, “See to it that, no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, not according to Christ.”

There are three rules that Paul seeks to tear down. The first being circumcision. Many Gentiles (non-Jewish people) within the church had not been physically circumcised. Paul says that Christ, God in the flesh, is sufficient for spiritual circumcision, which is greater than the physicality of the rule. By faith in Jesus, they are made new- leaving their life of sin behind.

The second and third rules Paul disqualifies are those concerning what food they could and couldn’t eat and what religious days they had to observe. He says these are a shadow that has passed, and the reality of Jesus has come. All foods are safe, and all days are the Lord’s.

The threat is to those creating the rules. Paul says these people make up rules to fill themselves up with vanity. They want to seem wiser, holier, and more religious, but rules cannot remove our inclination to sin. Only Jesus does.

1. Does your pride lead you to obey rules and judge those that don’t?
2. Have you left your old way of living behind?