‘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.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come: the reality, however is found in Christ.
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
He 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.’
(Colossians 2 v. 16 – 19)
Having focused in week one on ‘ALL ABOUT JESUS’ and in week two on ‘ALL ABOUT THE CROSS’ , we move to their impact upon our lives and relationships in the second half of the letter.
Given that all our sins and brokenness were nailed to the cross (previous verses), there is no condemnation can ‘stick’ on Jesus-followers.
Neither from the Jewish traditionalists, will contend that everyone SHOULD abide by all the laws, which find their fulfillment (and are rendered unnecessary) ‘in Christ’.
Nor from the mystical spiritualists (representing the other philosophies and religions surrounding the Colossian church), with their ultimately empty practices.
For Paul, to look for Jesus, and intimacy with Him, anywhere other than ‘in Christ’, himself, or through the cross, is to risk looking it all.
Tom Wright writes, ‘Paul’s answer is quite simple, and by now we ought to know what it is before he says it. All you need is Christ, the king. Hold fast to Him and you’ll have all you need. He is the head of the ‘body’, as Paul has already said in 1 v. 18. The body gets its life from the head, through what it thinks, sees, smells, hears, eats and drinks. In the same way, the body which is the church is nourished and sustained, in all its joints, muscles and ligaments, not by embracing this or that new teaching, but by holding fast to the Head.’
PRAYER
(from ‘O For a Thousand Tongues’, by Charles Wesley)
Jesus – Your name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears
‘Tis life, and health, and peace
You speak, and listening to Your voice
New life the dead receive
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice
The humble poor believe
See all our sins on Jesus laid
The Lamb of God was slain
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man
In Christ, our Head, we then shall know
Shall feel our sins forgiven
Anticipate our heaven below
And own that love is heaven.
AMEN.