20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such 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.
Rules for Holy Living
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Dig Deeper
When I was playing college basketball, we all knew that each season would be a long haul. There was was an ideal that each player wanted to get to physically to not only be better players but also to make the long grind of the season more bearable. To get to that point took a lot of work and a lot of discipline. So, when the idea of shortcuts came up, it seemed like a good thing. None of us took anything that was illegal, but we definitely took powders and substances that were not natural and promised to speed up the promise. It made so much sense that most us of tried different things that were pretty expensive but very easy to get and use. We all saw instant results which really made us feel better, like we were doing something. In the not so long run, though, it proved quite illusory. There was some short term muscle and strength gain, but then many of us, including myself, began to have bad problems with cramps, pulled muscles, and even torn muscles. The shortcut hadn’t worked in the long haul.
The world around the Colossians was full of people who offered up religious shortcuts of all types. They were coming from every angle, including from Judaism. The many false teachers that were around at the time offered a seeming shortcut out of the morass of the pagan world of sin and evil. All people needed to do was adhere to rigid regulations. Regulations that would make them feel better as though they were making some immediate and visible progress. Paul wants them to realize that the true path to holiness and the life that they are looking for cannot be found in such shortcuts but in a way that might, at first glance seem more difficult, but is, in reality, the only path that will lead to the desired destination.
In verse 20, Paul asks a question that is so basic and so fundamental to the life in Christ that, perhaps, we should all get in the habit of asking ourselves his very question each day. He asks, "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?" What a question for the Christian to dwell on often. Paul gives the answer as to why this happens in Romans 8:5-8, when he says, "Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." It all comes down to whether we set our mind on principles of the Spirit or principles of the flesh. The Colossians were in Christ, but they had set their minds on feeling secure and comfortable in their faith. The rigidity and assurance of the pagan religions and even of Judaism offered a shortcut to security that appealed to their minds, which were set on the principles of this world. They were trying to escape the self-indulgence of the flesh, but were enslaving themselves to the self-indulgence of the spiritual kind.
The principles of these false teachers have three characteristics that Paul points out. First, they are enslaving, with prohibitions like not tasting or even touching, or handling food. Prohibitions and restrictive rules like that can make people paranoid and preoccupied with sinning rather than living the resurrected life of Christ but they can make others feel secure. Second, they are temporary and destined to perish. Living life based on strict prohibitions usually only works for a limited time, but this type of life is also temporary because it is a life that is contrary to the freedom and creativity that come with the life of Christ, and thus, will not last into the age to come. Third, they will not last into God’s future because they are based on human commands and teachings. Fourth, they are deceptive and useless. They seem to have an appearance of wisdom, but they are little more than methods of self-imposed worship, not the true type of worship that God seeks from His people.
Restrictive rule-based religion seems to work for a time but will always eventually be exposed as lacking any value in restraining sensual indulgence. The simple reason for this is that God does not desire simple cessation of sin, He wants to enact His new creation, beginning in the community of His people. We were created to be God's image bearers (Gen. 1:26-27); that is what it meant to be fully human. When man sinned, though, we lost part of our humanity. Genesis 5:3 says that Adam now had children in his own image and likeness. No longer could we fully bear God's image. Psalm 8 describes a full human being, but it doesn't sound like any human I've ever met. Only Jesus fits the description of the Psalm 8 human being. Thus, when we lay down our own life and enter into the life of Christ, the Spirit begins the process of transforming us into the image of the true human being, Jesus Christ. God’s goal for His people is new creation not more regulation.
Paul often, in his letters, lays out who God’s people are in Christ, then with that proper understanding, he goes on to describe the ethical quality of their life. Because you are in Christ, he says, here’s what things should look like. Those in Christ, then, are those that should set their hearts on things above, the place where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Christ died and was raised from the dead, and so have his people. Our hearts and minds should not be set on earthly things of this present age, but the things of God’s realm, His age to come. This doesn’t mean that we don’t care about what is going on in the world around us. Quite the opposite. Those who set their minds on the principles of this world and this present age, however, are enslaved by the principles of this present age and are powerless to do anything about them or to bring God’s healing to the world. God’s people, on the other hand, live in the present age and have their minds set on doing God’s will. The call of the Christian is to do God’s will on earth as it is done in His presence.
Thus, God’s people that have their minds set on doing His will and living the life of the age to come (the time when God’s presence will fill the earth, reuniting the spheres of heaven and earth, and restoring God’s good creation to its original state) in the present age. Those who were baptized into the life of Christ, have been hidden with Christ so that what is true of him is true is true of us. He died, and so did we to our old life at baptism. He will be fully revealed in glory when he returns to reconcile the entire creation to himself, and so will his people. We are, then, to live a life as the community of God that anticipates in the present that future reality. It is, in a very real way, the job of each Christian community is to constantly wrestle with the question of what it will look like for us to life the life of God’s restored future in the present age.
Devotional Thought
How much time have you spent thinking about what it would look like for you, as an individual, and within your Christian community to live the life of God’s future, restored age right now? What would it look like? What does it demand that you change in what you have your mind and heart set on?
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