Sunday School Lesson 12: Freedom from the Word, Colossians 2:16-23, November 19, 2023.
Key Text: As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up on him, and established in the faith. Colossians 2:6-7a.
A letter from Paul and Timothy to the Christians of Colossae and Laedicea was carried by Tychius and Omesimus, the slave of Philemon, exhorts them (1) to steadfastness in the faith (2) to beware of being seduced by specious and enticing words (3) to walk in Christ as they had been taught, (4) to abound in faith and holiness, (5) to beware of false teachers who strIve to pervert the gospel and lead their minds from Him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells; with whom they were filled; by whom they had received spiritual circumcision; and into whom they were baptized and were quickened, and raised from a death of sin to a life of righteousness. Attention is given to their former state, and the great things which Chirst had done for them. They were warned against particular tents of false teaching relative to meat, drinks, holy days, festivals, and the specious pretenses of deceivers. Even though the things taught by these had a show of wisdom, yet, they perished in the using, and were the commandments and doctrines of men.
The population of Colossae included Phrgians, Greeks, and Jews to make up a culture to include Gentiles. The Colossians Epistle would address a most unusual heresy that had arisen in the Christian community there. The heresy included elements of paganism, a secret cult based on astrology, and the worship of demonic beings known as “powers,” “principalities,” and “angels.” The distinction of meats and drinks, what was clean and what was unclean, according to the law; and the necessity of observing certain holy days or festivals, such as the new moons and particular sabbaths, had been taken “out of the way” and nailed to the Cross, and were no longer of moral obligation v 16. In that, the “law” was but a shadow or representation of good things to come and none should rest in it. The apostle exhorts the Colossians to “Let no man take the prize from you which the judge in the contests has assigned you in consequence of having obtained the victory” v 18. This refers to alleged visions, imagined and invented revelations, and the living in a world of hallucinations. It is Christ who supplies nourishment, life, energy, unity, growth, and the increase of God v 19. The Colossians were separated from the rudiments of the world v 20, the first principle, the childish lessons, and the ABC’s of elementary spiritual instructions. Christians stand liberated from Gnostic rules: Touch not; taste not; and handle not v 21. Will-worship and masquerading are self-imposed appearances prescribed for one’s self. They are “Not in any honor,” they are not of any value, they are not a remedy, and they can’t deliver. They are indulgences of the flesh and they can’t satisfy it v 13. AMEN!
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