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, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
In this passage Paul is attacking the idea that anything can be added to the work of Christ. Apparently, some false teachers had come in among the Colossians and were advocating certain additions to Christ. As William Barclay has noted…
They were teaching that Jesus Christ Himself is not sufficient; that He was not unique; that He was one among many manifestations of God; and that it was necessary to worship and to serve and to know other so-called divine and angelic powers in addition to Him.
What, specifically, were these things that the false teachers wanted to add to Christ? Paul tells us…
1. Philosophy
First, there was philosophy. Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit…”
The false teachers wanted to add to the simple teaching of Jesus. To them, Christ’s teaching was not enough. An elaborate system must be added that only the intellectual could understand.
It seems that these false teachers in Colossae held to an early form of Gnosticism. “Gnosis” means knowledge. And the Gnostics believed that they had received special, secret knowledge. This knowledge they believed was handed on by Jesus, through word of mouth, in some cases to Mary. Others said to Matthew. Still others believed this secret knowledge was given to Peter. In other words, there was secret knowledge that Jesus did not share with everyone, but this knowledge was passed on to the Gnostics.
People in our day still get excited about Gnostic teaching and the Gnostic Gospels in particular. People say, “Why were these Gospels kept out of the Bible?” One reason is because all the Gnostic Gospels were written much later than Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They were all written in the second century. And so, it seems very unlikely that their teaching really goes back to Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all being written in the first century, have a much stronger claim to containing the authentic teaching of Jesus than any of the Gnostic Gospels.
2. Astrology
The second addition Paul mentions is astrology. 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, and not according to Christ.”
“Elemental spirits” is the NIV translation of one word in Greek: στοιχεῖα. The word literally means “things which are set in a row”. The word often referred to learning the alphabet or anything elementary. But the word was also used to speak of the elemental spirits of the universe, specifically the stars and planets.
There was a widespread belief in the ancient world that has lasted even into our time that all people are under the influence and power of the stars. In Shakespeare’s Julius CaesarCassius says to Brutus, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Perhaps Shakespeare did not agree with the ancient practice of astrology. But the false teachers in Colossae were suggesting that people needed a special knowledge, beyond what Jesus could give, to be liberated from the power of the stars.
I think, in our own time, of the example of Nancy Reagan, who, after the attempt on President Reagan’s life, sought to have his entire schedule dictated and controlled, circumscribed by her personal astrologer. Paul shows us how this way of thinking and living ought not to be mixed with or added to our Christian faith. Why? Because we know a greater power than the power of the stars, a power to which nothing can, or need be added.
3. Circumcision
Thirdly, the false teachers in Colossae were, apparently, Jewish as well as being proto-Gnostics. These false teachers were insisting, like the false teachers in Galatia, that the Gentile Christians in Colossae needed to be circumcised. To these false teachers, faith in Christ was not enough to save a person. They believed that people also needed to have a mark in their flesh that would save them.
4. Ascetic Rules
Fourth, the false teachers in Colossae wanted to add to faith in Christ certain ascetic rules and regulations. Even being circumcised was not enough. That was just the beginning of following all the old laws of Judaism. These false teachers insisted that followers of Jesus must keep kosher, they must honor all the special days of Judaism including the Sabbath, all the Jewish festivals, and days of fasting.
5. Worship of Angels
Fifth, the false teachers in Colossae wanted to add to the worship of Christ worship of angels. These false teachers were saying that Jesus was just one intermediary between God and human beings. The false teachers insisted that all the intermediaries, various angels, must be worshiped in addition to Christ.
To this idea, Paul says an emphatic “no”, not only here in Colossians, but elsewhere in his writings. In 1 Timothy 2:5-6 Paul says,
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the manChrist Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
So, Paul’s response to the false teachers in Colossae is that there are no additions to Christ necessary!
Why is this the case? Paul lays out three reasons.
First, there are no additions to Christ necessary because we have already received fullness in him. Paul says, “For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
This is one of the most dramatic statements of the deity of Christ in the whole of the New Testament. If the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Jesus, then what can philosophy or astrology add to him? Paul’s answer is “nothing”. We already have everything we need in Jesus. Paul says we are “complete” in the one who is the head of all rule and authority. In other words, Jesus Christ is over every power of the stars, and he is over every angel in authority.
Secondly, Paul says we don’t have to add circumcision to Christ because we have already been circumcised in him.
How have we been circumcised in Christ? Again, Paul explains…
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Our circumcision in Christ is a circumcision not made by human hands. In other words, it is spiritual. And Paul connects our spiritual circumcision with baptism.
Isn’t it interesting how the two great bloody “sacraments” of the Old Testament have been replaced with two great bloodless sacraments in the New Testament? Circumcision has been replaced with baptism, and the Passover has been replaced with the Lord’s Supper. Why is this? Because in Christ the blood of his perfect sacrifice has been shed once for all time. It does not need to be repeated, though it does need to be remembered.
Baptism reminds us of how we have been washed clean by the blood of Christ, once for all time. And the Lord’s Supper reminds us how we need to spiritually feed on the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice throughout our lives.
This leads us to a third thing Paul tells us in this passage. That is that through Christ we have received a triumphant forgiveness. Paul says…
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
There are three interconnected pictures in this passage. First, there is the idea that we as human beings, apart from Jesus, are dead in our sins, but God has made us alive together with Christ.
Paul teaches this same idea in Ephesians 2:4-5…
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…
This image conveys the idea that we are utterly unable, in and of ourselves, to pull ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps and somehow save ourselves. Dead people don’t do anything in the physical realm. Just so, spiritually dead people are incapable of doing anything in the spiritual realm. And that is what we are, apart from Christ—we are spiritually dead. No secret knowledge or education will benefit a spiritually dead person. Such a person must be brought to life. And God is the only one who can bring people to life spiritually and physically. And that is what God has done for us in Jesus. He has made us gloriously alive. As St. Irenaeus once wrote, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
The second picture Paul gives us here is that of God canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. “The record of debt” is one word in Greek: χειρόγραφον. This is a compound word that means “handwriting”. One thing that someone might handwrite in the first century would be the equivalent of our “IOU”, an acknowledgement of debt.
As a preacher and teacher, I have often asked people, gently and honestly, “Do you think you are perfect?” Out of all the people I have asked that question, inside the church, outside the church, and wherever I have asked that question around the world, I have never met anyone who answered affirmatively. I have never met anyone who thought that they were or are perfect. Every human being has a sense of falling short of their full human potential. They may not use the word “sin” or “debt” to describe their sense of falling short, but they have a sense of falling short, nonetheless.
Another key word in this picture is the word “cancel”. It is the Greek word ἐξαλείψας. It literally means “to wipe out”.
In Paul’s time, ink did not penetrate the vellum or the papyrus on which it was used. Ink remained on the surface of the paper. So, if someone wanted to re-use a piece of vellum or papyrus, all they had to do was take a sponge and wipe away the old writing.
So, Paul is telling us that God has wiped out our IOU to him. God has cancelled the debt of our sin. He has cleaned our slate. How did God do this? He did it by nailing our record of debt to the cross.
Barclay tells us, “In the ancient world, when a law or a decree or an ordinance was cancelled, it was fastened to a board and a nail was driven clean through it.” Just so, on the cross, by taking the penalty for sin, which is death, upon himself, God canceled the debt of what we owe him. Jesus died our death so that we can experience everlasting life. Our sins are nailed to the cross, and that is the best place to leave our sin and our guilt.
A third picture that Paul gives us in this passage is that of God disarming the rulers and authorities and putting them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ.
In “rulers and authorities” we have Paul’s language for different levels of angels. You may remember how Paul says in Ephesians 6:12…
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
When we were studying Ephesians, we saw how this was a reference to different levels of angels. And the Bible teaches us that some angels are fallen, just as human beings are fallen and sinful. Some angels chose to rebel against God. Satan is one of those fallen angels.
So, in this passage in Colossians, Paul is telling us that God has disarmed these fallen angels, these demons, putting them to open shame, triumphing over them in Christ. The word that Paul uses for “disarmed” was the word used in Roman times of stripping the weapons and the armor from a defeated foe.
On one very famous occasion, almost ten years after Paul wrote this letter, the Roman general Titus, who later became emperor, leveled Jerusalem, destroyed the Jewish temple, and he took many Jews as prisoners. He later marched his army through the streets of Rome in the equivalent of our modern-day ticker-tape parade, and following his soldiers in parade were the Jewish men that Titus had taken as prisoner. This occasion was later celebrated in the arch of Titus that we can see in Rome to this day. So, Paul uses this same image as a way of saying that Christ has totally defeated our demonic enemies through the cross.
I realize this is a lot to take in. But this whole passage can really be summed up in two statements. On the one hand, we have the false teachers in Colossae proposing all sorts of additions to Christ. On the other hand, Paul responds: “There are no additions necessary!”
Paul is telling us that the work of Christ is totally adequate. No philosophy, no astrology, no circumcision, no ascetic practice, no worship of angels, need be added to the work of Jesus. Sin is forgiven. Evil is conquered. There is nothing, no secret knowledge, no other intermediary on earth or in heaven who can add anything to what Jesus has done for us.
All that is left is for us to do is to receive the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and to simply say, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)
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