Colossians 2:13-23 – Duty Free
Today we arrive at a passage of scripture filled with controversial topics. It flies in the face of traditions, long-held beliefs, and die-hard convictions. But it is still worth saying, and I hope I can preach it in a spirit of love and compassion. Today’s passage is about freedom in Christ. Let’s read Colossians 2:13-23.
This section flows naturally from last week’s passage about who we are in Christ. Because of what Jesus did, and because of our faith in Him, we are different people. That faith is not just, “Well, sure, of course I believe in God.” It’s more like, “I’m actively going to believe what the Bible says. It’s not just going to say I believe, but I will put my trust into practice.”
Faith means trusting that what the Bible says is true. And the Bible says that believers are new and different. We were in a heap of trouble, like all people, but Christians, believers, followers of Jesus, are changed. Look at verse 13: When you were dead… Your sins, your shortcomings, your failures, all the ways that you fell short of what God wanted for you – and your sinful nature, that desire you were born with, that desire you have to make yourself happy above all other things… That’s dealt with now. The 2nd part of v13 says that God made us alive. From death to life, from darkness to life, we are changed. It says that we are forgiven. We may have a hard time to forgive ourselves, others may hold things against us, but God has forgiven us.
Not just forgiven us, but God has also gone a step further. The written code that stood against us is now cancelled too. Well, scholars have different ideas about what exactly the written code is. It may be the list of offences that we have collected over the years, all the things we’ve done wrong, all the sins we committed against our Creator. Or, the written code may the OT Law, the list of rules and regulations that God set us for people to follow. Either one is great news. The old way that God judged us, the way that we are reminded of how far short of God we fall, the way that God kept score… it’s all gone. The things that held us back from having a clean conscience – erased.
Christ took that record that contained the charges against us, and nailed it to His cross. From now on, God doesn’t keep score. From now on, all we have to do is ask, and He’ll forgive us. Things are wonderful and fresh and new, and the old has gone.
In this same fell swoop, this disarmed the enemy. The book of Revelation calls Satan the accuser of the believers. The enemy is so sneaky. He puts the thoughts in our head to do what we want, and then, he makes us feel bad for it. He heaps on the guilt after he provided the motivation. But this passage tells us that the enemy of our souls is defeated. He’s all bark, and no bite. He’s beaten, but if we think he still has power over us, we fall for his tricks again.
So the cross represents that our past sins are forgiven, the old ways of getting right with God like the Law are now outdated, and the enemy is beaten. We are in a great position because of what Jesus has done.
And because of these truths, because of our faith in Him, because we trust our lives to His keeping, there are implications for our relationship with Him. Paul tells us 3 safeguards, 3 cautions, 3 things not to let happen. They all have to do with adding rules and laws to our faith.
The 1st caution is found in v16-17: Don’t let anyone judge your faith by external appearances. Paul is talking about religious traditions. What a person eats or drinks is often judged by others. And the next few things Paul mentions are even worse. Religious festivals – that is, holy days, holidays – New Moon festivals and Sabbaths… all part of the Jewish religious worship. Apparently, in the church at Colosse, there were enough Jews that were vocal about keeping the old ways in this new Christian faith. They felt that Christians should celebrate the OT feasts and fasts. The religious festivals were annual, the new moon celebrations were monthly, and the Sabbaths were weekly. These people were trying to force the OT on believers in Jesus.
And Paul said not to let it happen. Rather, he said, don’t let someone judge you by the religious traditions you hold. If you do something differently from someone else, Paul says, that’s OK. In this passage, he doesn’t say that a believers shouldn’t follow the OT feast schedule – Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, etc – but he says that if you do, don’t worry about it. If you don’t, don’t worry about it. Don’t judge others’ faith by how they celebrate special days.
It’s like my saying to newlyweds something like this: “OK, now that you’re married, you have to work on your relationship. You need to go shopping together every Friday night, you have to have a date night every Monday, you have to be intimate with each other 5 times a week, and you have to have a walk on the beach every Sunday afternoon. These are things you need to do in order for your love relationship to work.”
No, of course not. Those are good ideas, and they may help a young couple keep the fires burning, but you don’t HAVE to do them. You can’t force a love relationship with rules. And now that we are in a love relationship with God, we can celebrate Passover and find meaning in it. But we don’t have to.
Now, I am aware that some people in these parts are very strong in their opinions about religious holidays and holy days. That’s fine. A person could sit down and nitpick all the things wrong with Christmas and Easter. That’s fine too. But the spirit, the intent, the truth behind Paul’s caution to the Colossians applies to us today too: don’t let anyone judge you for how you worship Jesus. If you celebrate Passover, if you don’t celebrate Passover, if you celebrate Christmas, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, if you celebrate Easter or Resurrection Day, if you don’t celebrate Easter or Resurrection Day, don’t judge others, and don’t let them judge you.
Because, as Paul says, these are all shadows, just reflections, of Jesus. So I tell you, in everything, put Christ first. The other things, the traditions, the rituals, the food, the busyness… keep Jesus first in all things.
The 2nd caution is found in v18-19: Don’t let others lead you astray. These people, Paul says, appear spiritual and wise but are not. Look: they insist on self-denial (“you have to fast in order to be spiritual”), they are pre-occupied with angels, they talk of visions, and they claim to be humble and yet they are proud and arrogant – “my way or the highway”. They sound deep and spiritual but they are puffed up. They talk about all the things they know, and you have to have a certain knowledge in order to be saved. It was a 1st century teaching called Gnosticism, and it gets replayed in every century. You need to know this certain thing or else you’re not really connected to God. I’m not against deep preachers, and the Bible has an eternal depth of truth to it. But still, people tend to overcomplicate it and insist you need to see it their way, or you’re wrong.
The problem is that we often mistake rules for relationship. It’s that checklist Christianity again: did that, did that, working on that… OK, good. I’m a good Christian today. Please understand: standards are good. But they are not what makes a person a Christian or not. It’s a heart that follows after God. It’s so easy to judge a person by the clothes they wear or the words they use or their leisure activities. But we need not to judge someone by any of these things. You need to work out your own faith, forging your own convictions, and stay out of others’ business.
The 3rd caution is found in v20-23: Don’t be consumed with do’s and don’t’s. I mean, look at what Paul says in v20 – You died with Christ. You have already submitted to Jesus, you have already made Him your Lord. When, then, would you worry about submitting to all these rules, all these do’s and don’ts, and make them your Master?
I mean, they look good. They look wise. Look at what I’m sacrificing for God. Look at what I’m giving up. Look at how God’s cleaning me up. And they have an appearance of humility too – “It’s easy to tell that I’m a Christian by what I don’t do.”
Granted, rules are like religious training wheels that keep us from tipping over. But they’re also confining because they keep us from breaking free. I’m told that a bishop once said to Louis XI of France, “Make an iron cage for all those who do not think as we do, an iron cage in which the captive can neither lie down nor stand straight up.” The king agreed and had it constructed. A short time later, the bishop somehow offended King Louis, and for 14 years he was locked in that same cage.
As Christians, sometimes we construct a cage for those who don’t think the same way we do. But in the end, we may end up in bondage ourselves.
You can see in v23b that rules don’t change the heart. You can heap all the do’s and don’ts on a person that you want, but if the heart is not in it, it will break them. That was the problem with the Pharisees. They had good motives: to help people live lives pleasing to God. But they added all these things to help people apply God’s laws. And those additional things broke people down, weighed heavy on their backs, and crushed their spirits.
Romans 8:3-4 says that the OT way of getting right with God was powerless to make us righteous. It showed that we sinned; it showed that we were weak and needed help from God, but it didn’t help us have clean hearts.
The reality is, adding rules to our faith doesn’t work. It doesn’t help make people better Christians. It makes us known as the church that’s against things. Is that what you want? Do you want to be known as generally a negative person, defined by all the things you like to rail against? Can’t do this, can’t do that, this is wrong, that’s wrong…
Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “I have found, in my own spiritual life, that the more rules I lay down for myself, the more sins I commit.” Folks, there is something better than this.
Freedom in Christ is about pursuing Him, regardless of the expectations of others. The truth is, following Christ will make others uncomfortable. It means you may have to go against what your family believes. It may mean you have to disappoint your co-workers. It may put you in the minority, even among Christians. That’s all OK. Jesus Himself said that following Him may cost you some human relationships. And the people who hated Jesus the most were religious people caught up in how things ought to be done.
So Paul has all this good news for us. We are different, we are changed. Instead of having many masters, we only have to live to please One. Because of that, don’t worry about what others say. Don’t worry about what others insist upon. Don’t complicate your faith by creating checklists.
Follow Jesus, fall more in love with Him. Take time to worship, take time to pray, take time to spend silent time with Him. But don’t allow guilt and regret cloud your walk. Listen to Him as He leads, obey Him as He gives direction. This is the heartbeat of the faith. Seek after Him, and make that your first priority.
