Shadow and Reality: Colossians 2:16-23

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.

The false teachers had arrived in Colossae. Or perhaps they had always been there, waiting. Either way, their message was spreading.

You need more than Christ, they said. You need the festivals. You need the food laws. You need the calendar observances.

Some were Jewish—insisting on Torah observance. Others blended Jewish practices with Greek philosophy. Still others added elements no one could quite trace.

And they judged. The believers who ate freely, who didn't observe the new moon, who worked on Saturday—they were inferior. Incomplete. Not truly spiritual.

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Paul's response: shadows and reality. The festivals, the food laws, the calendar—they were shadows. Real, but derivative. Pointing forward.

The reality is found in Christ. Soma—body, substance. The shadow exists because the body blocks the light. But when the body arrives, who needs the shadow?

Christ had come. The substance was present. The shadow had served its purpose.

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.

Disqualify. Katabrabeuo—to decide against, to rule out of the prize. The false teachers positioned themselves as judges, awarding or withholding spiritual standing.

False humility. It looked humble—the fasting, the self-denial, the claims of unworthiness. But it was pride wearing humility's clothing.

Worship of angels. Some taught that direct access to God was presumptuous. Better to approach through intermediate beings. Angel veneration. Spiritual hierarchy.

But Paul saw through it.

Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.

Great detail about what they have seen. Visions. Revelations. Spiritual experiences that set them apart from ordinary believers.

They are puffed up. Inflated. The humility was false; the pride was real. By their unspiritual mind. Literally, "the mind of their flesh." What seemed super-spiritual was actually fleshly.

They have 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.

Lost connection with the head. The fundamental problem. Christ was the head. They had detached from him. Pursuing angels, pursuing visions, pursuing rules—they had let go of the One who mattered.

The whole body. The church. Supported and held together. Ligaments and sinews—the connective tissue. Grows as God causes it to grow. The head directed the growth. Detach from the head, stop growing.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules?

You died with Christ. Past tense. Complete. To the elemental spiritual forces. Whatever those stoicheia were—demonic powers, basic principles, cosmic elements—death severed the connection.

Why do you submit to its rules? The absurdity. You died. Why live as if you didn't? You were freed. Why return to captivity?

"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"

The rules quoted. Probably sarcastically. The false teachers' commands. Handle not. Taste not. Touch not. Prohibitions multiplying.

These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.

Things destined to perish with use. Food consumed. Objects decayed. Temporary, passing, perishable.

Based on merely human commands and teachings. Not divine revelation. Human invention. Religious rules masquerading as God's requirements.

Such 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.

An appearance of wisdom. They looked wise. Impressive. Spiritual. Self-imposed worship—additional religious practices, extra devotions. False humility—the show of lowliness. Harsh treatment of the body—asceticism, denial, punishment of the flesh.

But they lack any value. The assessment was devastating. All that effort. All that discipline. All that religiosity. Zero value.

In restraining sensual indulgence. The goal of all that asceticism was to control the flesh. But it didn't work. The flesh wasn't defeated by rules. It was defeated by death—death with Christ.

The Colossians faced a choice.

The shadows, with their rules and regulations, their festivals and food laws, their visions and angels.

Or the reality—Christ himself.

The appearance of wisdom—or actual wisdom hidden in Christ.

They could have both. Many tried.

But Paul made the choice clear.

Shadow or substance.

Rules or relationship.

Religion or Christ.

Choose.