(16) Therefore
We always need to see what a "therefore" is there for. We are to look back at what has just been said in this chapter.
We've just seen yesterday that Jesus has triumphed over all the spiritual rulers and authorities, so we have the victory already in Christ. So now,
no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day--
We are not to let other people assert authority over us to say that we are condemned if we don't follow their rules, rules that can concern what to eat when or how to celebrate a church holiday.
(17) things which are a mere shadow if what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
All these things, food and days and ceremonies are only a reminder, a picture of what is real in Heaven. But the real substance of it all, its spiritual reality, belongs to Christ as Lord, and therefore to us as His body.
(18) Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize
Paul uses the word katabrabeuo, "to award the prize against," which means that you are not to let someone cheat you out of your reward.
by delighting in self-abasement
This is tapeinophrosune, meaning "humiliation of mind," a putting-down of your self-esteem, your self-worth, or even a harsh self-denial, which will rob you of your sense of standing in Christ.
and the worship of angels,
This is praying to anyone other than God. Some teachers say that praying to the saints or angels will get you an "in" with God, because He already has approved of them. But this places them before God in your thinking, which disobeys the First Commandment of the Decalogue: idolotry. You pray to your god, or you pray to God.
taking his stand on visions he has seen,
These visions could be dreams, or appearances of celestial beings who are suposedly saints. There are places in the world where people congregate by the thousands to receive healings, because some "saint" has "appeared" there. This is totally extra-bibilical, so these dreams and appearances are part of the "traditions" that are given equal weight with Scripture.
We must remember that the devil and his demons are "rulers and authorities in celestial places," and can work apparent "miracles" to deceive and delude and mis-guide. These false teachers in the churches do not have God's Spirit of Truth living in them, so they are believing and teaching the lies.
inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
These teachers think that they are better or above the people, because of these visions and "special revelations" that they have received from "god." Their minds can only be worldly, because this world is the only world they know.
(19) and not holding fast to the head,
They are not connected to Christ, the Head, so they cannot receive spiritual nourishment or direction from Him. They may think that they are, but the direction they are following draws them away from God. And they want to draw us away, too, to follow them.
from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
Christ, the Head of the body, nourishes and supports the whole body through the joints and ligaments (which are body parts--us) so the whole body grows with a spiritually healthy growth that is from God.
(20) If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world,
If you really are part of Christ's body, and God has separated you from the power of sin that resides in our fleshly bodies, then:
why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
(21) "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"
(22) (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
Why do you pay attention to these teachers who are telling you that you need to do something or avoid something in order to work your way into favor with God, when God has already favored you with His Son and His Spirit?
(23) These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
All these ecclesiastical rules seem to look so good, and helpful to make someone godly; but they are all humanly devised and promote unhealthy mistreatment of the body which is the temple of God if His Spirit lives there. But even if you try to live by all these regulations, it still cannot remove your fleshly desires.
Only the Holy Spirit that God places into our spirit can separate that connection to the power inherent in the flesh to commit sins.
We see in history, that when these false teachers came into the church, and worked their way into leadership of the church, they officially brought in all these "doctrines of demons" as dogmas that were commanded to be believed.
We call this historical period, "the Dark Ages," dark in the intellectual sense that most people were not educated, so they believed whatever their teachers told them. But Christians who could read saw in Scripture how the official church had departed from the truth, and the Reformation took place, and then the next historical era was The Enlightenment.
But the devil and his demons are still working to spoil all of God's good gifts to us, and has drawn away many of the portions of the church even today. Church denominations that taught the truth in the past, through time since then have also gone astray, being deceived and deceving their followers.
As the result of this, there are many people who consider themselves to be Christians, but they don't have that relationship that God wants with them, they only have a religion. Many of these people are in churches that do not preach God's pure Truth, but some mixture of worldly tradition, or misrepresentations of Scripture that lead away from God.
That is why we must do our own research in studying our Father's love-letter to us, to be sure that we really are on that right path that leads to eternal Light. This is our responsibility as children of God, to get to know our Father, so we can live our lives as His royal children. We need to know His ways to do that, we need to think His thoughts for us, we need to adopt His attitudes as our own.
How we think determines our attitudes, and our attitudes affect our choices, and our choices build our habits, and our habits become our life. It all starts in the mind.
This is why we are instructed to;
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,because this will equip us to being able to:
prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12: 2).If you find that you are attending a church that adds to or twists God's pure Truth, then I would advise you to leave that deceptive environment and seek out a different church, one that teaches the Bible clearly.
O my Father, I pray for all those who want to be Christians, but have yet to receive Your pure Truth of what Your Son as accomplished for us. Open their minds, Father, to be able to accept the truth of Your written Word, to realize that Your Lamb of God is their personal sacrifice, soften their hearts to understand how much You Love them, and wash them in the blood of Christ. Draw them into Your family, Father, so that they will have that relationship with You that You desire.
Father, send out Your children, as messengers to cast broadly the good seed of the harvest. Let that seed fall upon all the fertile fields You have prepared, to grow into the abundant harvest You have planned.
Draw all Your unborn children to the birth into Your family, Father, and fill Your great house with all of Your uncountable children. Fill every place at Your great banquet table, that we will all eternally enjoy sweet fellowship with You and one another.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
