Colossians 2:1–23 (NKJV)
1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. 6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
In this chapter St. Paul expresses great care, concern, and love for the Christians in Colossae. He encourages them that, even though he is not physically with them, he most definitely is in spirit; and his greatest concern is that they are not led astray by worldly philosophies and traditions which are not rooted in Christ and His Word. He bolsters the Colossians’ faith with the solid truth of Christ’s deity—that He is fully God in the flesh, that He is the Head of the Church, and that all believers are complete in Him. When one has Christ, he has the most needed thing.
Paul also teaches the comfort and certainty of Holy Baptism—that it connects us with Christ’s death and burial, things by which He has paid for the sins of the world by giving up His body on the tree of the cross. He has given us the comfort of our own victory over death and the grave through His victory over them. Christ Himself has suffered and died for the sins of the world, thereby “wiping out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.” Those charges or requirements were laid against Him in our place, and He bore them fully and faithfully. Further, Paul encourages the Colossians to see Christ as the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament festivals, for they all point forward to Him. Finally, Paul challenges the Colossians to look to Christ and not to subject themselves to works and ceremonies that hold only the “appearance of wisdom.”
St. Paul writes to us, the Church of Christ. Baptized into Christ’s death to sin and His resurrection to life, we have His faith and forgiveness. As we continue to avail ourselves of faithful preaching and the right reception of the Sacraments, that faith is sustained. And by that same gift of faith, we are encouraged and strengthened to live our lives to God’s glory and the good of our neighbor.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, keep us in the one true faith and teach us to live by Your Word alone. Amen.
