“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:”
Colossians 2:16
The early church, of which the congregation at Colossae was a part, faced a fundamental challenge. All of the congregants were relatively new converts to this belief system. This youth, not in age but in belief, made them targets for false teachers and oppressive additions to the religion. Our study verse for this week is a prime example of the Apostle Paul confronting those false teachings.
We do not know with certainty today the details of the false teachings impacting the congregation at Colossae. However, based on the text, we can deduce that false teachers were requiring congregants to abstain from eating certain foods, to keep celebrations of certain days, and to honor traditions of other religions. These requirements were putting a burden on believers.
The greatest lesson the Apostle is teaching in this verse is that Christ plus nothing equals everything. False teachers placed extra requirements on believers which directly taught that Jesus Christ and his gospel were not sufficient. The Apostle is telling believers in every generation that nothing needs to be added to the work of Jesus Christ.
Believers today do not face the same challenge the early church faced. Most believers grew up in a society where Christianity was common. While many are converts to different denominations, only a relative few are new to the Christian faith. However, this does not mean that the same lesson does not apply to believers in modern times.
The challenge for believers today is to remain focused on the teachings of scripture. Belief in Jesus Christ in modern American society has become tied to certain world views and political ideologies. These world views and ideologies bring in extra standards for what the believer must adhere to in order to be a true follower of Christ. This approach is just as oppressive as the false teachers of the Apostle Paul’s day. And as a result, we must resist this tendency just as the Apostle encouraged those at Colossae.
