Colossians 2:16-23 Don’t Worship Angels
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: October 7, 2020 Colossians 2:16-23
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
(Understanding the Text) Here we get to the heart of the Colossian heresy. Someone had been teaching them to use asceticism and severity to the body in order to stop indulging the flesh. They were being taught to white-knuckle it to achieve a sinless physical state. Paul says it just doesn’t work. They were also being taught to worship angels. Someone was claiming to have visions of what they should do, which included those two components: worshipping angels and controlling their bodies by denying their body’s needs. This not only sounds like a satanic hallucination, but it is precisely two of the heresies that entered into the Catholic church later. Flagellation and saint worship had their roots deep in the pagan Greek mentality that allowed the Colossians to accept this person or persons’ false teaching. Paul tried to nip it in the bud, but it evidently had spread much farther.
There must have been mixed in to this something about keeping festivals. This may have been part of the visions from the first group, or it may have been that the Colossians were being hit on two fronts–one from the gnostic-type group and the other from the Judaizers. Anyway, Paul says that the festivals were only shadows of things to come, but with Jesus, the Colossians had the real deal. This is also an answer to those Christians who insist that we need to keep the old Jewish festivals today. There is no harm in the shadows. They have their uses, but they are not necessary for our salvation. Jesus is necessary.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul says that these philosophies come from a sensuous mind. He says that the solution is not to make a practice of denying the body. The solution is clinging to Jesus. He says that being physically pure is the outgrowth of growing with Jesus, not by starving the body of its wants and needs in order to bring it under control. Denial of physical wants and needs focuses on the problem. Paul says to focus on the solution, which is Jesus Himself. Any solution that requires us to try to force ourselves by outside restraints, whether by performing a ceremony or by white knuckling it or by punishing ourselves for something, is a solution from the devil, and worse, it just won’t work. The only solution that will work for us is to cling to Jesus and grow with Him. As He grows in us, we will be transformed. The false solutions just try to control us. Growing with Jesus transforms us.
This is not speaking of stopping harmful habits like drinking alcohol, which interferes with our ability to follow Jesus. This is speaking of things like fasting for 4 out of 7 days of the week for the purpose of controlling lust or punishing ourselves by denying ourselves our favorite food because we have done some sin. We may need to stop eating that food for health reasons, but not to punish ourselves so that we won’t sin more.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to beware of the people who are advocating something that requires a ceremony or denial to limit the problem. I need to go for the transformation that comes with growth. I need to be aware that growth takes time and may not be apparent as it is happening. I need to at all times cling to You. Show me how to do that because sometimes I get confused about how to keep walking with You.