Colossians 2:16 - Meaning and Application

The apostle ends the chapter with practical warnings, drawn from what he has already said. He first warns believers to watch out for Judaizing teachers, people who wanted to force Christians under the ceremonial law again: “Let no one judge you in food or drink,” and the like (Colossians 2:16). Much of Moses’ law dealt with special foods and special days. Some people in the Roman church were still trying to keep those distinctions (Romans 14), but Paul shows that Christ has come and put an end to that ceremonial law.

So he means, do not let anyone lay those rules on you, because God has not laid them on you. If God has made you free, do not let yourself be tied up again in that slavery. These things were only shadows of what was coming (Colossians 2:17), which means they had no lasting value in themselves and were now set aside. The real thing is Christ. The shadow had its purpose before he came, but now that the substance is here, to keep the old ceremonies going suggests that Christ has not yet come and the gospel age has not fully begun. Under the gospel, we have the reality, while they had only the outline.

Paul next warns against those who wanted people to worship angels, using them as go-betweens between God and man, as some pagan philosophers did: “Let no one cheat you out of your reward by insisting on self-made humility and the worship of angels” (Colossians 2:18). It may look humble to ask angels to speak for us, because it seems to admit our unworthiness to come directly to God. But this is only a made-up humility, not one God commands, and so it is not right. It gives to a creature the honor that belongs to Christ alone.

Paul says this idea came from human thinking, not from God’s revelation. It was the proud imagination of people who tried to speak about things God had not shown them, “intruding into things he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Colossians 2:18). They claimed to explain the order of angels and their work, even though God had hidden those things from us. So while the practice looked humble, the heart behind it was pride. They liked their own theories and wanted to seem wiser than others. Pride often lies behind many errors, corruptions, and even practices that look very humble.

Those who do this “do not hold the head” (Colossians 2:19). In other words, they are not truly holding fast to Christ, who alone is the mediator, the one who brings God and man together. It is a serious dishonor to Christ, the head of the church, for his people to use any other intercessor with God. When people let go of Christ, they grab at something nearby, but it cannot help them. From Christ, the whole body, joined together by its joints and bands, gets life and growth from him, and grows with the growth God gives.

Here Paul teaches that Jesus Christ is not only the ruler over the church, but also the source of its life and strength. Believers are joined to him as the parts of a body are joined to the head, and they receive life and nourishment from him. He also shows that Christ’s body is a growing body. The new nature in believers keeps growing, unless something blocks it. “The growth of God” means growth that comes from God as its source, or simply a rich and abundant growth (Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 4:15-16).

Paul then returns to warn them again: “If you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as if you still lived in the world, do you submit to rules?” (Colossians 2:20). If, as Christians, they had died to the ceremonial observances of the law, why were they still acting as if they belonged to it? He points to commands like, “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle” (Colossians 2:21-22). Under the law, touching a dead body, eating forbidden food, or touching something offered to idols could bring ceremonial uncleanness. But these rules were temporary and were passing away. They had no real power to make a person holy, and they were based only on human traditions and commands.

Paul says these things have a show of wisdom in self-made religion and humility. People thought they were wiser than others because they kept both Moses and Christ, so they felt safer. But it was only a show of wisdom, a human-made system. They seemed to humble themselves by avoiding certain foods and by denying bodily pleasures, but there was no true devotion in that. The gospel teaches us to worship God in spirit and truth, not by ritual rules, and to come through Christ alone, not through angels.

So Christians are free in Christ from the ceremonial rules of Moses’ law, and they have been delivered from that burden that God himself once placed on Israel. It is also wrong to put human rules over people in the worship of God, because that goes against the freedom of the gospel. Paul calls believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ has given them and not to be bound again by slavery (Galatians 5:1). When people impose such rules, they are taking over Christ’s authority as head of the church and bringing in another set of commands, even though Christ has already ended the old law (Ephesians 2:15). Such practices may seem wise, but they are really foolish. True wisdom is to keep close to the gospel’s commands and to submit fully to Christ, the only head of the church.