Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Colossians 2:16-17 - Totally free. Well, almost...

"Therefore, do not be letting anyone be judging you in food and in drink or in respect of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath, which are [is] a shadow of the [ones] about to be, but the body [is] of Christ."

-Because of all these things Paul just mentioned which are true of Christ and of those who are in Christ:
    -He is fully God
    -We are totally complete and fulfilled in Him
    -He is the head of all authority
    -We were circumcised and made alive in Him
    -We were entirely forgiven in Him
    -He has triumphed over all authority and spiritual powers
...in light of these truths we are to not let anyone be acting as our judge or to condemn us for anything we may or may not be doing.  Not for what we are eating or drinking or for whether or not we celebrate a particular holiday or how/when we observe the sabbath.  We report to Christ and in Him we are free indeed from the dictates of man-made ritual and the like which have the appearance of good religion but which in reality accomplish very little in the way of real spiritual transformation.

-These things are a shadow.  They are not the body which causes the shadow.  They give you some idea of what the substance may look like, but they are not the real thing.  Sabbaths and festivals and food or abstaining from it - works as prescribed in the mosaic law and espoused by judaizers as well as other teachers and would-be spiritual guides - these at their best should serve to point us to Christ.  And if they do not, they are at best a waste of time.  

-Now, having said all that - while we are free from the binding constraints of man-made religion, and do not need to worry about someone else trying to judge us or condemn us for something we did or did not do or for some way we may be exercising our freedom in Christ, we are not free to engage in anything that might tear down a fellow believer, that cause our brother to stumble (Romans 14.13-21), and neither are we totally free to just indulge our flesh absent that which will show of the breathtaking goodness of God (1Corinthians 10.31).  But what we are free to do is to relax and enjoy being a child of God who will never be condemned or separated from His love for anything we do or say or think or otherwise fail to do.  And we are free to pursue and enjoy and celebrate God’s blazing breathtaking multicolored goodness in all its diverse magnificence each and every day.  Not to worry about what others think or say - focus on Christ, on loving Him and on what He wants.

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