Relationship Not Ritual
There’s a saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know”. In my life, I have seen that saying proven true over and over. It is not that knowledge is unimportant, but relationship can and does overcome a lack of knowledge or shortcomings on our part. In our scripture (Colossians 2:16-23), Paul warns the Colossian church against following teaching that advocated religious rituals, rules or worldly philosophies for Christian salvation. Instead, it was their (and our) relationship with Christ that saved them (us) and would sustain them (us) as Christians. I pray that you will not be bound up by anything that falsely purports to save you, but that you would continue to grow in your relationship with Christ and His freedom from man’s “standards” for salvation. Amen
Click here to listen to Kirk Franklin’s “Losing My Religion”
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17) Old Testament rituals and Laws that were observed by the Jews were a shadow of things to come and were given by God in preparation for the coming of the Christ. Expecting that keeping them would bring a Christian closer to God was a fallacy that some Jewish mystics were espousing to the Christians in Colosse. Paul told them that faith in Jesus is superior to trying to keep the Law and following those rituals. They could not save us and don’t make us a “good” Christian. There are still those today who try to convince us that what we eat and the days that we set aside to worship God are critical to our Christianity…. But those things are not what make us Christian or save us. Only our faith in Christ does that!
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (Colossians 2:18-19) Part of the false teaching that was being told to Colossian Christians was from gnostic beliefs. They believed that God did not have direct relationship with the world and only interacted with the world through lesser beings (e.g. angels). Therefore gnostics taught that it was irreverent for Christians to seek a direct relationship with God. The church in Colosse was being taught that they needed to humble themselves and worship lesser beings (angels) instead of God. Additionally, there was false teaching that there was deep mystical understanding that you needed in order to be saved. Paul countered all of this false teaching by pointing to Jesus who was God incarnate and who is not distant from us but through faith in Him offers salvation to all. So, we do not to worship angels, we worship Christ who is the head of the church (the whole body).
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:20-23) Becoming a follower of Christ means that we are kingdom citizens and no longer adhere the forces and man made ideologies of this world. Faith in Jesus is superior as a means to salvation versus attempting and failing to keep the Laws, rules and traditions of Jewish religion. Christians who tried to follow Jewish Law, mysticism or gnostic philosophy were abandoning eternal salvation through faith in Christ, and instead following human teaching and practices that appeared to contain wisdom but lacked any value for salvation.
Some of the Jewish law and rituals and gnostic teaching had slipped into the Colossian church. These false teachings were a threat to lead those Christians away from the freedom that they had Christ and into a rules based legalism. Having believed in Christ and been saved, they were in danger of slipping backwards into legalism and man made philosophies that had no spiritual value. Paul’s warning and counter arguments to these things are still instructive to us today as we too have to ward off false and alternative teaching that threatens to seep into our worship and walk with Christ. We must not allow worldly philosophies or legalism to lead us away from the freedom we have in Christ. They embody rules and traditions that have no value in our salvation or our walk with Christ. Whether it’s what we can wear in our worship, or what we are allowed to eat, or what day of the week we must worship, we need to remember that these are not what saved us. Faith in Christ did that. Rules, traditions, rituals and legalism will only serve to bind us up and strip away the freedom and joy that we have in worshipping and following Christ. What matters in our salvation is not our rules or rituals…. but our faithful relationship with Christ.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
