{"id":2085,"date":"2012-12-08T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-12-08T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=2085"},"modified":"2023-02-14T07:45:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T13:45:29","slug":"colossians-220-23-whats-wrong-with-legalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=2085","title":{"rendered":"Colossians 2:20-23 \u2014 What’s Wrong with Legalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

20\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations\u2014<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

21\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cDo not touch, do not taste, do not handle,\u201d <\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

22\u00a0<\/sup>which all concern things which perish with the using \u2014 according to the commandments and doctrines of men?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

23\u00a0<\/sup>These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Paul condemns asceticism and urges the Colossians to reject it as a way of life. He mentions, in support of his view, (1) the Christian’s death to the rudiments of the world (vs. 20-22a), (2) the human character of ascetic rules (v.22b), and (3) the ineffectiveness of asceticism to check the indulgence of the lower nature (v.23). \u2014 Vaughan, page 85.<\/span><\/h3>\n

if (v.20) = “if, as is a fact,” “since” \u2014 tense indicates this is referring to the moment of salvation<\/h3>\n

died (v.20) \u2014 separated from the world<\/h3>\n

rudiments (v.20) = elementary principles<\/h3>\n

as though living in the world (v.20) \u2014 as though you haven’t died to the world<\/h3>\n

touch (v.21) = cling to<\/h3>\n

handle (v.21) = superficial or transitory touching \u2014 so “don’t even touch them”<\/h3>\n

perish with the using (v.22) \u2014 That is to say, the things with which such commandments as “handle not, nor taste, nor touch” have to do are actually made to be used; and with the use they perish, for food ceases to be food once it is eaten. The underlying thought then is that the restrictive regulations of the Colossian heresy deal with matters that are fleeting and unimportant. Christ, in fact, has made all foods clean (Mark 7:19). \u2014 Vaughan, page 86.<\/span><\/h3>\n

these things (v.23) \u2014 these sort of things<\/h3>\n

appearance (v.23) = reputation<\/h3>\n

self-imposed religion (v.23) \u2014 rites of worship voluntarily adopted and not imposed upon one by others<\/h3>\n

neglect (v.23) = severity, rites that abuse the body<\/h3>\n

no value against the indulgence of the flesh (v.23) \u2014 asceticism does nothing to prevent the desires of the old nature<\/h3>\n

Paul is saying that legalism appears, on the surface, to be worshipful and impressive, but it has no value in resisting sin.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20\u00a0Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations\u2014 21\u00a0\u201cDo not touch, do not taste, do not handle,\u201d 22\u00a0which all concern things which … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colossians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2085"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}