Expanding the Requirements of Salvation?
Colossians 2 talks a lot about false teachers and false religion. These are a different type of false teachers than are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. These false teachers are adding on to what you need to do to be a Christian. They were mixing Christianity with a large amount of human tradition and human ideas (Colossians 2:8). This kind of false teaching is especially dangerous because it removes Christ from the equation, and it’s unfortunately so much more prevalent today.
Let’s look a little bit closer at what was going on when Paul was writing to them. Colossians 2:16-19 make it clear that the false teachers were making extra rules regarding what people ate and what celebrations they needed to observe. They were even advocating the worship of angels and were surrounding themselves with false humility. Paul told the believers not to let people judge them for what they ate or how they worshiped, since all the old rules regarding that were eliminated when Jesus died (Colossians2:20-23). These things, while not necessarily evil, and may even seem wise, have no bearing on our salvation or our walk with God, and it weakens our walk with God if we’re relying on them.
Now, these verses have been taken out of context to say that believers can do anything since they’re covered by Jesus, but that’s heresy and not at all what the verses say if you look at the context. Paul is speaking against people using human laws and traditions as part of Christianity. At the opposite extreme, these verses also have been used against Christian rock music and basically anything “new” that churches have started using in their services. That’s taking the verses out of context as well, since those things are generally not being taught as a requirement for salvation or Christianity but rather an option for those who are interested.
Paul, in the next chapter, puts forward a very simple list of what Christianity is all about. First and foremost, Colossians 3:1 states that the primary focus of our minds must be on Christ and things above. Nothing on the earth lasts; it simply does not matter in the end. Earthly pleasure and earthly riches will pass away and have no bearing on your heavenly life. Paul lists out a bunch of sins in Colossians 3:5-9 that we must cast aside. Obviously, we’ll never be able to attain perfection on Earth, but we must do our best to try. He also makes an incredibly strong statement against racism in Colossians 3:11, stating that in God’s eyes it doesn’t matter what race you are. Paul continues in verse 12 through 17 listing what qualities as Christians we should have. We need to be humble and loving to everyone, and it needs to be real, not just put on cause we have to.
Now, while we have an enormous amount of freedom as a Christian, we need to be careful with how we use our freedom. As we’ve seen in previous devotionals, just because something is a “good thing” doesn’t mean it’s always the right choice, especially when there’s a “great thing”. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12 that just because everything is lawful for you to do, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good thing. We need to make sure that our use of our Christian freedom from the old law and traditions doesn’t hurt our walk with God or those around us. For example, while drinking is permitted for Christians, if you’re an alcoholic, or around former alcoholic people (Christians or otherwise), it would not be right for you to drink around them. Look around you before you exercise your Christian freedoms, the things on earth are not worth harming any Christian’s walk with God.
Real Christianity is so much simpler than all the rules and traditions people try to weigh it down with. We need to be careful to make sure that our walk with God is genuine and not weighed down by false human beliefs and ideas. Over the next few devotions we’re going to look at some of the sins that we’re supposed to cast aside, and some of the virtues that we need to live.
