SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2017
9:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Colossians 2:16-23
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:16-23
Message of the
verses: “16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food
or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things
which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to
Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in
self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he
has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast
to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the
joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. 20 If you have
died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were
living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not
handle, do not taste, do not touch!" 22 (which all refer to things
destined to perish with use)-in accordance with the commandments and teachings
of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom
in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but
are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
I want to take a short amount of time to sum up what we
will be looking at in these remaining verses from the 2nd chapter of
Colossians. When a person is born again into
the family of God it is because God had chosen them in eternity past to give to
His Son as a love gift, which the Son had to come to earth to pay for their
salvation. The Holy Spirit then gives
and effectual call, a call that no one can say no to, to the believer who them
accepts the offer that He has been given for salvation realizing that they are
a sinner in need of a Saviour to save them, and so the question is asked “what
kind of work was done by the person to receive the gift of salvation?” The answer, of course is nothing. Now in Colossians 2:6 we read “6 Therefore as
you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” We have answered the question how we have
received Christ, which is by grace through faith, nothing we have done in and
of ourselves to receive Him, and so this is how we are to walk, to be
sanctified. Yes we are suppose to read
our Bible, to study it, to memorize it, to meditate on it, to go to church to
worship with other believers, but God is the One who then gives us the
growth. These verses tell us that there
are not certain kinds of foot we eat that make us better followers of Christ,
we should not worship angels in order to make us better followers of Christ,
and things like these that Paul was warning his readers about.
John MacArthur writes the following to conclude his introduction
to these verses and just so you know the chapter title from his commentary is “Spiritual
Intimidation.”
“In 2:8-23, Paul mounts a frontal attack on the Colossian
heresy. He has already dealt with
philosophy (2:8-10) and presented Christ’s sufficiency (2:11-15). He continues his refutation of the Colossian
heresy by dealing with legalism (2:16-17), mysticism (2:18-19), and asceticism
(2:20-23).” We begin to look at legalism
in our next SD.” 3/26/2017 9:50 PM
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