Terry McFadden of WNDU in South Bend has a weekly Contact 16 Report called, "As Seen on TV." By the name of this news spot, we immediately identify what it’s all about. Terry tests products advertised on television to see if they really do what advertisers tell us and show us they can do.

While there are several products that actually work as shown, there are also many that don’t.

Take for instance, the Power Static Duster. The manufacturer claims that by taking advantage of static electricity, their product will grab and hold onto dust.

When Terry tested the Power Static Duster, two of the three different sized dusters did not have the favorable results their manufacturer boasted. The claim was that this product could effectively remove unsightly dust from one’s home, but it could not produce the promised results. The Power Static Duster looked good on television, but looks are deceiving.

"As seen on T.V." products that don’t produce what they appear to be able to do are much like the false teaching Paul warned the Colossians to avoid. The Judaizers promoted instruction that appeared attractive, reasonable, and spiritual, but looks are deceiving. This teaching was based on rules that men established.

The Judaizers claimed that by ritualistic observances and by keeping ascetic rules that encouraged harsh treatment of the body, people could make spiritual progress and thereby please God. In reality, our attempts to gain God’s approval through our best efforts to keep rules we establish for ourselves are utterly valueless and rob us of the real spiritual progress God planned for us.

Successful Christian living that receives God’s approval does not come by our efforts to achieve greater holiness. Our observing religious rituals and obeying rules is not the equation for spiritual progress. God provides all we need for successful Christian living in Christ. The spiritual life is lived in Christ, not in legalism.

Christ did it all. Christ removed every obstacle to our fellowship with God and made us alive in Him. We are circumcised with Christ, making us part of God’s people. We are buried with Christ, making us dead to sin. We are resurrected and made alive with Christ—He transforms our life. Our sins have been forgiven. The condemning decrees that stood against us have been nailed to the cross and canceled. The rulers and authorities that oppose us have been disarmed and made a public spectacle. We are complete in Christ. Just as we received Christ by trusting in Him, we are to live out our Christian lives in the same way, by trusting in Him.

In Colossians 1:24-2:15, Paul described for us the good news of the provisions God has made for us in Christ. In Colossians 2:16-4:6, Paul will deal with the practical implications of Christ’s complete provisions.

Since we are complete in Christ, we should not allow others to judge us on the basis of rituals and rules.

The Judaizers were passing judgement on the Colossians because they failed to observe old rituals prescribed in the Mosaic Law. Paul commanded the church to stop allowing anyone to pass judgment on them for their lack of conformity to regulations in the areas of diet (eating and drinking) and days (observance of religious festivals such as Passover, observance of New Moon celebration, and the observance of Sabbath).

Paul begins verse 16 with the word "therefore". "Therefore" tells us that the command Paul is about to give is based on the discussion earlier in the context. Paul showed us that our indebtedness to God because of our violation of the Law was erased, removed from its place, and nailed to the cross. Our debt has been canceled. Every obstacle to our fellowship with God was taken away by Christ. He handled it all, leaving us nothing else to handle. We are complete in Him.

To pass judgment upon Christians in the matters of the Mosaic Law was done under the assumption that the Law still held condemning force against them, but it no longer did. No one has biblical warrant for judging people based on what they do or don’t do in regards to these matters of the Law. The ritualistic observances required under the Law are no longer in force, because Christ has come to fulfill what these observances anticipated. The reality has come leaving the shadows behind.

We are not to allow ourselves to be coerced into old rituals of the Law for fear of judgment. The system of Law was just a shadow. A shadow does not exist in and of itself. It has reality only in that it points to the body that formed it. The reality that the Law pointed to is Christ.

A clear Biblical example of this principle is the Passover Feast. This feast was a celebration of Israel’s deliverance from the death of their firstborn sons when the blood of the Passover lamb was placed on the door posts of their households causing the angel of death to pass over their homes. This celebration clearly pointed to and anticipated Christ, our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) who delivers us from death. This is just one of several examples of how the Law anticipated and pointed to Christ who would bring its fulfillment.

Now that we have the real thing, why go back to the shadows!

Illustration: If my lovely wife Misty is walking down the hall of our home with the light behind her and I see her shadow coming, I do not reach out to hug the shadow. No, I wait for the beautiful women who cast that shadow and hug her. It would be ridiculous to try to hug a shadow. Why go to the shadows when I could hug the real Misty? Why go back to the shadows of the Law when we have the real thing in Christ.

While it’s easy for us to identify and see the error of ritualism in the cults and in works based religion; evangelical Christians often get closer to ritualism than we might want to admit. For example, there are many who teach that the Lord’s day, Sunday, is to be observed as a day of Sabbath rest. Sunday, though not the Sabbath day the Jews observed under the Law (Saturday), is considered to be the "Christian Sabbath." This is an example of the very thing that Paul denounced at Colosse. When observance of a day of rest on Sundays is made an obligatory practice with duties of what can and can’t be done on that day and with judgment pronounced for those who don’t comply, this is old ritualism. Those who observe a day of rest on Sundays are no more or less spiritual than those who don’t.

Another example of ritualism in our culture is the swelling of churches on Easter and Christmas Sunday. Some believe that if they get to a church on those days, then God will respond more favorably toward them.

The error of ritualistic observance is even more apparent among evangelical Christians in how we approach the disciplines of church attendance, Bible reading, and prayer. Don’t misunderstand on this point. Going to church is important. It is important to be under the accountability of church leadership. It is important to be fed under the teaching and preaching of the Word. It is important to exercise our gifts in the church and do our part in ministering to the body. It is important to gather together to render the thanks and worship that is God’s due. While there are many good reasons for going to church, many attend merely as an observance of ritual. We think that God is more favorable toward us and more pleased with us just because we fill a pew spot each Sunday.

Bible reading and prayer are important. Through these disciplines, we enjoy fellowship with God, allowing Him to speak to us through His Word and then our speaking to Him in prayer. We need times of communication with God in His Word and in prayer in order to learn how God would have us to live our lives and to cultivate our dependence on Him. While there are many good reasons for reading our Bibles and praying, many do these disciplines as a matter of ritual. They think that God is automatically pleased by their discipline in reading the Bible and praying. The Pharisees read their Bibles and prayed religiously, but they certainly were not pleasing to God. Bible reading and prayer that is done just as a matter of ritual does nothing to advance us spiritually.

The Judaizers worked hard to force their error on the Colossians. The believers in Colosse were allowing them to make rulings against them because they did not conform to their legalistic standards. By allowing judgment to be passed on them, the Colossians began to cave in under the pressure.

When we believe someone has no basis for judging us, we don’t worry about what they say or about how they criticize us. However, if we think that those passing judgment have a valid point, we begin to conform. Paul warned the Colossians to stop allowing the Judaizers to rule against them. He effectively exposes the ugly reality behind their "white washed" appearances.

The Judaizers "looked good." They appeared to be humble. They appeared to have God-honoring worship. They appeared to have experiences that gave credibility to what they said. The Judaizers appeared to be in a position to judge what God thought about certain things, but these appearances were all a sham and Paul wanted the Colossians to know it. The reality was that the Judaizers were all about promoting themselves and their self-made religion while essentially demoting Christ and downplaying the significance of His work.

A famous Chicago preacher was convicted about his lack of humility. A friend recommended as a remedy, that he march through Chicago’s streets wearing a sandwich board, shouting the scripture verses on the board for all to hear. The preacher agreed to this venture and when he returned to his study and removed the board, he said "I'll bet there's not another man in town who would do that."

Humility is the virtue that we are sure to be without when we broadcast that we have it. When we are truly humble, we won’t tell others how humble we are. And yet, that is just what the Judaizers were doing. They delighted in the virtue of their humility, which demonstrated that the humility they claimed to have was false.

There is debate as to what is meant by the "worship of angels." Many commentators believe Paul is confronting the error of gnosticism or incipient gnosticism in the book of Colossians. They conclude that in Colossians 2:18, he is addressing one of the errors of this false religion—i.e. Angels being the object of their worship. However, it seems better to understand that Paul is confronting yet another erroneous concept of Judaism.

The Judaizers were a constant thorn in Paul’s side, dogging his steps wherever he went. There is nothing in Colossians that cannot be explained as a confrontation of the error of Judaism and Colossians 2:18 is no exception.

While the phrase "worship of angels" can be understood to mean that angels were the object of worship, this phrase can also be understood to refer to the kind of worship the Judaizers delighted in—the kind of worship in which angels participate. The Judaizers delighted in the fact that their worship was the same as the kind of worship angels rendered to God. We could say that the Judaizers believed and taught that the angels were on their side, worshipping God just as they did.

They focus on their experience.

The Judaizers claimed to have special visions that they alone witnessed. They claimed to have the inside scoop in terms of receiving revelation from God.

The authority of their teaching rested on what they personally experienced. They elevated extrabiblical content based on what they had seen over and above what the Bible actually said.

They have an inflated opinion of themselves.

The Judaizers felt superior to others and approached those outside their group in a judgmental, condescending manner. They judged others because they lacked their virtues (i.e. humility), they didn’t participate in their worship (i.e. the kind of worship angels render), and they didn’t have the knowledge they gained from what they had seen. They had a puffed up view of themselves with no real basis for having such an opinion. Their inflated viewpoint was the product of their fleshly mind. The result of thinking that we can be self-made people who gain God’s favor and please Him on the basis of what we do or don’t do leads us to baseless and clearly sinful pride.

The Judaizers were not holding onto the Head, who is Christ. They failed to recognize that it is only when we abide in Christ and draw from Him the spiritual sustenance we need that we can grow and have productive lives.

Christ is the Head of the body:

Just as the head of the physical body provides what is needed for the various parts to function properly, so Christ, as the Head of His church, provides the nourishment and direction she needs.

He unites the body together.

As the head of the physical body controls and coordinates the body’s joints and ligaments so they work together as one, so Christ as the Head of the church joins His body together, uniting it as one.

He produces the growth that comes from God.

Just as the head controls the growth of the physical body through the pituitary gland attached to the brain, so Christ causes His body to grow. The growth that comes from God takes place only when we have a vital connection to Christ, the Head. Using another image to communicate the same point, Jesus said, "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). True growth does not come by compliance to laws, but by our vital connection with Christ.

As believers, when Christ died, God counted us as having died with Him. By our identification with Christ in death, our former relationship with the basic principles of the world has been ruptured. The basic principles of the world are the man-made rules that the world system pressures us to live under, insisting that by our own best efforts to keep them, we can gain God’s approval. By our death with Christ, we have been severed from world’s principles that once led us to think we could do it on our own and didn’t need God’s help to live a holy life. Being dead with Christ, we are dead to the principle of trying to perform well enough to please God—Dead people don’t perform.

We ought not submit ourselves to its rules anymore.

By submitting themselves to the rules of the Judaizers, the Colossian believers were continuing to live in the realm of the world system to which they had died. Instead of living lives energized and enabled by resources available in Christ, they were trying to do it on their own.

The World says, "Greater holiness is achieved by denying ourselves of physical desires." The world, the system that leaves God out, would like us to believe holiness is a matter of not handling, not tasting, not touching. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Watch to make sure that none of the things on this list of "don’ts" are done. The world tries to give us the impression that if we can just be determined enough to stop ourselves from doing certain things, if we can be disciplined enough to say "no" to our desires, then we will live a life that is pleasing to God.

We find that we have fallen into the trap of submitting ourselves to the principles of the world when we say things like, "I will never do that again, nor will I do this, that, and the other thing." Or "I will try harder this time and if I work hard enough at it, I will succeed."

How has this approach worked for you? Personally, I find that making rules that lead me to try to deny my body of its desires acts to arouse those desires. I make a rule, "Don’t eat dessert" and it only makes my desire to eat dessert all the more strong. My efforts to eliminate on my own the acting out of fleshly desires by setting rules of self-denial and trying to keep them on my own always results in failure and frustration. My trying to be holy through rules of self-denial doesn’t work. It won’t work for you either.

Paul goes on to show us in Colossians 2:22-23 why trying to keep rules of self-denial doesn’t work to make us more holy.

The world’s rules don’t help us live holy lives.

They are human rules that are destined to perish

The rules we make for ourselves have to do with temporary things. The things we make rules about aren’t of eternal consequence. Because they are about temporary matters and not about eternal ones, our rules will perish.

Notice that the rules humans make for themselves have to do with temporal, external matters—"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" Notice that none of these rules focus on the matters that Christ desires to produce in our lives—righteous attitudes, righteous relationships with others, Christ-like character. The focus of our rules is on the external and the temporal. Our rules will perish. Why would we want to live by rules that are destined to destruction?

Legalists consider their regulations to be indicators of their spiritual strength, when in fact; it demonstrates their spiritual weakness and becomes an obstacle to their spiritual growth. The regulations of legalists look good—their self-made religion, their humble appearance, and their harsh treatment of the body look like the path for God’s people to take if they wish to please God. Looks are deceiving. None of these things will be helpful to becoming more acceptable to God in how we live. Why? Regulations only condemn and show us how we fail to measure up to God’s standard, they do nothing to help us obey them.

A prime example of the Biblical principle that the world’s rules don’t work for helping us to be more holy comes from the world of Islam. During the month of Ramadan, the month that commemorates the time when Muhammad supposedly received his first revelations, Muslim’s abstain from food, drink and sexual relations from first light until sundown. This practice is one of the five pillars of Islam. By the demonstration of submission to Allah in the observance of these five pillars, the Muslim’s believe their reward for their piety will be heaven.

The question we ask is, "Do ascetic rules regarding fasting bring about behavior that pleases God and helps someone progress in their spiritual life?" As one of our missionaries observed when he shared at one of our missions conference meetings, "During Ramadan, people are very irritable and grumpy and don’t get much work done. Many consider all the pillars of Islam to be too difficult, so they give up, hoping that on the day they die, Allah will somehow be favorable to them." This account of what happens in the Muslim world illustrates well the uselessness of trying to live by the rules. The rules only condemn. They cannot provide the power to obey them.

Paul’s warnings throughout this passage provide several indicators that will show up in our lives when we have fallen into the trap of following the world’s principles. Which description is true of us this morning? Are we embracing the shadows and trying to follow useless rules to become more holy? Or Are we recognizing Christ did it all and what we need to do is trust in Him?

Indicator #1—Judgmentalism. The Judaizers judged others based on how well they performed according to the rules. If we apply their principles to how we conduct our lives, we will assume their judgmental spirit in how we view others. When we talk about other Christians, do we find ourselves judging them because they don’t comply to the list of duties we believe a good Christian will keep? The presence of the world’s principles is obvious by the judgmental spirit it creates in us against those who are not keeping our rules.

Indicator #2—Shallow Righteousness. Did you notice all of the rules the Judaizers emphasized had to do with external conformity? These rules did not deal with the really important things like our attitudes, our relationships with others, our servanthood, and our Christ-like character. When we think of the things that are most important in the Christian life, do we think of character, attitudes, and conduct toward others, or do we think of externals that don’t really matter?

Indicator #3—Glorying in self and not in Christ. The object of the Judaizers boast was their accomplishments. When the object of our boast is what we have done and not in what Christ has done for us, we have fallen into living by the world’s principles.

Indicator #4—Sinful indulgence. The Judaizers looked good on the outside, but inside there was filth. Things might look good on the outside when we work hard to obey rules. There might be the appearance of wisdom, but it will only be an appearance without any reality. Somewhere, we will find sinful indulgence in the life of the person following the principle of trying to do it on his own by rules keeping. How do we know this? We know this because rules don’t provide the power to obey them. It is only by the power of Christ working in and through us that we are able to live holy lives that avoid sinful indulgences. When we trust Christ and stop trying, it is then that we see the kind of transformation that pleases God.

Christ, the head of the Church, provides all that is needed to produce the growth God desires to see in us. We need to trust Him to bring transformation and growth to our lives. Keeping the rules will not produce transformation and growth. Why? Rules only condemn us, as they do no provide the power to obey them.