Let No One Judge You; the Shadow and the Body (Colossians 2:16–19)

Col. 2:16. Let no one judge you in eating or drinking, or regarding a feast or a new moon or sabbaths.

“At first he spoke in general terms: beware (Col. 2:4, 8). Now more specifically he indicates what you must beware of, after he has set forth before this the description of the blessings in Christ Jesus. He, as it were, says: if you have received so great things, why then do you subject yourselves to such small things?” (from holy Chrysostom and blessed Theophylact). “The hope of life is in Christ Jesus, and the hope of salvation in Him does not allow us to mix with it submission to some superstition or legal custom. Therefore one should not pay attention to those who make a noise among you and whisper something inconsistent with faith in Christ” (Ambrosiaster).

The false teaching was covered by Jewish legality, and the false teachers probably were of Jewish descent. Perhaps they were descendants of those Jews whom, according to the testimony of Josephus Flavius, Antiochus transplanted from the east to South Phrygia, numbering 2000 families. They could have brought from there also Eastern reasonings, to which, mixing Greek philosophizing here, they from all three glued together a particular system of false teaching, adapting it also to Christianity. From Jewish customs they retained, it appears, only the rules about eating and drinking and the observance of festivals yearly, monthly and weekly and, as is very probable, circumcision. The Apostle, as if in passing, spoke above about the unsuitability of circumcision for Christians. Now he directly speaks against Jewish customs with respect to foods and festivals.

“Let no one judge you.” Let no one judge you for not observing such and such Jewish customs. But what then should we do, someone would ask? Observe them to avoid judgment? No, not observe them, but not take such judgments to heart and not pay attention to them. Let them judge; you do not look at that. — Probably among the means of persuasion these reasoners used irony or mockery, which can act powerfully and, when it meets with weak conviction, can completely dispel it. The Apostle admonishes: do not yield to the impression of judgment; it is empty. “Do not submit, he says, to those who judge you” (holy Chrysostom). “Do not in the least be carried away by those attempting to sow in you legal observances” (blessed Theodoret). “He, as if, praises them as keeping themselves from Judaism” (blessed Theophylact) and thereby encourages them to resist those who draw into it.

“In eating or drinking.” In the Law it was specifically prescribed what to eat and what not to eat. The prohibition was based on the usefulness and non-usefulness of foods according to the climate there; and moral lessons flowing from the properties of forbidden animals and birds were kept in view. But as those reasoners went into falsehood, it is very probable that they wove into this some absurd divinations according to the spirit of their false teaching. The Law speaks only of foods; concerning drink a rule was set down only for Nazarites. Therefore it can be inferred that those reasoners acted as perpetual Nazarites and made the rules of Nazaritehood obligatory on all. The Essenes seemed to be perpetually observing Nazaritehood. Perhaps the Colossian reasoners were from this sect.

“Or in respect of a feast.” — of some of the great annual festivals: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles and others. These festivals they could not observe fully: by distance they could not go to Jerusalem every year, and at home, celebrating, they could not perform all that constituted the festival. Therefore the Apostle said: “in respect of a feast.” “He did not say: (in observance of the festival) of Tabernacles, or Unleavened Bread, or Pentecost, but: ‘in respect of a feast’; for they did not dare to keep all; and if they did keep, not as festivals. He speaks of a part, showing that the greater part was already abandoned, they did not retain all of old” (holy Chrysostom). But it can also be inferred that the reasoners restructured all related to this in their own way, so that from the old they took only some things.

This “in respect of a feast” was taken from the arrangements of celebration and new moons with Sabbaths. Not all related to this could they observe. Despite the fact, however, that such celebration, cut short and changed, was no longer fully Jewish, the Apostle does not want the Colossians to touch it. It is so contrary to the spirit of Christianity. The Apostle does not generally turn away from festivals, but from celebrating on certain days in the spirit of Judaism or that false teaching which went about among the Colossians. To have festivals and celebrate them is an inseparable part of faith, inasmuch as faith exists, whatever it may be. We are so constituted. All faiths have them, but each in its own spirit. And Christianity has its own festivals, but in its own spirit.

Col. 2:17. Which are shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

“Which” directly points only to what was said before, to festivals and foods; but the thought of the Apostle is general. He spoke thus in the same sense as we say: this is all, meaning not only the types indicated, but the entire class to which they belong, that is the whole Law, all the ordinances of the Old Testament. “A shadow”—a shadow of things to come or blessings, in general what was to be and what was awaited. As one seeing a shadow rightly concludes that there is a body giving this shadow, and from the outlines of the shadow draws conclusions about the form of the body itself, kindling by all this desire to see the body itself; so the Old Testament ordinances were so drawn as to point to the future, to foreshadow it as much as possible, and to arouse desire to soon see the fulfillment of what was portrayed by them. To nourish this desire and expectation was the chief purpose of all ordinances. Consequently, they themselves had nothing essential in themselves, as shadow does not have it, and significance they had only temporary. But though they are shadow, still they should not be abandoned until the body comes. The Apostle adds: the body has come—Christ the Lord. The body, from which the shadow fell and gave being to the ordinances of the Law, is Christ the Lord. Everything there pointed to Him. And consequently, with His coming it should cease. He came—and the shadow ceased. Whoever sees the body will not look at the shadow, and if he were to do so, he would offend the body itself and clearly show his foolishness. So also here. The Lord has come; look upon Him, and let the shadow pass by, as something transient. Here is what our commentators said about this. “The Apostle called the Law ‘a shadow of things to come,’ teaching that by it was prefigured the grace of the New Covenant. The Gospel life presents the body; the Law—‘a shadow’; the shadow, with the appearance of light, precedes the body. The Law is shadow, grace is body, but Master Christ is light” (blessed Theodoret). “The Old Testament was shadow; the body, that is the truth, is Christ’s. What need then to seize upon the shadow when the body is present?” (blessed Theophylact). “All given through Moses was a shadow or image of things to come, so that when the truth appears, the image ceases. As in the absence of an emperor his image has weight, but in his presence does not; so also this (given through Moses) before the coming of the Lord ought to have been observed, but in His presence it now has no significance. Can anyone who acts as a substitute for his master in his absence, even when the master is present, act as master? If the vicars of prefects (governors), when they themselves are present, become as private citizens; how much more a slave (who was substituting for his master), when his master is present, should appear himself alongside others in obedience to him?” (Ambrosiaster).

Col. 2:18. Let no one cheat you of your reward, delighting in humility and the worship of angels, puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind.

“Disqualify,” κατα­βραβεύετω. — Βραβεῖον—the prize for victory on the racing tracks, in modern terms a prize. “Judges of the competitors are called βραβευτάς; for they determine who won the victory. Κατα­βραβεύειν—means to incorrectly βραβεύειν, to incorrectly determine who owns the victory” (blessed Theodoret). “This word is used when one gains victory, but another receives the prize,—when the victor is wronged, deprived” (holy Chrysostom). — Otherwise it can be expressed thus: to cause someone not to receive a prize. Κατα­βραβεύειν,—in structure, looks like: καταργεῖν. This means: to destroy or ruin what has been made, but that means: to un-reward, to cause one not to receive a reward. The Colossians are represented as running as on a race track. The Apostle admonishes them: beware lest someone cause you not to receive a prize. You are running—will run, but when you reach the finish, you will not be given a prize. How can they do this to you? By teaching you not to run correctly. For one running incorrectly, competing unlawfully, is not crowned (2 Tim. 2:5). But how could they do this? By disturbing the faith of the Colossians, drawing them from true faith and teaching them to believe incorrectly. The Colossians were running correctly, hoping to receive the Kingdom of Heaven; running correctly because they ran after the Lord Jesus Christ, relying on Him alone by their faith and hope. If someone should suggest to them, and they accept—to rely by faith and hope on someone else or on something else—then they will begin to run incorrectly. They will still be running and bearing the labor of running, and having the expectation that they will receive a crown; but when they reach the end, they will not receive what they expected; they will be told: on whom you placed your hope, go to him to receive crowns. But no one has these crowns except the Lord. His is the Kingdom, His are the crowns. All others, whoever might be proposed in His place,—are nothing. And there will be bitter and most bitter deception. Holy Paul imprints this entire picture on the minds of the Colossians in one word: “Let no one κατα­βραβεύετω—disqualify you.” How strongly it must have repelled them from the false teachers, when the thought formed in their minds what deception, what malice toward them was hidden in their teaching? Holy Chrysostom among other things explained this word by: ἐπηρεάζετω,—which means: to ruin, to harm, to pour in evil; and concluded that holy Paul intended by this word to arouse indignation in the Colossians toward the false teachers. And success was assured. He wished to impress upon them: do not allow yourselves to be deceived or tricked by such a bitter and destructive deception. Who consciously would go to deception and to destruction?!

But the Apostle would not have accomplished everything if, having said: do not yield to deception, he had not indicated who and how approaches them with deception. Who then? He who approaches with false humility and worship of angels. “With false humility,” θέλων ἐν ταπεινοφροσύνῃ,—a difficult-to-translate expression. — Oecumenius writes: “let no one deceive you, wishing to do this, that is to deceive by humility.” Theophylact so paraphrases the whole place: “after he fills them with indignation, showing that they wish to deal wickedly with them, deprive them of reward,—the Apostle sets forth the very heretical dogma, saying: they wish to deprive you of reward, deceiving by false humility.” It comes out: let no one deceive you, wishing to deceive by humility. Θέλων they refer to the preceding words, not to: “humility.” One can refer θέλων also to: “no one,”—in the sense: no one, whoever wishes; do not allow anyone who wishes to deceive you. The strength of the speech, however, does not lie in this word: θέλων; therefore one can not pursue an exact translation of it. The strength of the speech is in the false humility.

What is this false humility? Perhaps these deceivers also appeared to be humble in outward appearance, poorly dressed, poorly fed, poorly living, uncombed, unwashed, speaking quietly and timidly, with eyes cast down. All this and similar can be supposed of them, knowing that among their convictions stood harsh treatment of the body. Such an appearance indeed deceives, riveting attention to the speeches of those appearing in it, on the supposition of something higher in such persons.

But our commentators all understand the humility as a part of the teaching of these deceivers, and the initial part. They began thus: it is too much for us for the Son of God to descend to us to bring us to the Heavenly Father. It is enough for us to be brought to Him through Angels. And they arranged, as a consequence of this beginning, some special worship of Angels, θρησκεία. Holy Chrysostom says: “what does: ‘by false humility’ mean? Some said that we should be brought (to God) not through Christ, but through Angels; because bringing through Christ is greater than how much is necessary for us.” The same we read in blessed Theophylact—“it is unworthy, they said, of the dignity of the Only-Begotten (to teach) that the Only-Begotten brings us to the Father, for this is more than accords with human littleness. Therefore it is more becoming (to hold) that Angels served our being brought (to the Father). Proceeding from this thought, they introduced special worship of Angels and persuaded the simple-hearted to turn to them as to our saviors.” Blessed Theodoret expresses the same thought more generally: “being guided by false humility, they said that God of all is invisible, inaccessible and incomprehensible, and that through Angels one ought to acquire God’s favor. This is what the Apostle means in the words: ‘by false humility and worship of angels.’”

This position, that God is inaccessible and that between Him and creatures, even in the matter of creation, there must be mediators, was the starting point for the Gnostics, and later for Arius. If indeed this constituted the false humility of the Colossian deceivers, then it cannot be not seen in them the seed of Gnostics, which developed in the second century, and from the known teaching of Gnostics about heavenly powers to explain in what consisted also the unknown teaching about Angels of the Colossian reasoners. The Gnostics taught that God is infinitely powerful. A creature cannot withstand His action. Therefore, for a creature to come into being, there first had to come into being a whole series of heavenly powers, which, beginning from those nearest to God, all the more diminished in dignity and strength and approached creatures known to us on earth. Among them are encountered names: both Christ and Jesus and Church and demiurges—builders of the world. They called them zones, but evidently these are heavenly powers, or Angels, the significance of which in the chain of creation was incorrectly understood. — If one recognizes the kinship of the Gnostics with the Colossian reasoners, then these positions can somewhat clarify how they viewed Angels and why they especially taught to turn to them.

Whatever this worship of Angels consisted of, it is evident from history that it took strong root in those places and persisted there for a long time. So that the Fathers of the Local Laodicean Council in Phrygia (365 AD) had to pay attention to it and in the 35th canon forbade it. This canon reads thus: “Christians ought not to abandon the Church of God and depart and call upon Angels and hold assemblies. This is rejected. Therefore, if anyone is found engaged in such secret idol-worship, let him be anathema: because he abandoned our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and turned to idol-worship.” In our edition of the canons a note is appended to this: “condemned are heretics who do not pray to God and Christ, but only to Angels, as if to creators and rulers of the world.” The kinship of these angel-worshippers with the Colossians is pointed out by blessed Theodoret in the commentary on the Epistle to them: “this attachment (to angel-worship) long persisted in Phrygia and Pisidium. Therefore, the Council which convened in Laodicea of Phrygia, by a law forbade prayer to Angels.” The Council canon calls the angel-worship that was there secret; probably the assemblies were also secret, and in them something was done by which they hoped to enter into communion with Angels. Was not this something similar to the gatherings of our spiritualists, and with some procedures and actions similar to those which are among the latter? Every way the spirit is one and there and here: those drew away from Christ the Saviour, and these do the same. If thus one places our spiritualists in kinship with the angel-worshippers condemned at the Laodicean Council, and these—with the angel-worshippers whom holy Paul condemns in the Epistle to the Colossians; then here is the Apostolic judgment against spiritualists.

“Which have not seen, claiming to have seen.” — “Have not seen,” μὴ ἑόρακεν,—what they did not see. “Claiming to have seen,” ἐμβατεύων,—into that entering. Ἐμβατεύειν—to enter: to enter into something with the mind—to investigate, to teach; to enter into something by word—to narrate. The Colossian reasoners, if they were akin to the Gnostics, spoke as if first from God issued such a power, from this then such another, from the combination of them—such and such, and from the combination of these—still other and still other. They spoke as if they walked in heaven and told what they saw there, whereas in reality they saw nothing. Holy Paul exposes them, that “they, never having seen Angels, assert about them this and that, as if having seen them” (blessed Theophylact in accord with holy Chrysostom).

“Puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind.” — “Without cause,” εἰκῇ,—vainly puffed up, when there was nothing to be puffed up about, “not being puffed up by something real, but by his empty opinion” (holy Chrysostom). — “By his fleshly mind,” “by carnal, not spiritual mind” (holy Chrysostom), by a mind reasoning according to fleshly principles, carnalized, coarsened, unable to rise to the height of contemplating Christian dogmas such as the Son of God and God, one in substance with the Father, was incarnate and wrought the salvation of our race. “Does not the coarseness of their mind appear from the fact that they cannot grasp and receive the clearly stated truths about the Lord?” “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16); and again: “for them I sanctify Myself” (Jn. 17:19); again: “I lay down My life for My sheep” (Jn. 10:15–17). Many and other similar places (blessed Theophylact). Such truths they do not grasp, but are puffed up. The inventions of their mind seemed to them higher than divinely revealed truths; and they were puffed up by their reasoning, looking down on believers who believed in simplicity of heart, without intellectual prying. Puffedness led to stubbornness, and they probably resisted every admonition. “They were puffed up, as stubborn dogmatists not even permitting that true teaching be proposed to them” (blessed Theophylact).

But how did they presume to deceive by false humility, while at the same time being puffed up? “This shows that everything in them proceeded from vainglory” (holy Chrysostom). “There is no contradiction here; for by false humility they only covered themselves, while in reality they were possessed by the passion of pride” (blessed Theodoret). “Their humility was apparent, not true. They did not have humility, but only spoke humbly: the Only-Begotten would be sacrificed for us,—this is more than is required for men (not in their measure, not befitting them)” (blessed Theophylact).

Col. 2:19. And not holding the Head, from which all the body, being supplied and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase of God.

They went to Angels but turned away from the Lord Saviour, whereas the body of the Church is both constituted by the Lord and stands and lives by Him, that is, everyone who is saved is saved only in the Lord. From this it is evident that those reasoners both perish themselves and will lead you to perdition. “As soon as you separated from the Head, you perished” (holy Chrysostom).

By the Head evidently the Apostle means Christ the Saviour, the Son of God and God incarnate, of Whom even in the first chapter he said that He is “the Head of the body, the Church” (Col. 1:18). To hold fast to this Head one can do by faith in the Lord, by conviction of the truth concerning Him, by love, by devotedness, by hope of salvation in Him, in general by being in living, conscious and rational communion with Him and by placing one’s salvation in Him alone. Those who turned to Angels lost all this: through that they fell away from Christ the Lord, and further from God the Father, and stand outside the order life-giving,—which by the very Saviour was determined thus: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20).

“From whom the entire body.” “The Apostle again named Master Christ the Head, and the composition of the Church—the body. And he spoke everything in a transferred sense” (blessed Theodoret). To understand the sense of the figure of speech, one must first clarify the figure of speech itself. What happens to the body? That it “grows with the growth that God provides.” How? “By joints and ligaments supplied and held together.” By itself? No; all this comes from the head. The words: “by joints and ligaments supplied and held together” are difficult to understand; for this reason it is difficult to understand what they mean. The general thought of the figure is this: the body of the Church, under the action of its Head, grows within itself the growth that God provides, that is, living the divine life, it multiplies, strengthens and increases this life. The words: “by joints and ligaments supplied and held together”—indicate the manner in which this is done. What could this mean? To understand this, one must determine what these words could mean when applied to our body. Let us distribute the words thus: “ligaments supplied,”—“joints held together”: for it is evident that this is how they must relate. “Joints held together,” διὰ συνδέσμων συμβιβαζόμενον,—is not so hard to understand. Σύνδεσμοι—ligaments by which different parts of the body are joined; and: συμβιβάζειν—means to fit one part to another, to fit together one with another. It will be: different parts of the body, fitted and fitted together, are bound by ligaments and held in this complex form. This directly points to the system of bones and muscles which determine the structure of the body. But the words: “ligaments supplied,” διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν ἐπιχορηγουμένον,—are somewhat obscure. Ἁφή—does not have one meaning alone; it means—touch, contact, the action of taking and a bond. Which meaning to take in the present place depends on: ἐπιχορηγουμένον. — Ἐπιχορηγεῖν—has one meaning: to supply, to furnish, to add to what has already been supplied or given. Ἐπιχορηγουμένον—will be: being supplied. To this from the meanings of ἁφή can only apply the action of taking, the receiving by which what is supplied is taken. It will be: the body, what is supplied to it, it takes and assimilates—and thereby lives and grows. This points to the system of nourishment. But both these systems would remain inactive if they were not animated by nerves: from the head go nerves, spreading throughout the whole body, and, animating the organs of nutrition with muscles, make them act according to their purpose and thereby maintain the life of the body.

Accepting such interpretation as sufficient, we will not have difficulty in understanding it figuratively. The system of bones with muscles determining the structure of the body in the Church of God corresponds to its visible structure: under the Apostles and Prophets, pastors and teachers of the Church stand all Christians, each with a special gift for the benefit of the Church; all are bound by mutual submission, love and zeal for the common spiritual good. “What in the body are joints, that in the composition of the Church are Apostles, Prophets and teachers,”—says blessed Theodoret. The system of nourishment in the Church corresponds to all the ways by which knowledge of divinely revealed truths and the outpouring of divine grace are communicated to believers, especially by the preaching of God’s word and the divine sacraments. By them is supplied what alone can nourish the Church and cause it to grow with the growth that God provides, namely: grace and truth. The nerves going out from the head and pervading and animating the whole body are Christ the Lord Himself, Who both holds together the composition of the body of the Church and pervades it with His life-giving power. Blessed Theodoret writes: “as in the body the brain is the root of nerves, and through the nerves the body receives sensation; so the body of the Church from Master Christ receives both the sources of teaching and the instruments of salvation.”

The entire figure can be paraphrased thus: those reasoners do not hold fast to the Head, that is to Christ the Lord, from Whom all the body of the Church, being supplied and receiving the nourishing elements spiritual—grace and truth, and being held together in its composition closely united by the spirit of peace and love, grows with divine life, acquiring ever greater and greater numbers of members and raising all to the highest perfection in life according to God.

To the words cited above of blessed Theodoret let us add what others said on this place. Oecumenius writes: “Christ is the Head both of Angels and of men, as Creator and Arranger of all things. From Him, that is from Christ,—all the body of the Church. Having said: ‘body,’—the Apostle adds what is proper to a body. All, he says, the body of the Church,—being, through receiving from Christ, supplied with all grace and being fitted together and united through joints and ligaments, that is being made peaceful both in itself and in relation to Christ,—grows with growth according to God. What is this growth according to God? Growth not in body, but in life according to God.” Here are the words of blessed Theophylact: “The Head of the Church is the Son of God, Christ the Lord; and the Church is His body. From Him the body of the Church has both simply existence and good existence. Whoever falls away from Him perishes. As from the brain the sensitive spirit through the nerves is transmitted to the whole body,—and from the head all feeling and all movement; so all the body of the Church from Christ is supplied, that is, receives what (or so that) to live and grow spiritually. When does it have this? When it is united (when it is well fitted together) with Him (and itself in itself). For only in such a case does the Holy Spirit supply the body with what to grow: so that if the body is not united by a living union both with the Head and with itself or in itself, then there is neither supply of the Spirit nor growth that God provides, that is the best life according to God.”