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The apostle now proceeds to deduce the practical consequences of our fellowship in the death of Christ. "If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using) after the precepts and doctrines of men?"

I. MARK THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF OUR SHARING IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

1. Fellowship in Christ's death. "We are buried with him by baptism unto death" (Romans 6:3-9). We are united with Christ in his death. Community in death involves community in life, and thus our death with Christ involves not only

(1) death to sin (Romans 6:2),

(2) death to self (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15); but

(3) death to the Law (Romans 7:6; Galatians 2:14),

(4) death to the world (Galatians 6:14), and

(5) death "from the rudiments of the world" (Colossians 2:20).

2. The inconsistency of this fellowship with a mere ritualistic religion.

(1) Such a religion is rudimentary, disciplinary, designed for the infancy of the Church, not for its period of adult experience and privilege. Christ by his death wiped out these rudiments which have their sphere in the visible life of the world. They are but "weak and beggarly elements," from which we are forever separated by the death of Christ. In him all things have become new. Christians cannot, therefore, live in that which Christ died to take away. Besides, Christians are living no longer in the world. "They are not of the world;" yet, if they submitted to its ordinances, they were "as though living in the world." They had been called out of the world to be of another body, of which Christ is the Head. Therefore they were not to be conformed to the fashion of the world (Romans 12:2).

(2) A ritualistic religion is usually negative rather than positive in its character, being strong in the clement of prohibition: "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch." The apostle repeats the prohibitions of the false teachers in their own words. They, believing that matter was essentially evil, resolved upon reducing our contact with it in its most familiar forms to a minimum. The prohibitions here referred to go far beyond the Levitical enactments, which had no ascetic tendency. The Essenes, who were forerunners of the Colossian errorists, shunned oil, wine, flesh, meat, and contact with a stranger. Mark how rigorous and precise these errorists were in their outward observances. They were like the Pharisees of old, who cared not for the weightier matters of the Law, but tithed mint and anise and cummin. They attributed an intrinsic value to things that were fleeting: "All which things perish in the using;" leaving no spiritual result: "For meat commendeth us not to God; for neither if we eat are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse" (1 Corinthians 8:8). Our Lord himself said it was not that which "entereth the mouth which defileth a man "(Matthew 15:16, 17).

(3) A ritualistic religion is always marked by "the precepts and doctrines of men." Many of the Jewish ordinances were handed down by tradition and had no warrant in the written Word of God. Therefore our Lord said, "They teach for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).

II. THE PRETENTIOUS WORTHLESSNESS OF THIS ASCETIC RITUALISM. "Which things, indeed, have a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and severity to the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh."

1. Its reputation for wisdom. It had a show of wisdom without the reality, for it affected an air of extreme piety, of profound regard for God, and of deep knowledge in Divine things. All its ritualistic observances would be recommended by the plea that they tended to promote piety. The repute of wisdom was manifested in three things.

(1) Will worship, or service beyond what God requires - in a word, superstition. This is the origin of penances and pilgrimages and festivals in Romanism. They are supposed to promote piety, but they have "a mere show of wisdom." They charge God with folly, as if be did not know what was most conducive to piety, and they involve a tacit claim to amend God's ordinances. But God loves obedience better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22), and may well ask such ritualists, "Who hath required this at your hands?" (Isaiah 1:12). Will worship has been the great corrupter of pure religion.

(2) Humility. It is a studied and affected humility, not resting on a basis of faith and love, but consciously cultivated, and therefore not inconsistent with spiritual pride. "Pride may be pampered while the flesh grows lean."

(3) Severity to the body.

(a) There seems a show of wisdom in this habit, because an apostle found it wise "to keep his body under" (1 Corinthians 9:27), and the Colossian ascetics might have pleaded that they could thus enhance their spiritual insight.

(b) But such severity to the body is expressly condemned.

(α

) Religion belongs to the body as well as the soul. The body, "so fearfully and wonderfully made," becomes "a temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Its members are to be "yielded as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). We are to offer our bodies as "living sacrifices," not dead or mutilated or maimed sacrifices. There is, therefore, nothing religious in whipping the body, like the Flagellants, or in denying it necessary food, or in arraying it in dirty or ragged clothing. "The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit," not a macerated body. We must keep up our bodily vigour for the discharge of the duties of life, so that the body may serve the Spirit.

(β

) There may be a corrupt heart under an ascetic habit of body. Spiritual pride may dwell there in power.

2. Its failure to accomplish its chief end. "But are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh."

(1) This ascetic rigour is designed as a check upon sensual indulgence. There seems "a show of wisdom" in such a method.

(2) But it is no check to such self indulgence, as the history of asceticism proves. The monastic life, while it seemed hostile to self indulgence, made way, as by a sort of back door, to all sorts of sensual extravagance. - T.C.

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KJV: Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

WEB: If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,