I. THE COLOSSIANS-concluded.
We now come to the third error in doctrine from which the apostle seeks to deliver the Colossians.
The worship of angels. The distance thus placed between the Creator and the creature, and the introduction of a crowd of intermediate beings, gave room for the worship of angels-mediators who could approach God on behalf of man. In like manner now, the Roman Catholics recognize the intercession of the mother of our Lord, and also that of the saints. The true object of worship is the One who is at once the Redeemer and the Head of all principality and power.
There is abundant evidence that the worship of angels was a custom among the Jews, and in later days was practiced by many of the sects of the first centuries of Christianity, and at one time at any rate it was prevalent in the district round Colosse. We have already mentioned that at a late; date a Church was erected in the city in honor of the archangel Michael; and we have referred to a Council held in the neighboring city of Laodicea about the year 300 A.D., at which, among other decrees, one was passed strongly condemning and forbidding angel-worship. " Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things that he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. (Chapter 2:18). There is at first sight an appearance of humility, a taking of the low place, as though unworthy to directly approach God; but it is a false humility, may we not say a pride, which under the garb of humility, seeks to pry into those things which God has not been pleased to reveal to us.
But there is more than this. It is a practical denial of the glory of the person and of the value of the work of Christ. He alone can be the mediator between God and man, and by His work He has brought us into union with Himself, and has given us an entrance into the Father's house. The worship of intermediate beings is a denial of His mediatorship, and of the close place of intimacy into which He has brought us. This brings us to the consideration of our fourth point.
4th. Loss of the sense of union with Christ. The links in the chain of our association with Christ, as given in scripture, are very interesting: crucified, dead, buried, quickened, raised with Christ, and made to sit in heavenly places in Him.
The christian is now brought into vital union with Christ (he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Cor. 6:77Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (1 Corinthians 6:7)); he is a member of that body of which Christ is the Head. As in nature, the separation of the body from the head is fatal, so is it with that mystical body, which is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. If the members of the body forget, in practice, their links with the Head, it is impossible that there can be healthy progress in the things of God. The introduction of any intermediate being whose presence can prevent the enjoyment of the intimacy of our union with Christ, is fatal to the well-being of the body. How beautifully expressive are the words used by the apostle in illustration of the figure: " not holding the Head, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." The consequences of the failure which the apostle saw in the Colossians being so disastrous, we can well understand the fervency of his prayer on their behalf (See Chapter 1:28; 2:3).
5th. The value and the effects of the work of Christ depreciated and supplemented. In this connection we may note the striking difference between the language used by the apostle to the Colossians, and the Galatians. In the case of the latter, the danger was a denial of the value of the work of Christ, as setting the believer in fullness of acceptance before God. Ignoring the fact that everything needful had been wrought by Christ (as expressed elsewhere, "by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"), they were seeking to be made perfect by keeping the law. Theirs was a fatal error: they became debtors to keep the whole law, and gave up grace, by which alone man can be justified before God. It was a denial of the fundamental principle of the gospel.
With the Colossians it was far otherwise: theirs, too, was an error as to the work of Christ, but more with regard to its elects on the practical walk of the believer. Does it put him in a place and give him a power to walk worthy of God (a walk of liberty and not of bondage), or is he to be fenced in on every hand by restrictions and ordinances? We here see at once the introduction of a Jewish element; but mingled with it, as we shall find, heathen thoughts.
In our Lord's exposure of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, as for example in Mark 7:1-231Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. 5Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. 14And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:1‑23), we see how much they had added by their traditions to the law of Moses: in later times, other sects of the Jews went much further in their rigid adherence to an exaggerated ritual. We have before alluded (p. 180) to the thought of the heathen philosopher that matter in itself is evil: the natural body, they considered, was to be regarded as vile, to be subdued and mortified in every possible way, so that the soul might be free and untrammeled. Where-ever Jew and heathen met, there would be a mingling of these two principles-an adherence to an exaggerated ritual, and an asceticism which regarded the body as vile, and in every way to be mortified. These elements, which we find from history were present in most Jewish colonies, are exactly those against which the apostle contends (see Chapter 2:20-23).
But ordinances and asceticism are concerned with the body: they recognize it as living, and to be dealt with. The apostle shows that with Christ we are dead, and that therefore the body has no claim to recognition at all; save, that as being the creature of God, it is entitled to a respect which asceticism denies. The work of Christ, then, is the answer to these errors: through it the believer is dead-dead to the rudiments and principles of the world; and must not subject himself to ordinances which suppose an existence in the world.
We may note that the keeping of the sabbath (v. 16) was one of the errors condemned at the Council already referred to, as having been held at Laodicea, about A.D. 300.
But if the apostle points out the errors of the false teachers, he does not leave the Colossian saints without the antidote. The truth that the believer has died with Christ may show that ordinances have now no place, but it does not give power for a godly walk: there is needed an object on which the eye of faith can rest, and by which the new life can be sustained.
We would conclude with the apostle's own words, so needed to-day, earnestly desiring that they may find a place in the heart of each reader: " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."