This verse was written by Paul to the Colossian Christians when false teachers infiltrated the church. He wrote: “let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of any holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come”.
Today’s church has interpreted this passage to mean that God sanctions the cancellation of the sabbath and feasts. Many scholars think this is a misinterpretation.
The letter to the Colossians was written to a church of Christian gentiles whose church had false teachers that infiltrated them. These false men taught not to touch, not to taste, not to handle as the Colossians were doing as they enjoyed the feasts and Sabbaths. They taught Gnosticism, whose teachings were to not be part of anything physical but keep to the spiritual. The Lord teaches to celebrate, be joyful, feast at God’s festivals.
Paul warns against following men’s direction rather than the Lord’s, yet this verse is interpreted to mean that we are not to be judged if we follow the dates set up by men rather than God. It is men who decided that Sunday should be the sabbath because the discovery of Christ being gone from the grave was on Sunday, not because of a scripture teaching.
We are taught how to interpret scripture, and one way is to remember all the characteristics of God and know each verse is by a God with these characteristics. One characteristic is that God is eternal and never changes. What God tells us in Genesis is the same as what God tells us in Revelation. If God teaches to listen to God not man in one place, we are to know it applies in every case. Because God taught through ordering physical acts like special diet and cutting flesh and changed to teach these things through the Holy Spirit, people say God changed, but God didn’t. They teach he same things. Changing the way of telling us the same things is not a fundamental change.
What many believe Paul was teaching in Col. 2:16 was to go ahead to the joy of the celebrations that are shadows of things to come.
It is quite a new interpretation, what do you think?
Today’s church has interpreted this passage to mean that God sanctions the cancellation of the sabbath and feasts. Many scholars think this is a misinterpretation.
The letter to the Colossians was written to a church of Christian gentiles whose church had false teachers that infiltrated them. These false men taught not to touch, not to taste, not to handle as the Colossians were doing as they enjoyed the feasts and Sabbaths. They taught Gnosticism, whose teachings were to not be part of anything physical but keep to the spiritual. The Lord teaches to celebrate, be joyful, feast at God’s festivals.
Paul warns against following men’s direction rather than the Lord’s, yet this verse is interpreted to mean that we are not to be judged if we follow the dates set up by men rather than God. It is men who decided that Sunday should be the sabbath because the discovery of Christ being gone from the grave was on Sunday, not because of a scripture teaching.
We are taught how to interpret scripture, and one way is to remember all the characteristics of God and know each verse is by a God with these characteristics. One characteristic is that God is eternal and never changes. What God tells us in Genesis is the same as what God tells us in Revelation. If God teaches to listen to God not man in one place, we are to know it applies in every case. Because God taught through ordering physical acts like special diet and cutting flesh and changed to teach these things through the Holy Spirit, people say God changed, but God didn’t. They teach he same things. Changing the way of telling us the same things is not a fundamental change.
What many believe Paul was teaching in Col. 2:16 was to go ahead to the joy of the celebrations that are shadows of things to come.
It is quite a new interpretation, what do you think?
- 1
- Show all