Colossians 2

In the second chapter of his epistle to the Colossians Paul writes some things that have been drastically misunderstood by many interpreters in the history of the church since its drift in the second century. These people think that Paul is speaking against the law of God and claiming that it came to an end at the cross. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s take a look and see what Paul was actually talking about.

First, he warns his readers against “the rudiments” or basic principles (stoicheia) of the world. (2:8) It’s not entirely clear what he’s referring to, but he uses the same phrase again in 2:20 and in Galatians 4:3. The phrase is thought by some to refer to the law, since it’s used in Galatians in a way that could be seen as parallel to his discussion of the law. We’ll take up that passage in a later post. But in Colossians 2 he gives enough description that it’s clear he isn’t talking about the law.

When he first mentions it in 2:8, he describes it as “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition.” There is no way that Paul would talk about the law in these terms. The law was clearly from God, not from men. Again in 2:22 he describes them as “based on human commands and teachings”, which is clearly not true of the law. It seems instead that what he is referring to is something like the Greek philosophy of asceticism, which favors denying yourself physical pleasures. Paul clearly denounces this philosophy.

In the bulk of the passage, Paul has two issues in mind, two obstacles that the Colossians face that have both been overcome by Christ’s work on the cross. They are both enumerated in verse 13. The first is the fact that these Colossians are Gentiles, not members of God’s people, Israel. “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh…” (KJV) He mentions two ways in which they were dead, and one was their uncircumcision.

Throughout the New Testament the idea of circumcision is used as a kind of shorthand for being Jewish (or for conversion to Judaism). Throughout the Old Testament Gentiles are referred to as uncircumcised, and that’s the sense that is used here. “Flesh” here means the actual skin, physical circumcision, not some supposed reference to a sin nature.

But though these people in Colossae have the disadvantage of being Gentiles, Paul explains the solution through Christ. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (2:11 KJV). Here Paul is talking about a spiritual “circumcision”, accomplished through faith in Christ, that makes these Gentile believers one with the covenant people of Israel.

Paul uses other metaphors for this process in other epistles. In Romans 11 he compares it to wild olive branches being grafted onto a cultivated olive tree. In Ephesians 2 he alludes to the same metaphor of circumcision, but describes them as once being far away (from Israel and the covenants) but being brought near (Eph. 2:11-13). In Eph. 2:16-21 he uses the metaphor of a building, made of Jews and Gentiles, and in Eph. 3:6 he says that “through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus.” The metaphors are many, but the underlying truth is that Gentile believers become identified with the covenant people of Israel through their faith.

We need to keep this context in mind when we analyze Paul’s instructions in verse 16 and following. When these Gentiles who are newly identified as part of Israel begin living according to God’s instructions, they will be criticized by surrounding pagan Gentiles for “living like Jews”. But Paul tells them not to pay any attention to these criticisms. The things he mentions: eating and drinking, festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths, are all part of God’s instructions to his people for how to live. And Paul points out that they are foreshadowings of the future kingdom of God when the law will be the rule of life (Isaiah 2:3) and Jesus himself will be the enforcer.

The other obstacle that Paul mentions in verse 13 is their actual sins, which Paul mentions at the end of the verse with the word for transgressions or trespasses. Throughout the New Testament sin is defined as a transgression of the law. (I John 3:4; Romans 7:7) All, including the Colossians, are transgressors of God’s law, and therefore sinners. It is that sin and the guilt for it that was nailed to the cross. Some translations obscure this dynamic, but the KJV says, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” (2:14)

It’s ridiculous to think that the law was done away and nailed to the cross. Besides both Jesus (Matt. 5:17) and Paul (Rom. 3:31) affirming the continuity of the law in the strongest possible terms, the termination of the law would mean that nobody since Christ would have any guilt for sin. That is certainly contrary to the intent of all scripture. It’s clear that what was nailed to the cross was the guilty verdict against us, occasioned by the law, of course, because the law defines sin.

If we understand Paul, clearly described in Acts, as a Torah-observant Jew, we won’t be tempted to misread isolated instances in his epistles as opposition to the law or claims that it was done away. That’s not what Jesus taught, and it’s not really what Paul taught either.