The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 136

ncnce frum the use of wine. The sacred times are classed according to their frequency. There were the thrco great annual feasts (extendincr each over a week) of the Passover Pentecost, 1111d Tabernacles. Every month comme;ced with a. celebration. And th~ weelcly sabbath (older than Jewish institutions) had its special services. The false teachers who sought to impose these institutions on the Colossi an Christians were Essenes. These went far beyond the Pharisees. They ate no animal food, drank no wine. They would not light a fire, move a. vessel, perform the most ordinary functions of life on the sabba.th. Everything material was inherently evil and was not to be touched more than was absolutely necessary. The apostle claims, against these teachers, on behalf of the Colossians, that they were not to be judged in respect of their non- observance of Jewish institutions. And the ground on which he docs so is this. These institutions (in their purity, and not as exaggerated in Essenism) were only shadows of the things to come. They were connected with what was substantiril (and therefore were channels of blessing so long as they lasted), but Christians, having got the sub- stantial in Christ, arc necessarily freed from the shadowy in the Law. No conclusion i~ to be drawn from this adverse to gospel institutions. "We may observe," says Alfonl, commenting on this passage, "that, if the ordinance of the sabbath had been in any form of lasting obligation on the Christian Church, it would have been quite impossible for the apostle to have used this language." This carried out would take the ground from under all gospel institutions. '!'here would be no sign whatever now, connected with our religion, the reality having come. Liberation frum all form is not certainly the New Testament idea. An argument may be drawn from the context. Circumcision was a shadow of the coming reality, viz. tbe putting off of the body of the flesh (death to the old). 'Ibis reality we have now in Christ, but it does not therefore follow that it is disconnected from all positive institution. On the other hand, it is the teaching of the apostle that the same reality has been pnt into the gospel institution of baptism. Another argument may be drawn from the text itself. One of the feasts referred to is the Passover. The Paschal lamb was a shadow of the coming reality, viz. the sacrifice of Christ. But that great gospel reality has not been disenshrined. On the contrary, it has been put into au institution, which is to last till the close of the earthly order of things. So with the sabbath. It foreshadowed the reality of rest in Christ. We have now got the substance, but still the substance has been put into the institution of the Lord's day, in which it will remain till all earthly institutions are done away. Only there is this to be remembered, in connection with our use of gospel institutions. We are not to be legalistic in the use of them. We are not to feel as though baptism, or the Lord's Supper, or the Lord's day had any magical power in them. They simply serve to hold up gospel realities for our faith to grasp. And there is a freedom (as of sons) which belongs to us in the use ot them, such as there was not connected with the Law. II. ANGEL-WORSHIP. "Lot no man rob yon of your prize." The Colossian Christians are here compared to the contenders in the Grecian games. The prize for which they were contending, and which they were in the way of obtaining, was eternal life. 'l'ho word translated "rob" might seem to point to the false teachers as showing hostility in tbo character of judges. But that is not in accordance with the Pauline conception, in which Christ is Judge. Uather are we to think of them as showing their hostility in interlering with them in one form or another, so as to bring it about that they, the Colossians, did not receive the prize from the judge. And this is required by the con- nection. For the false teachers are represented as putting an obstacle in the way of the Colossians to trip them up so that they Jose the prize. '!'he obstacle :s angel-worship. l. Its spurious humility. "By a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which be bath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Wo have already described the Eastern doctrine of successive emanations. These the Esscnes (with their Jewish tendencies) identified with the successive orders of angels. These orders at intervals filled up the distance between God and men. They were so familiarly known as to be named. '!'here was an appearance of humility in that. For it went on the supposition of the unapproachableness of God. We are such insignificant beings that it is not for us to worship so great a being as God. It only becomes us to worship the beings that lie nearer to us (the angel~), and who have had more immediately to do with our creation. Regarding this humility the apostle asserts that it had its ground COLOSSI ANS. g:  130 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSI.A.NS. [cu. 11. 1-23.