I confess, when talking to Christians who believe we should keep the Sabbath, I have misused Col 2:16. (Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:) My point with that verse was to say, “if you want to keep the Sabbath day, you are perfectly free to do that. I can’t judge you on that. Just don’t tell every Christian they need to keep the Sabbath.”
Like most of us, I have been guilty of taking a single verse and making a case with it. Restating my previous case: “I won’t judge someone who wants to keep the Sabbath day. I know Christians aren’t called to observe it, but anyone who wants to is free to, and who am I to judge them?”
But rule No. 1 of Bible study is context. What is God saying to whom? How does the verse fit in the larger context of what the writer is saying?
I discovered my lack of understanding when studying through Col. 2, just using the Bible, not a commentary, devotional book, fill-in-the-blank workbook or any outside source. In Col. 2, Paul is commending the Colossians for their faith in “the faith” and encourages them to keep it up. (Col. 2:4-7) Then Paul warns them of folks who try to spoil them through philosophy, vain deceit, the tradition of men and the principles of the world, and not after Christ. (Col. 2:8).
I think the key point of chapter 2 is verses 9-10 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” This was HUGE for this time as folks were still morphing out of the OT law into NT grace. He was saying they were complete in Christ (and not complete by keeping the law).
To illustrate, the Old Testament law with its ordinances, feasts and sacrifices is like a computer operating system. Let’s say Microsoft on a personal computer. All those elements (dietary requirements, holy observances, sabbath days, etc.) were what God required of the Jews in the Old Testament. That was their operating system. One of the 10 commandments was to keep the Sabbath. And I will argue, it was one of the most important of the 10 commandments, punishable by death if they didn’t keep it. (Ex. 31:15 and 35:2)
Then came Christ as the divine human sacrifice for sins by which we could and should be saved by grace through faith in Christ’s shed blood for our sins. That, my friends, is the New Testament operating system. I’ll call it Apple’s Mac. It’s totally different from Microsoft. But you see, every religious person was used to “Microsoft.” Couldn’t/Shouldn’t NT believers keep that as part of their operating system?
Paul’s point to the Colossians, who were inundated with folks promoting the old operating system, was that the new system was all about faith in Christ. Only instead of calling it Apple’s Mac system, he called it “the faith.” (Col. 2:7)
OK, now let’s look at Col. 2:16-17. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Paul’s readers were being judged by those insisting on the old operating system. These young believers were being told they had to observe the dietary laws and keep the holydays and sabbath days. Paul was telling them not to let anyone judge them for NOT keeping them. Look at verse 17. Those laws “are a shadow of things to come.” What God instituted in the OT pictured things yet future. “but the body is of Christ.” The body, the church, is the current operating system. The two systems just don’t operate the same. God invented both. Right now in the church age, those OT laws are set aside. For this age, don’t let anyone judge you for not keeping these laws, including the Sabbath.
In closing, I will say that God is not done with the old operating system. It isn’t the way we operate in the church age, but those OT laws and observances were a shadow of things to come. That means they were a picture or type. I’ll argue that some of this will come back in the Millennium, which is the 7,000th year –a Millennium of rest, and the Sabbath (7th day of rest) is a shadow of the 7,000th year Millennium of rest. To some degree, in the Millennium, the world might go back to some of the old operating system. But not right now. So, the point is, don’t let anyone judge ME or YOU for not keeping the Sabbath. We live by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ. This is the church age (at least it still was on Oct. 9, 2021!).
Jody
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