Lesson #07

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Colossians

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Lesson #02

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RETURN TO LIST OF LESSONS

COLOSSIANS 2:18-23
Lesson #07
MYSTICISM AND ASCETICISM

• Memory Verse: Rom 9:32

 

• In our last lesson we learned that Paul warned the church of three kinds of false doctrine. Those three heresies are legalism, mysticism, and asceticism. These three heresies had a relationship in one way or another with the false doctrine of Gnosticism.
• We discussed in our last lesson the first aspect of this warning. This was the aspect of legalism that included some points of Judaism incorporated into Gnosticism and taught to the Christians in Colosse.

• Read Col 2:18-19 Beware of mysticism
  • What is mysticism?
    • The definition of mysticism
      • The belief in an intimate connection with the divine spirit.
      • This is the doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or spiritual ecstasy.
        • What is wrong with this?
          • This doctrine eliminates Christ and puts the burden of salvation on the works of our own thinking process. If man simply thinks long and hard enough the correct thoughts, he will get to God.

 

• “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,”

 

(18)
• …”beguile you of your reward” = Do not let anyone declare that you are lost or unworthy of your eternal reward because you do not pursue knowledge in the same way as the Gnostics.
• …”voluntary humility” = This is self deprecation.
  • The Bible tells us we should have a humble attitude. Satan will deceive us by telling us how humble we are so that we become proud of our humility.
• …”worshipping of angels” = The Gnostics believed that a host of angels formed a bridge between man and God. Christ was just one of many among the angels. They worshipped the angels. The scriptures tell us in 1Tim 2:5 and Heb 1:4 that Jesus Christ is better than the angels, for He is the only mediator between God and man.
• …”intruding into those things which he hath not seen”
  • This is a sarcastic statement about those people that seek to rob you of your eternal reward by searching diligently into their false visions and private (false) interpretations but not seeing the truth.
• …”vainly puffed up” = This is the arrogance of pride in special knowledge and privately held secret knowledge.

 

• “And 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.”

 

(19)
• This verse tells us from where true spiritual maturity comes:
  • Jesus Christ is the head of the church connected to believers in a loving relationship. It is this connection of love through which we grow in our faith in God.
    • The Gnostics were not connected to Christ.

 

• Read Col 2:20-23 Beware of Asceticism
• What is asceticism?
  • Asceticism is the belief that a person must separate himself from customary business of life to devote himself to piety and devotion. It is the practice of self-denial and self-mortification for religious purposes.
    • Self-mortification is the punishment of a person’s own body by means of self-inflicted beatings to make one worthy and pure.
      • It is abstinence of the joys of life and the deprivation of certain normal desires to achieve a more complete holiness and the approval of God.
      • Certain groups in the Catholic Church focused on asceticism. This became the Monastic movement in the Catholic Church
    • What is wrong with asceticism in light of the fact that the believer is supposed to be separated from the world?
      • The practice of asceticism is the practice of works to reach God with no reliance on the shed blood of Christ. It is the effort to make one’s self worthy of God, or to make one’s self holy.
        • Only through Jesus Christ and trust in the shed blood of Christ are we made holy and acceptable to God.
        • The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is sufficient to purchase forgiveness of sin and sanctification. There is nothing man can do to add to what Christ did for us.

 

• “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not.”

 

(20-21)
• “rudiments of the world” = the world’s ideas, the world system that is hostile to God in opposition to the person of God.
  • The believer in Jesus Christ has died with Christ and should not be a slave to the world system or the ideas of false doctrines.
    • The prohibitions of “touch not, taste not, or handle not” refer to legalistic prohibitions placed on the Colossians that referred to food and drink.
      • “touch not” means = do not cling to or fasten to.
      • “handle not” means = do not touch superficially or casually.
    • The believer in Christ is free from such legalisms and verse 22 tells us why we are free.

 

• “…Which all are to perish with the using…”

 

(22)
• All these things of the world will pass away. Why will they pass away?

 

• “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”

 

(23)
• These things will pass away because they are not true wisdom. They are empty fakes. They only give an exterior display of wisdom. The philosophies of the world have a reputation for wisdom.
• “will worship” = this is the belief that a person’s will controls and guides his worship. It is pride to think that you know best for your life. Jesus said in Joh 4 that we must worship in spirit and in truth. Therefore, it is not worship by the will.

• Summary and application:
  • Paul gives us a triple warning against false doctrines that frequently plague the church to some degree or another in various forms.
    • Legalism, mysticism, and asceticism have one thing in common. They come from man’s efforts to work his way to holiness and the presence of God.
      • The underlying spirit of all three is the spirit of pride to think that man knows best how to worship God. However, all these things only satisfy the flesh of man. They do not change man’s heart or touch man’s spirit.
  • Paul’s underlying context of this warning is this:
    • …that Jesus Christ is superior to all man’s ways.
    • …that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is sufficient to fulfill God’s demands of justice without man’s help.
    • …that God’s way is not only superior and all-sufficient, but that it is the only way.
      • If these other ways, by means of legalism, mysticism, and asceticism, could accomplish bringing a person into the presence of God, Jesus Christ could not have had to come to this earth and die on the cross for man’s sins.
      • Like the Gnostics thought, we would be doing all these kinds of works to prove to God that we are acceptable, and that are worthy of eternal life.
        • It is because our good works are insufficient to merit anything, is why God sent His own Son to purchase our salvation on the cross.

HOMEWORK
COLOSSIANS 3:1-7
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Col 2:18-23
  • Think about your own relationship to Christ and the way that you express your worship to Him. Are there any practices of legalism, ritual, mysticism, or asceticism in your thinking or in your worship?

 

• Are there any attitudes in your thinking that the Lord would want you to change?

 

• Pray and thank God that Jesus Christ and His sacrifice are all sufficient for you.

 

• Preparation for Col 3:1-7
• Read Col 3:1-7
  • What commands does Paul give in these verses?

Memory Verse: Col 3:2