Today, I am reading and commenting on  Colossians 1-4.

Paul writes here that we should not allow ourselves, our thinking, to be captured by deceptive philosophies which depend on human tradition and the spiritual forces of this world.  A little later in this letter, he refers to those who delight in false humility and the worship of angels.  He describes such people as going into great detail about their experiences and being puffed up by idle notions.  Paul talks about how they insist that people must follow specific diets and celebrate rituals and religious festivals.  He appears to be referring to those who teach following an appearance of self-denial without actually allowing the Spirit to transform us and our desires.  In fact, Paul tells us that these philosophies are designed to make it look like we are living righteous lives, but that they fail to actually restrain our sinful desires.

Paul writes that we should not follow the rules of the spiritual forces of this world with “Do not handle. Do not taste.  Do not touch.” rules.  However, before we make too much of that, immediately after writing that Paul writes that we should put to death our earthly nature, which includes sexual immorality, impurity, and greed.  So, the freedom in Christ which Paul writes about does not mean that we are free to enslave ourselves to sin.  He tells us that the behaviors which grow out of our sinful nature are forms of idolatry.  I want to point out that most of the time, if not all of the time, when Paul writes about avoiding sexual immorality and impurity, he includes greed in the list of behaviors to be avoided as destructive of our new life in Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.