Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 2:23

Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.

23. which things] More precisely, if the word may be tolerated, which-like things; the prohibitions given above, Col 2:21, and all others which depend on the same principle.

have indeed ] More precisely, do indeed have, with a slight emphasis on the admission. There was a specious and seductive “reasonableness” in the theory.

a shew ] Greek, logos; “word, speech,” and so “ repute; ” with an implied contrast here between such repute and reality ( ergon).

of wisdom ] It was a characteristic of Jewish thought at the time to attempt to throw a glamour of philosophic fitness over Pharisaic doctrine and practice. See Introd., p. 32.

will worship ] The Greek compound noun denotes a self-chosen, self-imposed, service (in the religious sense); a round of supererogatory observance; a parody on the genuine reverence and obedience of the Gospel. The element in the compound represented by “ worship ” is the noun used Jas 1:27 (and see 26), and rendered “ religion ” in our Versions.

humility ] See above, on Col 2:18. The special direction of this false humility here would be, perhaps, that of abject submission to Pharisaic “directors,” mistaken for a true surrender to the will of God. “Who can submit our will to the will of God, save the Spirit of God?” (Quesnel).

neglecting of the body ] Lit., unsparing (treatment) of the body; a severe and active physical asceticism. Something of Oriental dualism may well have influenced this ascetic practice. Scarcely anywhere outside Scripture itself is the true honour of the body recognized in religious systems; the tendency to regard it as merely the burthen, or prison, of the soul appears almost everywhere. And this is a fruitful source of the asceticism which rather attacks than disciplines the body. Cp. Wis 9:15 : “The corruptible body presseth down the soul.” The Pharisee Josephus ( contra Apion., 2.24) says that “the soul, by its union with the body, is subject to miseries.” The Alexandrian Philo, a coeval, like Josephus, of the Apostles (as perhaps the author of Wisdom also was) calls the body, “a loathsome prison.” Twelve centuries later Francis of Assisi called his body, “my brother, the ass.” See Dr F. W. Farrar’s note on Wisdom 9, in the Speaker’s Commentary. Contrast 1Co 6:13; 1Th 5:23, etc.

not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh ] Better, as R.V., not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. This explanation, fully sustained by the Greek grammar, was long ago advocated by Mr Conybeare (C. and Howson, Life etc. of St Paul, ch. 25, in a note to the translation of the Epistle), and had been suggested still earlier (as he says) by Abp Sumner. It satisfies the context as no other does, supplying just such a counterpart as might be expected (from the use of the word “ indeed,” ) to the admission that the system had “a shew of wisdom.” See Lightfoot’s note for full proof that the Greek preposition ( ) is rightly rendered (perhaps we may better say explained) “ against ” in such a context.

Other interpretations are as follows; ( a) “ to satisfy the ( reasonable) wants of the body.” But this gives a good meaning to the Greek word rendered by A.V. “ satisfy,” whereas it has by usage a meaning of excess and indulgence. In this explanation, the words “ not in any honour ” are taken as a clause apart, parallel with the words just previous; “not ( holding the body) in any honour.” ( b) An explanation which supposes St Paul to put the case from his opponent’s view-point: “ it being no worthy thing to regard the satisfaction of the flesh.” This is the hesitating exposition of Theodore of Mopsuestia (cent. 4 5). ( c) An explanation which, like ( a), breaks the last clause into two: “ not of any ( real) value, ( but) tending only to gratify the flesh,” i.e., to inflate the pride of unregenerate man. So, on the whole, many modern expositors. But the sentence is thus unnaturally dislocated, and a meaning given to the word “ flesh ” improbable in this context.

As explained above, the words are a pregnant warning against the delusive but specious hope that the human spirit is to be transfigured into moral harmony with the Divine purity through inflictions on the body. The sublime true secret of that transfiguration is given us in e.g. Rom 8:13; “If ye by the Spirit mortify the practices of the body, etc.” And see below on ch. Col 3:4-5.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Which things – Which scrupulous observance of the numerous precepts enjoining rites and ceremonies, the observance of days, and the distinctions between meats and drinks.

Have indeed a show of wisdom – Have a great appearance of piety and of regard for the will of God They have a show of wisdom, too, or of a deep acquaintance with divine things. They who insist on them appear to be learned in what constitutes religion, and to have a deep insight into its mysteries. Doubtless they who urged the obligation of these things laid claim to uncommon acquaintance with the nature of religion, and urged the observance of these things on the ground of their tendency to promote piety, just as they always do who insist much on the observance of religious rites and ceremonies.

In will-worship – Voluntary worship; i. e., worship beyond what God strictly requires-supererogatory service. Probably many of these things they did not urge as being strictly required, but as conducing greatly to piety. The plea doubtless was, that piety might be promot ed by service rendered beyond what was absolutely enjoined, and that thus there would be evinced a spirit of uncommon piety – a readiness not only to obey all that God required, but even to go beyond this, and to render him voluntary service. There is much plausibility in this; and this has been the foundation of the appointment of the fasts and festivals of the church; of penances and self-inflicted tortures; of painful vigils and pilgrimages; of works of supererogation, and of the merits of the saints. A large part of the corruptions of religion have arisen from this plausible but deceitful argument. God knew best what things it was most conducive to piety for his people to observe; and we are most safe when we adhere most closely to what he has appointed, and observe no more days and ordinances than he has directed. There is much apparent piety about these things; but there is much wickedness of heart at the bottom, and there is nothing that more tends to corrupt pure religion.

And humility – Notes, Col 2:18. There is a great show of reverence for divine things in the manner in which they pursue their investigations, and in their humble and meek compliance with painful rites and ceremonies; in fastings, abstinence, and penances. Under all this there lurks often the worst kind of pride; because:

Pride may be pampered while the flesh grows lean.

And neglecting the body – Putting on sackcloth and ashes; subjecting it to painful fastings and penances; appearing in a form of squalid poverty, as if the body were not worth regarding, and as if the attention were so much engrossed by the nobler care of the soul, as to be entirely regardless of the body. Yet, we may observe,

(1) God made the body as well as the soul, and has shown his care of it by its being fearfully and wonderfully made, and by all the provision which he has made for all its needs.

(2) Religion pertains to the body as well as the soul, and should teach a man properly to regard it. Man is bound so to take care of the body, as to have the most health and the longest life possible in the service of his Creator, and so as to be able to employ it in the best manner. There is no religion in ragged or squalid clothing, in a dirty face, in offensive personal habits, in filth and defilement, and in setting at defiance the decencies of life.

(3) Much affected sanctity may exist where there is a most proud and corrupt heart. A long face, a demure countenance, a studied disregard of the decencies of dress and the courtesies of life, as if they were unworthy of notice, may be the exponent of the most hateful pride, and of the basest purposes of the soul. A man should be on his guard always against one who, under pretence of extraordinary sanctity, professes to despise the ordinary dress and usages of society.

Not in any honour – That is, there is no real honor in these things; there is nothing to ennoble and elevate the soul; nothing that is to be commended.

To the satisfying of the flesh – The only effect is, to satisfy or please the flesh; that is, the carnal and corrupt nature, for so the word flesh is often used in the Scriptures. The effect of these observances, on which so much stress is laid as if they would promote piety, is merely to gratify pride, self-righteousness, the love of distinction, and the other carnal propensities of our nature. There seems to be a great deal of humility and piety in them; there is really little else than pride, selfishness, and ambition.

Remarks On Colossians 2

1. We should feel a deep interest for the welfare of other Christians, even those whom we have never seen; Col 2:1-2. All belong to the same family, have the same enemies to contend with, are engaged in the same warfare, are traveling to the same heaven. By our prayers and sympathy, we may often do much good to those whom we shall never see until we meet them in heaven.

2. We should be on our guard against the seductive arts of false teachers. They are often plausible; they can urge arguments which we may not be able to answer; they may have much more learning than we have; and they may put on the appearance of great humility and of real piety; Col 2:3-4.3. It is, in general, a safe rule for a Christian to abide by the views which he had on the great subjects of religion when he became converted; Col 2:6. Then the heart was tender and soft – like wax – and received the impression which the Spirit made on it. There are some things in which the heart judges better than the head; and in which we are quite as likely to go right if we follow the former as we are the latter. In relation to the performance of many of the duties of life – the duties of kindness and charity – the heart is often a more safe guide than the head; and so in many things pertaining more immediately to religion, a man is more likely to judge right if he follows the promptings of his feelings in the happiest moments of piety, than he is to wait for the more cool and cautious course of argument. The same thing may be true even of many of the doctrines of religion. When a poor sinner trembles on the verge of hell, he feels that none but an Almighty Saviour can deliver him, and he goes and commits himself to Jesus as God – and he is not in much danger of erring in that. He will be more likely to be drawn aside from the truth by the artful reasonings of the advocates of error, than he will by his feelings at that moment.

4. Our views of the mystery of God – of the divine nature, and especially of the rank and character of Christ, will determine all our views of theology; Col 2:2. This has been so in all ages; and however it may be accounted for, the fact is undoubted, that if at any time we can ascertain what are the prevalent views of Christ we can easily see what is the prevailing character of the theology of that age. The influence of this will be felt on the views which are held of the native character of man: of regeneration, the divine purposes, the nature of holiness, and the retributions beyond the grave. Hence, the reason why the apostle Paul insisted so much on this, and urged so earnestly the importance of adhering to just views of the Saviour.

5. Christ has laid us under the highest obligations to love and serve him; Col 2:11-15. He has enabled us to put off our sins; he has raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life; he has removed the old ordinances that were against us, and has made religion easy and pleasant; he has subdued our enemies, and triumphed over them. He achieved a glorious victory over principalities and powers, and has led our great enemy captive. He met the enemy of man when on earth, and overcame his power of temptation; expelled him from the bodies of men; laid the foundation for a permanent victory over him on the cross, and triumphed over him when he rose and ascended to heaven. Satan is now an humbled foe. His power is broken and limited, and the Lord Jesus will yet completely triumph over him. He will return from heaven; raise all the dead; and reascend, in the face of the universe, to his native skies, with all his ransomed hosts – the spoils of victory. We should not then fear what Satan can do to us; nor should we fear that the great enemy of the church will ever be triumphant:

Stand up, my soul, shake off thy fears,

And gird the gospel armor on;

March to the gates of endless joy,

Where thy great Captain Saviours gone.

Hell and thy sins resist thy course,

But hell and sin are vanquishd foes;

Thy Jesus naild them to the cross,

And sung the triumph when he rose.

Then let my soul march boldly on,

Press forward to the heavenly gate;

There peace and joy eternal reign,

And glittering robes for conquerors wait.

Then shall I wear a starry crown,

And triumph in Almighty grace;

While all the armies of the skies.

Join in my glorious Leaders praise.

6. No individual has a right to appoint ceremonies and ordinances in the church to be binding on the consciences of others; nor is this authority intrusted to any body of men; Col 2:16. What God has enjoined is to be obeyed. What man enjoins beyond that, is of no binding force on the conscience: and it is the solemn and sacred duty of all Christians to resist all such attempts to make ceremonial observances binding on the conscience. Christ has appointed a few ordinances of religion – and they are enough. They are simple, easily observed, and all adapted to promote piety. He appointed baptism and the Lords supper; but he appointed no stated festivals or fasts; no days in commemoration of the saints, or of his own birth or death; he enjoined no rites of religion but those which are most simple and which are easily observed. He well knew how those observances would be abused to the purposes of superstition, and obscure the great doctrine of justification by faith. He knew how ready men would be to rely on them rather than on the merits of the great Sacrifice, and hence he appointed no ordinance where that danger could exist.

7. Pride is often united with apparent humility; Col 2:18. It is easy to assume the appearance of humility in the outer deportment, but no such assumed appearance reaches the heart. That remains the same, whatever external appearance is assumed, until it is renewed by the grace of God.

8. A meek, modest, and candid demeanor is consistent with great boldness and daring in speculation; Col 2:18. The most daring speculators in religion; they who make the most reckless attacks on the truth, are often, to appearance, eminently candid, and even put on the aspect of angelic devotion. Yet they are bold where angels fear to tread; and they declaim with confidence on subjects which must be forever beyond the grasp of the human mind.

9. We should not infer, because a man is modest and humble, and because he appears to be endued with uncommon meekness and piety, that, therefore, he is a good man or a safe guide; Col 2:18. The teachers in Colossae, against whom Paul warned the Christians there, appear to have been men just of this stamp; and this is commonly assumed by those who would lead their fellow men into error. Satan is often transformed into an angel of light.

10. We should not attempt to penetrate into those things which lie beyond the grasp of the human mind; Col 2:18. We should not intrude into those things which are unseen. There is an outer limit to our investigations on all subjects, and we soon reach it. In life we are to act chiefly on facts; not on the reason why those facts exist. When we have ascertained or established a fact, our feet stand on a solid rock; and there we shall stand securely. We act safely and wisely if we act in view of that fact; we do not act safely or wisely if we disregard that, and act on theory or imagination.

11. Many real Christians are in danger of being beguiled of the reward which they might obtain; Col 2:18. They are allured by the world; they are drawn into error by the arts of philosophy; they obscure the lustre of their piety by conformity to the world, and thus they lose the high recompense which they might have obtained in heaven. For the rewards of heaven will be strictly in proportion to the measure of our religion here – the zeal, and faith, and love which we evince in the cause of our Master.

12. Many persons are in danger of losing the reward altogether – for the reward of a life of piety is set before all; Col 2:18. Heaven is offered freely to all, and there is no one who might not obtain it. But, alas! how many there are who are drawn aside by the allurements of error and of sin; who are led to defer to a future time the great subject of preparation for death; who spend their lives in disregard of the commands of God and the invitations of mercy, until it is too late to seek salvation, and they sink down to final ruin. Every impenitent sinner is in imminent danger of losing his soul. The great deceiver is endeavoring to blind him and decoy him down to death, and a thousand snares on every side are spread for his feet, into which he is in constant danger of falling. In a world of allurements, where the work of death from the beginning has been carried on chiefly by deception, with what solicitude should man guard himself lest he be beguiled of heaven and sink to a world where heaven will be offered no more!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 23. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom] All these prescriptions and rites have indeed the appearance of wisdom, and are recommended by plausible reasons; but they form a worship which God has not commanded, and enjoin macerations of the body, accompanied with a humiliation of spirit, that are neither profitable to the soul, nor of any advantage to the body; so that the whole of their religion is nothing worth.

WHAT is here termed will-worship, , signifies simply a mode of worship which a man chooses for himself, independently of the revelation which God has given. The whole system of Deism is an , a worship founded in the will or caprices of man, and not in the wisdom or will of God; and it is just as profitable to body and soul as that of which the apostle speaks. God will be served in his own way; it is right that he should prescribe to man the truths which he is to believe, and the ordinances which he is to use. To refuse to receive his teaching in order to prefer our own fancies, is to light a farthing candle as a substitute for the noonday sun. From the beginning of the world God has prescribed the worship which was best pleasing to himself, and never left a matter of such moment to man. The nations which have either not had a revelation, or refused to receive that which God has given, show, by their diversity of worship, superstition, absurdity, and in many cases cruelty, what the state of the whole would have been, had not God, in his infinite mercy, blessed it with a revelation of his will. God has given directions concerning his worship; and he has appointed the seventh day for the peculiar exercises of spiritual duties: other times he has left to man’s convenience; and they abuse the text who say that the appointment of particular times and places for religious service is will-worship. God prescribes the thing, and leaves it to man, except in the case of the Sabbath, to appoint the time and the place; nor is it possible to be too frequent in God’s worship, any more than to be too fervent.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Which things have indeed a show of wisdom: by way of concession the apostle here grants that the precepts and doctrines of men about religious abstinences had a

show of wisdom; and it was but a mere show, a bare pretext, a specious appearance, a fair colour of wisdom, which is of no worth, not the reality and truth of Christian wisdom, however it might beguile those that were taken more with shadows than substance, Col 2:3,4,8,17.

In will-worship;

1. In arbitrary superstition, or human invention, or selfwilled religion, rather than Divine institutions; as all the ancients, and almost all the moderns, do interpret that word, it having no good, but an ill character; accounting the compound word here which we render will-worship, of no better import, as to the ordainers of worship, than the two simple words of which it is compounded, expressing human arbitrariness and worship, Col 2:18, (even as the apostle doth, by a compound word which signifies peace making, Col 1:20, understand the very same thing which he expressed by the two simple words of which it is compounded in another Epistle, Eph 2:15), it being rational to conceive, considering the apostles drift in the context, that by will-worship he doth connote the same here, that by willing in worship he doth asunder there. For though a performing those acts of worship willingly, which God himself hath commanded, be necessary, and commendable in his willing people, Psa 110:3, and they cannot be acceptable otherwise; yet when the will of man, in contradistinction to the will of God, is considered as constitutive of that worship which is offered to God of a mans own brain and devising, without Gods warrant, then that will-worship is hateful to God, and the more voluntary the more abominable. It being most just, that not in what way we will and choose, but only in that way which he willeth and chooseth, we should worship him with acceptance; which should be our greatest care, 2Co 5:9. We know, amongst men, those persons of honour that give liveries to their servants, would discard such of them as should come to attend them in new ones of their own devising, though those servants might be so foolish as to conceit those of their own devising were more expressive of their humble respects. Much more is worship of mans devising distasteful to the all-wise God, who sees through all colours, and though he loves a willing worshipper, yet he hates will-worship.

And humility; however it be palliated:

2. With a pretended demission of mind, or an affectation of humility, as if more self-abasement were designed in such an arbitrary way of worship; like those hypocrites in their fasts, who put on mortified looks and a neglected garb, with disguised contenances, Mat 6:16, showing themselves most submissive to the orders of their superiors in that way of mans devising.

And neglecting of the body; wherein the more superstitiously devout do labour to outdo others:

3. In punishing, not sparing, neglecting, or afflicting the body; as some monks at this day in the papacy, in denying it that with which nature should be supplied.

Not in any honour, which a learned man thinks the apostle would have read as included in a parenthesis, as conceiving the series of his discourse requires these to be joined, viz. neglecting of the body as to what pertains to the satisfying of the flesh. So by not in any honour, is not here meant a sparing of the body in order to real sanctification, temperance and continence, in opposition to the dishonouring of the body by luxury, as Rom 1:26, with 1Co 6:18-20; 1Th 4:4; Heb 13:4. That honour of the body the apostle doth elsewhere require, he doth here oppose to the seducers pretended mortifications. For their religious abstinence was not from that which occasioned luxury, only from some certain sorts of meat, the use of which no way defiles the body, nor violates in any manner the holiness and honour it ought to be kept in. Others read, neglecting the body, which is in no esteem.

To the satisfying of the flesh; for pampering the flesh. Not in any esteem, i.e. with God, or not in any humour to God, but in a tendency only to make provision for the flesh, as Rom 13:14. Others take honour for regard; q.d. In no regard to the supplying of nature with that which is due to it. Others take hononr for having a care of, 1Ti 5:3; q.d. Neglecting the body in taking no care of it, or not at all valuing the things that are requisite to the due nourishment of it: this is somewhat generally received; having no care that the body may have that which will satisfy nature. And if the last phrase, which we translate to the satisfying of the flesh, seem not so well to express moderate satiety, we should consider it is said in a good sense, God filled the hungry with good things, Luk 1:53, and Christ filled the multitude, Joh 6:12; yea, the use of the word in authentic Greek authors may be found to note a moderate as well as immoderate filling, i.e. in a good sense, for a satiety (or enough) that is not vicious.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

23. haveGreek, “arehaving”; implying the permanent characteristic whichthese ordinances are supposed to have.

show of wisdomrather,”a reputation of wisdom” [ALFORD].

will-worshiparbitrarilyinvented worship: would-be worship, devised by man’s ownwill, not God’s. So jealous is God of human will-worship, that Hestruck Nadab and Abihu dead for burning strange incense (Le10:1-3). So Uzziah was stricken with leprosy for usurping theoffice of priest (2Ch26:16-21). Compare the will-worship of Saul (1Sa13:8-14) for which he was doomed to lose his throne. This”voluntary worship” is the counterpart to their “voluntaryhumility” (Col 2:18): bothspecious in appearance, the former seeming in religion to do evenmore than God requires (as in the dogmas of the Roman andGreek churches); but really setting aside God’s will for man’s own;the latter seemingly self-abasing, but really proud of man’sself-willed “humility” (Greek, “lowliness ofmind”), while virtually rejecting the dignity of directcommunion with Christ, the Head; by worshipping of angels.

neglecting of the bodyGreek,“not sparing of the body.” This asceticism seems to haverested on the Oriental theory that matter is the source of evil. Thisalso looked plausible (compare 1Co9:27).

not in any honourofthe body. As “neglecting of the body” describes asceticismpositively; so this clause, negatively. Not paying anyof that “honor” which is due to the body as redeemed bysuch a price as the blood of Christ. We should not degrade, but havea just estimation of ourselves, not in ourselves, but in Christ(Act 13:46; 1Co 3:21;1Co 6:15; 1Co 7:23;1Co 12:23; 1Co 12:24;1Th 4:4). True self-denialregards the spirit, and not the forms of ascetical self-mortificationin “meats which profit not those occupied therein” (Heb13:9), and is consistent with Christian self-respect, the “honor”which belongs to the believer as dedicated to the Lord. Compare”vainly,” Col 2:18.

to the satisfying of thefleshThis expresses the real tendency of their humanordinances of bodily asceticism, voluntary humility, and will-worshipof angels. While seeming to deny self and the body, theyreally are pampering the flesh. Thus “satisfying of theflesh” answers to “puffed up by his fleshlymind” (Col 2:18), so that”flesh” is used in its ethical sense, “the carnalnature” as opposed to the “spiritual”; not in thesense, “body.” The Greek for “satisfying”implies satiating to repletion, or to excess. “Asurfeit of the carnal sense is human tradition” [HILARYTHE DEACON, inBENGEL]. Tradition puffsup; it clogs the heavenly perceptions. They put away true “honor”that they may “satiate to the full THEFLESH.” Self-imposed ordinances gratify the flesh(namely, self-righteousness), though seeming to mortify it.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom,…. The authors of them set up for men of wisdom, and were esteemed such, and are often styled , “wise men”; and their scholars that received their traditions, and explained and enforced them on others,

, “the disciples of the wise men”: and they pretended, that these constitutions of theirs were “a hedge for the law”, and for the honour of it, and to preserve it, and keep men from transgressing it; and this carried in it some appearance of wisdom: and their pretensions to it lay in the following things,

in will worship; being what was over and above that which was commanded by God, and so, like the freewill offerings under the law, must be acceptable to him; this was one of their colours, which had some show of wisdom, religion, and zeal:

and humility: in worshipping of angels, and not coming directly, and with boldness, to God or Christ; or rather in subjecting themselves to the yoke of the law, and submitting to the decrees of the fathers and doctors of the church, who were more wise, and learned, and knowing than they, and so had the appearance of prudence, gentleness, and goodness:

and neglecting of the body; by fastings and watchings, whereby they seemed to be very religious and devout, holy and mortified persons, who kept under their bodies, subdued their unruly appetites, and fulfilled not the lusts of the flesh: but then this was only a show of wisdom and godliness; there was no truth nor reality in these things; they were only a mere form, an outside show, a mere pretence; there was no true devotion nor religion in them: and so

not in any honour; or to be had in any esteem; for if the rites of the ceremonial law itself were weak and beggarly elements, much more must these additions to it, and corruptions of it, be such; and at most only regarded things external, that were

to the satisfying, of the flesh; either the body, or the carnal mind, in which they were vainly pulled up: though some consider this last clause as explanative of the former, “neglecting of the body”, or not sparing it, but afflicting it with austerities of life; depriving it of its proper right, what is necessary for it, not taking due care of it, so as to satisfy nature; whereby instead of honouring, they dishonoured it: for though the body is not to be pampered, and the lusts of it indulged, or luxury and intemperance to be encouraged; yet since the body is the work of God’s hands, is the habitation of the soul, and by which it performs its offices, and is the purchase of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and will be raised a glorious body at the last day, it ought not to be neglected and dishonoured; but should have a sufficiency of food and clothing, whereby it may be comfortably and honourably nourished and supported.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Which things (). “Which very things,” these ascetic regulations.

Have indeed a show of wisdom ( ). Periphrastic present indicative with in the singular, but present indicative in the plural (). is probably “the repute of wisdom” (Abbott) like Plato and Herodotus. (in deed) has no corresponding .

In will-worship ( ). This word occurs nowhere else and was probably coined by Paul after the pattern of , to describe the voluntary worship of angels (see 2:18).

And humility ( ). Clearly here the bad sense, “in mock humility.”

And severity to the body ( ). Old word (Plato) from , unsparing ( privative, , to spare). Here alone in N.T. Ascetics often practice flagellations and other hardnesses to the body.

Not of any value ( ). usually means honour or price.

Against the indulgence of the flesh ( ). These words are sharply debated along with just before. It is not unusual for to be found in the sense of “against” rather than “with” or “for.” See in sense of

against in Col 3:13; Eph 6:11; 2Cor 5:12; 1Cor 6:1. is an old word from , to fill and means satiety. It occurs here only in the N.T. Peake is inclined to agree with Hort and Haupt that there is a primitive corruption here. But the translation in the Revised Version is possible and it is true that mere rules do not carry us very far in human conduct as every father or mother knows, though we must have some regulations in family and state and church. But they are not enough of themselves.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “Which things have indeed a shew,” (hatina estin logon men) which things are indeed a repute;” a flare of display before men, a form of godliness, an appearance of wisdom, a veneer, a piosity of worship and holiness, without Divine approval, 1Ti 4:1-6.

2) “Of wisdom in will worship,” (echonta sophias en ethelothreskia) “Having or holding (a shew) of wisdom in self-imposed, or (forced) worship,” 2Ti 3:5-7; Tit 1:16; Jud 1:12; Jud 1:16.

3) “And humility,” (kai tapeinophroseune) “and a shew of self-exalted humility,” as angels of light, 2Co 11:13-15; Mat 6:7; Mat 6:18.

4) “And neglecting of the body,” (kai apheidia somatos)'”and severity (physical abuse, disfiguration) of body,” to make themselves appear pious, feigned humility thru disfiguration of face and body and clothing, Mat 6:16.

5) “Not in any honor,” (ouk en time tini) “not in any honor,” or honorable- appearance as men should do, without hypocrisy in worship and testimony, Mat 6:5-6; Mat 6:17-18.

6) “To the satisfying of the flesh” (pros plesmonen tes sarkos) “for satisfaction of the flesh,” hypocrisy, leaves the hypocrite with a guilty, salved conscience, while the guilt of sin and deceit seethe within the soul. The outward show may satisfy the masses while the soul of the false worshiper is without rest, Mar 7:6; Isa 29:13-16.

HYPOCRITE: Poor soul! remember, though like a sheep thou art laid in thy grave, Death will find thee out He will say to thee, “Off with thy mask, man! away with all thy robes! Up with that whitewashed sepulchre! Take off that green turf: let the worms be seen! Out with the body: let us see the reeking corruption!” And what wilt thou say when thine abominably corrupt and filthy heart shall be opened before the sun, and men and angels hear thy lies and hypocrisies laid bare before them? Wilt thou play the hypocrite then?

–Spurgeon

Cromwell said to Fairfax as they rode through a cheering throng, “They would turn out with the same enthusiasm to see me hanged!”

–W. B. K.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

23. Which have indeed a show. Here we have the anticipation of an objection, in which, while he concedes to his adversaries what they allege, he at the same time reckons it wholly worthless. For it is as though he had said, that he does not regard their having a show of wisdom. But show is placed in contrast with reality, for it is an appearance, as they commonly speak, which deceives by resemblance. (420)

Observe, however, of what colors this show consists, according to Paul. He makes mention of three — self-invented worship, (421) humility, and neglect of the body. Superstition among the Greeks receives the name of ἐθελοβρησκεία — the term which Paul here makes use of. He has, however, an eye to the etymology of the term, for ἐθελοβρησκεία literally denotes a voluntary service, which men choose for themselves at their own option, without authority from God. Human traditions, therefore, are agreeable to us on this account, that they are in accordance with our understanding, for any one will find in his own brain the first outlines of them. This is the first pretext.

The second is humility, inasmuch as obedience both to God and men is pretended, so that men do not refuse even unreasonable burdens. (422) And for the most part traditions of this kind are of such a nature as to appear to be admirable exercises of humility.

They allure, also, by means of a third pretext, inasmuch as they seem to be of the greatest avail for the mortification of the flesh, while there is no sparing of the body. Paul, however, bids farewell to those disguises, for

what is in high esteem among men is often an abomination in the sight of God. (Luk 16:15.)

Farther, that is a treacherous obedience, and a perverse and sacrilegious humility, which transfers to men the authority of God; and neglect of the body is not of so great importance, as to be worthy to be set forth to admiration as the service of God.

Some one, however, will feel astonished, that Paul does not take more pains in pulling off those masks. I answer, that he on good grounds rests contented with the simple term show. For the principles which he had taken as opposed to this are incontrovertible — that the body is in Christ, and that, consequently, those do nothing but impose upon miserable men, who set before them shadows. Secondly, the spiritual kingdom of Christ is by no means taken up with frail and corruptible elements. Thirdly, by the death of Christ such observances were put an end to, that we might have no connection with them; and, fourthly, God is our only Lawgiver. (Isa 33:22.) Whatever may be brought forward on the other side, let it have ever so much splendor, is fleeting show.

Secondly, he reckoned it enough to admonish the Colossians, not to be deceived by the putting forth of empty things. There was no necessity for dwelling at greater length in reproving them. For it should be a settled point among all the pious, that the worship of God ought not to be measured according to our views; and that, consequently, any kind of service is not lawful, simply on the ground that it is agreeable to us. This, also, ought to be a commonly received point — that we owe to God such humility as to yield obedience simply to his commands, so as not to lean to our own understanding, etc., (Pro 3:5,) — and that the limit of humility towards men is this — that each one submit himself to others in love. Now, when they contend that the wantonness of the flesh is repressed by abstinence from meats, the answer is easy — that we must not therefore abstain from any particular food as being unclean, but must eat sparingly of what we do eat of, both in order that we may soberly and temperately make use of the gifts of God, and that we may not, impeded by too much food and drink, forget those things that are God’s. Hence it was enough to say that these (423) were masks, that the Colossians, being warned, might be on their guard against false pretexts.

Thus, at the present day, Papists are not in want of specious pretexts, by which to set forth their own laws, however they may be — some of them impious and tyrannical, and others of them silly and trifling. When, however, we have granted them everything, there remains, nevertheless, this refutation by Paul, which is of itself more than sufficient for dispelling all their smoky vapours; (424) not to say how far removed they (425) are from so honorable an appearance as that which Paul describes. The principal holiness of the Papacy, (426) at the present day, consists in monkhood, and of what nature that is, I am ashamed and grieved to make mention, lest I should stir up so abominable an odour. Farther, it is of importance to consider here, how prone, nay, how forward the mind of man is to artificial modes of worship. For the Apostle here graphically describes (427) the state of the old system of monkhood, which came into use a hundred years after his death, as though he had never spoken a word. The zeal of men, therefore, for superstition is surpassingly mad, which could not be restrained by so plain a declaration of God from breaking forth, as historical records testify.

Not in any honor. Honor means care, according to the usage of the Hebrew tongue. Honour widows, (1Ti 5:3,) that is, take care of them. Now Paul finds fault with this, that they (428) teach to leave off care for the body. For as God forbids us to indulge the body unduly, so he commands that these be given it as much as is necessary for it. Hence Paul, in Rom 13:14, does not expressly condemn care for the flesh, but such as indulges lusts. Have no care, says he, for the flesh, to the gratifying of its lusts. What, then, does Paul point out as faulty in those traditions of which he treats? It is that they gave no honor to the body for the satisfying the flesh, that is, according to the measure of necessity. For satisfying here means a mediocrity, which restricts itself to the simple use of nature, and thus stands in opposition to pleasure and all superfluous delicacies; for nature is content with little. Hence, to refuse what it requires for sustaining the necessity of life, is not less at variance with piety, than it is inhuman.

(420) “ Par similitude qu’elle ha auec la verite;” — “By the resemblance which it bears to the reality.”

(421) “ Le seruice forgé a plaisir, c’est a dire inuenté par les hommes;” — “Worship contrived at pleasure, that is to say, invented by men.”

(422) “ Iniques et dures a porter;” — “Unreasonable and hard to be borne.”

(423) “ Ces traditions;” — “These traditions.”

(424) “ Tous les brouillars desquels ils taschent d’esblouir les yeux au poure monde;” — “All the mists by which they endeavor to blind the eyes of the poor world.”

(425) “ Leurs traditions;” — “Their traditions.”

(426) “ La premiere et la principale honnestete et sainctete de la Papaute;” — “The first and principal decency and sanctity of the Papacy.”

(427) “ Peind yci au vif;” — “Paints here to the life.”

(428) “ Les traditions;” — “The traditions.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

23. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Translation and Paraphrase

23. (The ordinances of) which (I spoke do indeed) have a speakable appearance of wisdom in (the respects of) self-chosen worship, and (apparent) humility, and (in impressive demonstrations of) severity to the body; (but they are) not of value for the satisfying of the flesh (and restraining indulgence),

Notes

1.

Paul concludes his warnings against human ordinances and asceticism by saying that the way that some people carry out such ordinances makes an impressive show, but that the ordinances are of no value when it comes to satisfying the basic desires of the flesh, and giving us contentment.

2.

Paul concedes that the human ordinances named in Col. 2:21 indeed have an appearance (or show, or matter, or word; Gr. logos) of wisdom in will-worship. It takes a lot of will power to live up to them. Will-worship is voluntary, arbitrary worship, worship which one devises and prescribes for himself.

Also these ordinances make those who observe them very humble-appearing. The humility, however, is outward, and not genuine. Compare Col. 2:18. Some religious people wear dark-colored, peculiar-looking, uncomfortable clothing. Such an act does not make the person really humble.

Also the ordinances make quite a show of severity to, or neglecting the body. Any man who lives without meat, or fasts for days, or wears odd uncomfortable clothing, or takes a vow to remain unmarried, or sleeps on spikes, or walks on hot coals, or crawls on hands and knees for great distances in acts of worshipsuch people are looked upon as especially holy by multitudes of unthinking people. They really are not.

3.

In spite of these outward appearances Paul says that the ordinances of men have no value against the indulgence of the flesh (KJV, to the satisfying of the flesh). A monk in a monastery living on bread and water may make an impressive show of self-denial, but he still oftentimes may experience discontent with his lot, and crave a more normal life.

4.

The word indulgence (KJV, satisfying: Gr. plesmone) refers to the state or quality of being full and satisfied; satiety. Christ satisfies.

5.

The Christian life is not a life primarily based on the denial of the body. We may freely enjoy food, and drink, and marriage, and a home, as long as these things do not rule our lives and desires, or injure us, or cause other to stumble. We may choose to deny ourselves of something, so that we can make a sacrificial gift. This too is excellent, but we cannot demand that others do as we do in these actions.

Study and Review

64.

What do the ordinances have a show (or appearance) of? (Col. 2:23)

65.

In what three respects may ordinances make a show of wisdom?

66.

What is will-worship?

67.

Does severity to (or neglecting of) the body have any value? Does it have any appearance of value?

68.

Do the ordinances of men have any value (or honor) against the indulgence (or satisfying) of the flesh?

69.

Suggest a title or topic of your own for Col. 2:6-23 (Col. chapter 2).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(23) Will worship, and humility . . .It seems difficult to connect these words with the merely ceremonial observances immediately above; and, in fact, they are almost an exact repetition of the description of the superstitious worship of the angels given in Col. 2:18. Will worship is, indeed, nearly what we call superstitionthe constant craving for objects to which we may find some excuse for paying reverence. The prefix applies in sense, though not in grammatical form, to the humility also; a studied humility being either a pretence or a self-degradation. But in the words neglecting of the body (properly, being unsparing of it in hardship, and generally careless of it) we pass to the ceremonial ordinances. It is more than likely that the superstition and false asceticism were connected togetherthe latter being the condition of the supposed spiritual insight of the former.

Which things . . . flesh.This passage is difficult. (1) Our version translates literally, and would seem to regard the last words as simply an explanation, from the point of view of the false teachers, of neglecting of the body, as not honouring it for the satisfaction, or surfeiting of the flesh; and we certainly find that the Jewish ascetics did brand the most necessary satisfaction of appetite as a surfeiting of the flesh. But there is a fatal objection to this interpretationthat, in that case, St. Paul would leave the false pretension without a word of contradiction, which is almost incredible. Hence (2) we must regard the not in any honour as antithetical to the show of wisdom. The ordinances, says St. Paul, have a show of wisdom, but are in no honour, i.e., are of no value. The common use of the word rendered honour, for price, or pay (see Mat. 27:6; Act. 7:16; Act. 19:19; 1Co. 6:20; 1Co. 7:23; 1Ti. 5:17), would readily lend itself to this sense. The only doubtful point (3) is the interpretation of the last words, for the satisfying of the flesh. There seems little doubt that the phrase is used in a bad sense. Hence we must dismiss all reference to a right honouring of the body by innocent satisfaction of its needs. We have therefore to choose between two interpretations. Some interpret of no value against the satisfaction of the flesh. But, though the Greek will bear this sense, it is certainly not the common sense of the preposition used; and its adoption would expose the whole phrase to the charge of ambiguity and obscurity. The other interpretation is of no real value (tending) to the satisfaction of the flesh. This is abrupt, but suits well the indignant and abrupt terseness of the passage. It gives (quite after St. Pauls manner) not only a denial of the neglecting of the body, but a retort on the false teachers of the very charge they made against their opponents. (Comp. the use of the word dogs, in Php. 3:2.) It conveys a most important truth. That extremes meet we know well; and that there is a satisfaction of the fleshly temper (see above, Col. 2:18) in the attempt over much to curb the flesh, the whole history of asceticism bears witness. Moreover, this interpretation alone gives a completeness of antithesis. To the show of wisdom it opposes the no real value; to the pretended neglecting of the body the real satisfaction of the flesh.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

23. A show of wisdom The reputed and real character of the sort of things spoken of are now put in final contrast. The system embraced will-worship, a voluntary, self-imposed service, called, in Col 2:18, worshipping of angels; a so-called humility which pretended a fear of drawing near to God, joined, in Col 2:18, with angel-worship; and a rigorous austerity of the body, abusing it under pretence of sanctity, and withholding from it its proper care. It purported to be a system of self-abnegation, and so before the popular eye it had the show, or reputation, of a true and profound wisdom, while, really, it was far from its substance. Not in any honour, but rather dishonour, of the body, which they affected to despise, but which, in St. Paul’s view, was to be cared for as a temple of the Holy Ghost. The true effect of the whole system was the satisfying of the flesh, the sinful nature, feeding it to satiety, and inflating it by the conceit and pride which it engendered.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Col 2:23. A shew of wisdom, in will–worship, “In performing some acts of voluntary and uncommanded zeal under the guise and affectation of uncommon devotion, in the worshipping of angels, and in austerities and extreme abstinences.” The two last clauses may be transposed, as if it had been said, “It is to such a satisfying of the flesh, as does it no real honour;” a meiosis, to express what is dishonourable; whereas the highest honour of our bodies is to be the instruments of our souls in the service of God. It has been observed, that the word signifies provision, as well as honour; and then the sense will be, that, though there was no appearance of providing for the flesh, yet there was a carnal kind of satisfaction in these affected severities, when proceeding from the principles of vain-glory and ill-nature; which were as contrary to the genius of true religion, as any the grossest sensualities that could be imagined. Mr. Peirce gives the verse a different turn. According to him, the Apostle’s meaning is, “Which things having indeed a shew of wisdom, in will-worship, (Col 2:18) and humility, and neglecting of the body, serve to the dishonourably gratifying persons of a fleshly or Jewish disposition.”

Inferences.Let us contemplate, with daily pleasure, the glorious effects of the death of our blessed Redeemer, by which the Mosaic law was abolished, the hand-writing of ordinances blotted outthat death, by which so glorious a victory over our spiritual enemies was obtained, by which the infernal principalities and powers were stripped of their trophies, and themselves exposed as an open spectacle. Let us improve this victory to all the glorious purposes for which it was intended. Let us, above all, consider it as an engagement to a life of exemplary holiness, especially as we ourselves circumcised with the circumcision of Christ; as by baptism we are solemnly engaged to mortify all irregular affections, and, being buried with Christ, to rise to all newness of life, having received the forgiveness of our sins, and being raised with Christ to the hope of eternal glory.

Let us then be solicitous ever to maintain the strictest union with Christ, as our Head, remembering how great an honour it is to be thus related to him, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Let us be careful, in virtue of this union, to live in the fellowship of Christian love with all the members of the body, and ourselves to grow with all the increase of God.
And let us guard against all those human traditions, and all those refinements of philosophical speculation, which are contrary or disagreeable to these elements of Christ into which we have been initiated; and against every thing which could be an infringement of that liberty which Christ has granted to his church, and which it is our duty to endeavour to maintain against all encroachments; even though they should be made by any in his name, and under the pretence of authority from him. It may be urged upon us as humility, to submit to such impositions; but it is the truest humility to maintain an exact obedience to the authority of our Divine Master, and to limit our submission even to those of our brethren whom we may most honour and love, by a regard to his command and institution. And if a due care is not taken in this respect, we may be deprived, at least in some degree, of our prize, by the methods whereby some may endeavour to persuade us that we shall most effectually secure it. May Divine Wisdom preserve us from all those vain deceits; whereby our faith might be corrupted, or our conformity to the plan of Christian institutions be rendered, in any respect, less pure, beautiful, and complete.

REFLECTIONS.1st. Though the Apostle had no personal knowledge of the Colossians, the report that he had heard engaged his warmest affections towards them. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, how solicitous I am for your welfare, and wrestle earnestly with God in prayer on your behalf, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh: and this especially I ask of the Lord, that their hearts might be comforted under every trial, with those consolations which he bestows on his faithful people, being knit together in love to Christ and one another, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, seeking to attain the most distinct and comprehensive knowledge of the gospel, with all its invaluable privileges, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; testifying the fullest approbation of that glorious scheme of salvation, which, though unknown before, is now revealed to the Gentiles, wherein God appears as their reconciled God and Father in Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, for the use of his believing people, that he might so order all the dispensations of his Providence and grace, as most effectually to conduct those who cleave to him perseveringly till death, safe, amidst all their difficulties, to his eternal kingdom. Note; (1.) It is God’s will that his believing people should be comforted; and for this his ministers should labour. (2.) Nothing tends more to cause our consolations to abound than the union of our hearts to Jesus, and to our brethren in love unfeigned. (3.) Whatever remaining ignorance be in us, or darkness surround our steps, he who hath all the treasures of wisdom, is the guide of the faithful; and he will lead them by the right way.

2nd, The Apostle felt the tenderest concern for them; and he testifies it by his jealousy over them.
1. He warns them against the seducing Judaizing teachers. And this I say, concerning my affection for you, and the all-sufficient wisdom of Jesus to direct you, lest, as Satan beguiled Eve through his subtilty, any man should beguile you with enticing words, perverting you from the simplicity of the gospel, under pretence of leading you to higher attainments. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit; not only united to them in affection, but probably having some extraordinary discernment of their state from the Lord; joying and beholding your order and strict discipline, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ, notwithstanding all the shocks of persecution, or the wiles of deceivers. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, and made profession of your entire dependance upon him as your Prophet, Priest, and King; so walk ye in him, depending on the teachings of his word and Spirit, trusting on his atonement and infinite merit, and desirous to obey his holy will in all things; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, fixed on the rock of ages, and by faith growing up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, as ye have been taught in the gospel preached to you; abounding therein with thanksgiving, enriched with all the fulness of divine grace, and ceaseless in praise to the great Author of all your hopes and happiness. Beware, therefore, since ye have received the truth as it is in Jesus, lest any man spoil you of the inestimable treasure through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the corrupt systems of heathenism, misleading you from the purity of the gospel, after the tradition of men, whether of Judaizing teachers, or Gentile sages, after the rudiments of the world, those first elements, ( ) contained in the Mosaical oeconomy, or in the imaginary writings of the philosophers, and which are not after Christ, but tend to seduce the heart from him, to direct the soul to rest on something else for salvation, besides the great Atonement made by him, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; all the divine perfections being, in their utmost fulness, perpetually resident in the person of the incarnate Jesus. Note; (1.) The discourse set off, with the most enticing words, must be brought to the test of God’s revealed will; and if it correspond not therewith, whatever appearances of wisdom there may be, it is to be rejected with abhorrence. (2.) They who cleave to Christ shall be preserved from all dangerous delusion. (3.) He who is God as well as man in one Christ, must needs be able to save to the uttermost, and be the worthy object of our entire faith and dependance.

2. He mentions the salvation, of which, in Christ, they had been made partakers. And ye are complete in him, in virtue of your union with him, who is, in his mediatorial character, the head of all principality and power; all in heaven, earth, and hell, from the highest creature to the lowest, being made subject unto him. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision, not that which is outward in the flesh, and now of no avail, but that made without hands, even the circumcision of the heart, evident in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, and mortifying the old man which is corrupt, with the affections and lusts, by the circumcision of Christ, which he is the author of, and by his Spirit effects in the hearts of his believing people: being buried with him in baptism, the ordinance which he has instituted superseding circumcision, and signifying to us our death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness; wherein also ye are risen with him, quickened to newness of life, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead; and will raise you, if faithful, to the enjoyment of the highest degrees of grace, and the full enjoyment of himself in glory. And you being dead in your sins, under the sentence of God’s wrath, and separated from his favour, which is the true life of the soul, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, serving divers lusts and pleasures, under the dominion of a corrupted nature, hath he quickened together with him, to a life of grace here, having forgiven you all trespasses, in virtue of the redemption of Jesus; blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, by his blood cancelling the debt, and abolishing the ceremonial law which separated Jews and Gentiles, and was the cause of enmity between them, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and rending it in pieces: and having spoiled principalities and powers, the apostate spirits of darkness, he made a shew of them openly, as their conqueror, triumphing over them in it, and redeeming all his faithful people thereby from their hateful dominion. How invaluable are the Christian privileges! how precious should he be to us who is the blessed author of them! (1.) Believers have the free and full remission of all their iniquities. (2.) The curse of the law is satisfied, and there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

3rdly, The Apostle, from the foregoing considerations, of the complete atonement which Christ had made for them, and the inestimable privileges and blessings awaiting them in consequence thereof, warns them against the Judaizing zealots.

Let no man therefore judge or condemn you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, inculcating the necessity of observing these Jewish ceremonies, in order to salvation; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ; since he who is the substance of them hath appeared, they are now abolished, and no longer obligatory. Let no man beguile you of your reward, or cheat you of the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus, in a voluntary humility, leading you to a kind of abasement which the gospel never prescribed, and worshipping of angels, to the great dishonour of the one Mediator between God and man; intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, falsely pretending to what he is ignorant of, and following the delusions of a heart eaten up with pride; and not holding the head, Christ Jesus, from which alone all the body of his church, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together spiritually, as the members of the natural body are united to their common head, increaseth with the increase of God, in light, and love, and comfort, and holiness. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, as your baptism intimated, from the rudiments of the world, and discharged from all obligation to the Mosaic oeconomy, why, as though living in the world, and still under the legal dispensation, are ye subject to ordinances, and obey the dogmatical decisions of Judaizing teachers, or heathen philosophers, who cry, Touch not, taste not, handle not, as if the Levitical law was still in force, and the distinction of meats and drinks to be scrupulously observed by Christians, or you should embrace the visionary ideas of pagan sages; which meats all are to perish with the using, passing through the body, and cannot defile the soul; and are now no longer enjoined of divine authority, but merely after the commandments and doctrines of men, by these Jewish zealots? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom, and pass under the specious pretence of paying to God service, even of supererogation, in will-worship, and voluntary humility, which his word has never enjoined; and neglecting of the body, by affected austerities, not in any honour; these things are not of any value in the sight of God; but are to the satisfying of the flesh, serving only to foster man’s pride, and to flatter him in a vain conceit of his own superior goodness. Note; They who affect to be wise above what is written, will only, in the issue, expose their own absurd pride and egregious folly.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Col 2:23 . And of what nature and quality is that, which I have just termed . . .?

] quippe quae , i.e. ita comparata, ut (Khner, ad Xen. Mem . ii. 1, 30). The conception was different in of Col 2:22 , where the thing in question was regarded purely objectively, as mere object.

] belongs to , without, however, being with this equivalent to ; it introduces what the are as regards their quality. If it belonged to (Bhr), or to . . . (Bengel), or to . . . (that which moves and has its being in . . . .), as Hofmann thinks, taking . . parenthetically why should it not have been actually placed beside that to which it would belong? Apart from this, Hofmann’s connection of it with . could alone deserve consideration, since from . onwards all that follows is consecutive. But even this connection must be abandoned, because the sphere of subsistence indicated by . . . . would be too wide for such special prohibitions, Col 2:21 , as are conveyed by , and because we have no right to put aside from the connection, as a mere incisum , the important thought (comp. Col 2:8 ) expressed by . . . , which comes in with so emphatically at the very head of the judgment, and appropriately, as regards meaning, attaches to itself all that follows.

, explained by many since Jerome approximately in the sense of speciem or praetextum habere (see Kypke, de Wette, Dalmer, and others; also Kster in the Stud. u. Krit . 1854, p. 318), may, according as we adopt for the signification ratio or sermo , mean either: to have ground (so in the passages from Demosth., Dionys. Hal., and Lesbonax in Kypke; from Plat, in Ast, Lex . II. p. 257; from Polyb. in Schweighuser, Lex . p. 370 [134] ), in which case the ground may certainly be only an apparent one, a pretext (comp. Ellendt, Lex. Soph . II. p. 36); further, to have an insight into something (often thus in Plato, e.g. Rep . p. 475 C), to have regard to (Herod. i. 62; Plat. Tim . p. 87 C); or: to have a reputation , so that one is in any relation the subject of discourse , of legend, of mention, of rumour, etc.; see e.g . Plat. Epin . p. 987 B: ( dicitur ), Herod. v. 56: , comp. 9:78; Xen. Oec . 11. 4 (the same thing conceived under another form: , Herod. vii. 5, and frequently). The latter signification is here to be adhered to, because the subsequent , when correctly rendered, accords with it as bearing on the matter in hand, and is in sense appropriately correlative. Hence: that which has a repute of wisdom , popularly passes for wisdom. Comp. (Rev 3:1 ) and (1Co 5:11 ).

] without a subsequent ; there was before the apostle’s mind the contrast: repute , truly, but not the reality , , , Chrysostom. He omitted to express this, however, led aside by the progress of his discourse, so that instead of bringing in the antithesis of by , he makes follow without , and in contrast not to the , but to the . . . ., from which we are to gather in substance, what in starting with it was intended to express. See Erasmus, Annot ., and generally Winer, p. 534 f. [E. T. 719]; Buttmann, Neut. Gr . p. 313 [E. T. 365]; Klotz, ad Devar . p. 656; Maetzner, ad Antiph . p. 153; Baeumlein, Partik . p. 163 f. The linguistic phenomenon of this without an adversative word following is so common, that there is no ground for requiring before . an (Hofmann), which might have been used (Baeumlein, p. 170), but not necessarily . Holtzmann also takes too much offence at the absence of a formal contrast, and finds in . . an ill-inserted remnant of the original.

] instrumental , specifying by what means it is brought about, on the part of those who lay down the commandments and doctrines referred to, that the latter have a repute of wisdom: through self-chosen worship, i.e . through a cultus, which is not divinely commanded, but is the work of their own self-determination. What was meant by this, the reader was aware; and Col 2:18 places it beyond doubt that the worship of angels formed an essential and chief part of it, though it need not, from the general character of the expression in our passage, have been meant exclusively; other forms of capricious cultus may have been included with it. The substantive . does not occur elsewhere except in ecclesiastical writers; but the verb is explained by Suidas: , and Epiph. Haer . i. 16 explains the name Pharisees: . Comp. (Plat. Symp . p. 184 C, Rep . p. 562 D), , , , (Thuc. iii. 70. 2, where the scholiast explains: . . .), and various others. Hofmann erroneously takes away from the word in itself the bad sense, and explains (after the analogy of and ): worship, which one interests himself in . This view is prohibited by the evident retrospective reference of this word and the following one to Col 2:18 , where, according to the right interpretation, the was certainly something bad. The unfavourable meaning, according to Hofmann’s present explanation (he gave a different but also erroneous view in his Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 72; see, in opposition to it, my third edition), is only got by the addition of , which belongs to all the three points, so that must be understood as a worship gladly and earnestly rendered, but which is rendered only with bodily demeanour . But does not suit either with . or ., [135] but only with . For it is plain from that is the genitive of the object , from which it follows that would yield the opposite sense: a rendered to the body (comp. . in Col 2:18 ), which would come ultimately to the idea of the (Lucian, Nigr . 15), comp. Plut. Mor . p. 107 C: , and on the matter conceived as , Phi 3:19 .

. ] from the point of view of the false teachers (comp. Col 2:18 ), what they thus designated; although in fact it consisted in this, that, as in all false humility, they with spiritual conceit (comp. Col 2:18 , and subsequently . . ) took pleasure in unduly undervaluing themselves an ethical self-contempt, which involved in relation to God the , and towards the body an unsparingness through mistaken abstinence and mortifying asceticism, inconsistent with Christian liberty. On , comp. Plat. Defin . p. 412 D; Plut. Mor . p. 762 D; further, , Thuc. ii. 43. 3; , Soph. El . 968; , Lys. ii. 25, Diod. Sic. xiii. 60.

] not through anything whatever that is an honour , not through anything honourable, by which that repute would appear founded in truth and just. The expression is purposely chosen , in order to make the appear as repute without honour, i.e . without any morally estimable substratum on the part of the persons concerned. The following is also purposely chosen; in it . significantly glances back to , and to , and there is produced a thoughtful contrast, a striking ethical oxymoron: for the sake of fully satisfying the flesh . Those commandments and doctrines have a repute of wisdom, etc., in order to afford thereby full satisfaction to the material-psychical human nature . Thus, while the repute of wisdom is procured among other things by mortifying the body , the flesh is satisfied; the fleshly sinful lust of these men gets fully satisfying nourishment conveyed to it, when they see that their doctrines and commandments pass for wise. What lust of the flesh it is which Paul has in view, is placed beyond doubt by the case itself and also by Col 2:18 , namely, that of religious conceit and pride , which through the feels itself flattered and gratified in the fancy of peculiar perfection. This interpretation, which we have given of , , is held in substance, following Hilary (“sagina carnalis sensus traditio humana est”), by Bengel, Storr, Flatt, Bhmer, Steiger, Bhr, Huther, Dalmer, Bleek, and others. Most, however, refer to the honour to be shown to the body (or the , see Luther), and . . . to bodily satisfaction , so that the sense results: not in some esteeming of the body to the satisfying of bodily wants; [136] “sentit apost., sapientiam illam aut praecepta talia esse, per quae corpori debitus honor, pertinens ad expletionem, i.e . justam refectionem carnis, subtrahatur,” Estius. So, in substance, Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, Oceumenius, Theophylact, Pelagius, Erasmus, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Musculus, Clarius, Zeger, Erasmus Schmid, Zanchius, Vatablus, Calovius, Cornelius a Lapide, Wolf, Michaelis, Nsselt, Rosenmller, and others, including de Wette and Baumgarten-Crusius. It is fatal to this view: (1) that , as is shown by the repetition of , is the contrast not merely to , but to the entire connected , and hence the reference to the honour to be shown to the body does not seem justified by the context; [137] (2) further, that for the designation of the mere satisfaction at this particular place, where Paul could only have had a in view, as in Rom 13:14 , the term would be very inappropriate, especially in contradistinction to the mortifications of the false teachers, since it denotes filling up, satisfying fully , even in Exo 16:3 (see generally the passages from the LXX. and Apocrypha quoted by Schleusner, Thes . IV. p. 375 f.); comp. Plat. Legg . viii. p. 837: Xen. Mem . iii. 11. 14, rep. Lac . 2. 5, Cyrop . iv. 2. 40, Ages . 5. 1; Lucian. Nigr . 33, Ep. Saturn . 28; Polyb. ii. 19. 4; (3) finally, that the interchange of and , in the event of the latter not being meant in an ethical character, would seem to be without a motive, while, according to our view, stands in as ingenious correlation with , as with . These arguments apply also in opposition to Ewald’s view; “what seems very wise, but is in no value whatever , is rather quite useless for the satisfaction of the flesh , which yet also demands its rights, if man would not wantonly disorganize his earthly life or even destroy it” (2Co 10:3 ). Hofmann finally takes . rightly, but explains in such a way as to make masculine , and to attach it as appropriating dative to : “ not so that honour accrues to any one .” This is to be rejected, because Paul, instead of simply and clearly writing , would only have expressed himself in a way singularly liable to be misunderstood by , which every reader was led to join as a feminine with (“in honore aliquo,” Vulgate). Nor is it to be easily seen what subjects , beyond the teacher of the false wisdom himself, we should have to conceive to ourselves under taken as masculine .

[134] So Hilgenfeld, in his Zeitschr. 1870, p. 250, holding that what is rejected in the legal sense in ver. 22 is here “permitted as voluntary asceticism.” See, however, on the sequel, from which the impossibility of this interpretation is self-evident.

[135] According to Hofmann, namely, is a disposition of self-humiliation, which, however, only weakens the body by abstinences. But it would rather have the absurd sense: humility of the body; for neither means humiliation nor self-humiliation, but humility, meekness, ver. 18, Col 3:12 ; Phi 2:3 .

[136] “God will have the body honoured, i.e. it is to have its food, clothing, etc., for its necessities, and not to be destroyed with intolerable fasting, labour, or impossible chastity, as the doctrine of men would do,” Luther’s gloss.

[137] This applies also in opposition to Olshausen, who in the case of follows the explanation of respect for the body, but with regard to . . . follows our view.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

REFLECTIONS

What a lovely view doth this Chapter open with of Paul’8 love for the Church, in his soul exercises for their spiritual welfare. And, what a contradiction of sinners did Christ endure against himself for his Church and people, lest his exercised ones should grow faint, and be weary in their minds. Oh! thou unequalled pattern of everything that is fair, and good, and lovely!

Oh! Lord the Holy Ghost! let thy Church praise thee for the gracious remedy thou hast taught in this chapter against philosophy and vain deceit, the tradition of men, and the rudiments of the world. It is, indeed, a sure relief, when a poor sinner is enabled, through all the time-state of the Church, to receive Christ as he first received him, when called out of darkness to light, and both to receive Christ, and to come to Christ, and to live upon Christ, from first to last, the same needy, helpless, self-condemned, self-loathing sinner still. Lord! be it my portion thus to receive Christ, and thus to walk in Christ, and to be rooted and built up in him, to the Lord’s glory, and my joy.

Lord! keep thy Church from being beguiled with enticing words. Keep all thy redeemed from being vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind. Ye Ministers of my God, hold up the glorious Head, from which all the body having nourishment ministered, and knit together, may increase with the increase of God. Ye fathers, to the children make known his name!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

23 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.

Ver. 23. And neglecting of the body ] Gr. . Not sparing of it, as the old and new Baalites, these Flagellantes; and those also among us (good otherwise), that pinch their bodies too much with penury or excessive fasting, are blameworthy. The body is the soul’s servant, and that it may be Par negotio, neither supra nor infra negotium, it must have due honour and nourishment.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Col 2:23 . : i.e. , which commandments and teachings. . This may be taken in the sense of “a word of wisdom,” but with no inner truth. Others translate “appearance of wisdom” (Beng., De W. and others). But this seems not to be a meaning of . Klpper’s translation, “reason” or “ground,” yields no very good sense. It is best, with most recent commentators, to translate “a reputation for wisdom”. is not followed by , but this is not uncommon (see Winer-Moulton, pp. 719 721). . It is impossible to connect . with all three datives (Hofm.), it can belong only to , with which it is connected as an objective genitive, “severity to the body”. If is retained before . the sense of the earlier datives is not affected. If, however, it is omitted their sense may be affected. It is possible to take ., then, as an instrumental dative with . But it is also possible to take it, with Haupt, as an explanatory apposition to the earlier datives. In this case . and . have both an ascetic meaning. Against this, however, is the fact that the words cannot be separated from the parallel expressions in Col 2:18 . This seems to fix the sense of . as a worship of angels, which was not required of them, and . will mean what it meant in Col 2:18 . . occurs nowhere else, and was probably coined by Paul. Similar compounds were not unusual, and generally, though not invariably, had a bad sense. This is commonly supposed to attach to this word, but in any case it gets a bad sense from its context. . . is the clearest assertion we have of the ascetic character of the false teachings. , . These words, which constitute this verse one of the most difficult in the New Testament, have received very various explanations. It is disputed whether . should be connected with the preceding or following words, and also with what . . . should be connected. Sumner, followed by Conybeare and Evans on 1Co 7:2 , interpreted as meaning “to check,” and translated “not in any value to check the indulgence of the flesh,” connecting . . with the following words. This view was adopted by Lightfoot, and has been accepted by Moule and now by Ellicott. It has been inserted, with altogether insufficient warning, in R.V. It is a new explanation, and since propounded has found comparatively little favour. Lightfoot quotes numerous examples to prove that after words denoting value, utility, sufficiency, etc., is used in the sense “to check” or “to prevent”. But in these cases the meaning does not lie in , but in after some word which imposes this sense upon it ( e.g. , ), and there is nothing of the kind here. Abbott, in his valuable criticism of this interpretation, points out that means “with a view to,” and if the object is a word signifying action or the production of an effect it will mean with a view to (producing). “Hence it seems to follow that unless be taken in the sense of ‘a state of repletion,’ which would be unsuitable, could only mean to produce .” A further question relates to the use of . Our word “value” is ambiguous, and may mean “value” in the sense of “price”. But in this interpretation it is used in the sense of “efficacy,” and this sense needs to be established. It seems necessary to reject this explanation on linguistic grounds. But the sense it yields is less good than appears at first sight. For what would be said would be that these things had a reputation for wisdom in “will-worship,” etc., but they had not a reputation for wisdom in any value against the indulgence of the flesh. But obviously this cannot be the meaning. The sense imposed “but have not any value” can only be got out of the words by straining them. Another view, which keeps the same connexion of words, is that the translation should be “not in any honour to it [ i.e. , the body] to satisfy the [reasonable] wants of the flesh”. This must be rejected because . is not used in this good sense, and cannot be used as equivalent to in a context where . has been used just before, for the terms must stand in emphatic contrast. Soden and Abbott translate “not in any honour for the full satisfaction of the flesh”. This means that there is no real honour, but what there is, is such as to satisfy the carnal nature. So Meyer, not in any honour, but serving to satiate the flesh. The objection to this view is that at least is required before . . . Alford connects . . with the preceding words, but . . . . with . This gives a fairly good sense, and requires no necessary words to be supplied, but the parenthesis is incredibly long. A less lengthy parenthesis is involved in the interpretation of Bhr, Eadie and Weiss: “Which things, having indeed a reputation of wisdom in will-worship and humility and severity to the body, not in any honour, are for the indulgence of the flesh”. If the contrast is between severity to the body and honour to it, we should have expected after . It is also strange that should be placed before and not before . And the meaning is not probable, for it is implied that Paul thought that a reputation for wisdom ought to rest on honour to the body, which is absurd. Findlay’s view, “not in any honour, against surfeiting of the flesh,” not only yields a thought most obscurely expressed, but must be rejected because of its translation of . All these interpretations are open to serious if not fatal objections. It is therefore not unlikely that Hort is right in the suspicion, shared also by Haupt, that we have to do here with a primitive corruption, for which no probable emendation has been suggested. He thinks that the text of the Epistle, and especially of the second chapter, was badly preserved in ancient times.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Which = Which order of. have is having.

shew = reputation. App-121.

will worship. Greek. ethelothreskeia, i.e. self-imposed worship. Only here.

neglecting = not sparing. Greek. apheidia. Only here.

honour = value.

to. App-104.

satisfying. Greek. pleamone. Only here. Ascetic observances are of no value as remedies against the old nature.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Col 2:23. , which) An Anaphora [repetition of the same word in beginnings]: comp. , which, Col 2:22.-, are) Construe, are-for, to the satisfying (- ), as Col 2:22, are for perishing (- ); therefore resolve into though (whereas) they have, that it may form a clause: , are, and , to, being disjoined, the sentence becomes appropriately (appositely) suspended.-) a name and a plausible appearance.-, indeed) The force of the particle , but, which makes an Apodosis, is concealed in the finite verb , are.[18]-, will-worship) , as well as humility of sentiment (), has a plausible appearance. For this word, as E. Schmidius well shows, denotes worship (whether right or wrong), performed willingly and with ready inclination: such , ready promptness or obsequiousness, has the appearance of wisdom: comp. Jam 3:17; for it seems to be removed from obstinacy, as humility of sentiment () seems to be removed from pride.-, humility of sentiment) Col 2:18, note.- , [Engl. Vers., neglecting of, etc.] and with severe treatment of [not sparing] the body) which is the case when many things are withheld from the body, which might be afforded to it, Col 2:21; nay, the body itself is purposely worn down [mortified]. This also looks plausible, for it becomes saints, 1Co 9:27; although expresses something more odious, than , in the passage quoted from first Corinthians. These three things, plausible in appearance, involve a threefold relation: to God, to angels, to ones own self; and therefore they have, when joined together, a perfect appearance.- , not in any price or estimation [honour]) This clause closely coheres with the preceding; and the latter, , in, is opposed to the preceding , in. The LXX. , i.e. without price, for nothing, Isa 55:1; Psa 44:13; Job 31:39. It becomes the man who is ennobled by faith, to have a just estimation of himself, not in himself, but in his Lord Jesus Christ alone, whereby he is not unworthily to degrade himself, inasmuch as having been redeemed at such a price, and striving for such a great reward, for example, through the appearance of , will-worship: Act 13:46; Rom 2:7; 1Co 6:15; 1Co 3:21; 1Co 7:23; 1Th 4:4. This estimation produces holy , ambition (, we labour with ambition), 2Co 5:9; but it is restrained by true self-denial, and again is tarnished by the commandments of men [Col 2:20-21], which, because they bring to us nothing worth while, nothing worthy of estimation [nothing ], comp. Heb 13:9, have an entirely empty and vain appearance of wisdom and every good thing: comp. by all means, , vainly, Col 2:18. This passage is in consonance with Php 3:19, where see the note; and both accord with Hab 2:16, , …, Thou hast filled thyself with shame for glory; drink thou therefore also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered. But true , price or estimation [honour], is theirs who see the glory of the Lord, lb., Col 2:14.- ) to the satisfying of the flesh: , satisfying to the full, satiety, generally denotes excess: , flesh, does not signify the body, but is put as at Col 2:18.[19] Hilarius the deacon, whose commentary on the thirteen epistles of Paul is found among the works of Ambrose, on this passage, says: Sagina carnalis sensus, traditio humana est, human tradition is the overloading (surfeiting) of the carnal sense or appetite. A golden sentence. Tradition puffs up; it clogs the sense of heaven (the perception of heavenly things). , …, and , are therefore in antithesis, and yet joined together. They put away true , price, value, or estimation [honour], that they may satisfy to the full the flesh; denotes that which is regarded as the important concern, or the end, for the sake of which the other things (practices) are assumed (adopted).

[18] Which, though having indeed () a name of wisdom, etc., yet ( understood and implied in ) are to the mere satisfying of the flesh.-ED.

[19] , of his fleshly mind: i.e. flesh, not literally, but in the spiritual application carnality.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Col 2:23

Col 2:23

Which things have indeed a show of wisdom-The inventions of men make a great show of wisdom, and worship after mans will much greater show than the commandments of God.

in will-worship,-Will-worship is after our own will. It is self-chosen; and for this single reason is a departure from allegiance to God. [However plausible and specious such worship may appear, however much of show of wisdom it may exhibit, the Holy Spirit has written its folly and emptiness so plainly that none but the willingly blind can fail to see it. Loyalty to the divine government requires hearty obedience to divine law. Whatever God commands, therefore, we must do. To hesitate is to falter, is to forsake our allegiance. To set up any commandment of men, and honor it as a command of God, is treason. God’s will is expressed in his commandments. Every commandment, even the least, is an expression of his will, and an embodiment of his authority as the monarch of the universe. To obey his commandment, to do his will, is, therefore, the very essence of true piety. Everything else is mere will-worship.]

and humility,-This is a studied and affected humility, not resting on a basis of faith and love, but consciously cultivated, and therefore not inconsistent with pride. In this way false teachers would become really more dangerous-for no false teachers are so dangerous as those who assume the aspect of great humility and claim great reverence for divine things.

and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.-These things may have a show of humility and wisdom, so far as self-imposed worship and humility and severity of the body are concerned; but they are of no value or worth whatever as a safeguard against any real temptation to bodily indulgence. Ascetic observances do not make a man pure or shield him against fleshly temptations and indulgences.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

not in any

Or, “which do not really honour God, but only satisfy the flesh” (i.e. by creating a reputation for superior sanctity).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

a show: Gen 3:5, Gen 3:6, Mat 23:27, Mat 23:28, 2Co 11:13-15, 1Ti 4:3, 1Ti 4:8

will: Col 2:8, Col 2:18, Col 2:22

neglecting: or, punishing, or, not sparing, Eph 5:29

Reciprocal: Ecc 7:16 – neither Isa 2:9 – humbleth Mat 15:3 – Why Joh 13:8 – Thou shalt 1Co 6:13 – but God Gal 6:12 – as desire

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Col 2:23.) -Which things indeed having a show of wisdom. The antecedent to is the preceding clause-doctrines and commandments of men. Khner, 431, 2. The peculiar form represents this idea-all which things, that is, the entire class of them. Khner, 781, 4, 5. We do not connect with the participle , as some do; but specially with the concluding clause of the verse. signifies sometimes report or rumour-then mere rumour-then mere talk or pretext-words and only words- . It is thus opposed to . Diodorus Siculus, 13, 4; Polybius, 17 (18), 14, 5. The word thus means a certain kind of semblance, which in Scotch is called a sough-sound without reality. These precepts and commandments had the air, aspect, nomenclature, and pretensions of wisdom. The particle might imply the contrast, the apodosis not being formally expressed. Khner, 734, 2; Winer, 63, I.2, e. This last critic says-the parallel member of the sentence is included in the one with . Thus, Heb 6:16,-men, indeed–swear by the greater, and the implied contrast is, but God can only swear by Himself. These teachings have a show of wisdom, -but none in reality. Or, Rom 3:2, What advantage, then, hath the Jew?-much every way- -chiefly indeed, but not wholly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Thus Act 19:4. -John indeed baptized the baptism of repentance; the implied contrast being-but not so Jesus. So, in the clause before us, the same construction has been found by some,&- -;there is the semblance, indeed, of wisdom, but not the reality. We are inclined, however, to regard the apodosis as existing in ; but is not expressed, because the construction is changed into the dative, following up the case of the preceding nouns, and because the word , to which would be attached, has in it a palpable adversative power. It was worse than hypercriticism on the part of Jerome to say, that the particle was omitted-propter imperitiam artis grammaticae. The apostle particularizes and adds, this verbiage of wisdom consists in will-worship-

. This is worship not enjoyed by God, but springing out of man’s own ingenuity-unauthorized devotion, being religious service-the outer manifestation of inner feeling. Thus, is one who is wilfully a slave; is one who is wilfully in danger. The worship referred to is unsolicited and unaccepted. It is superstition, and probably is the homage paid to angels. Such worship had the feint of wisdom, as it professed to base itself on invisible arcana; and to ask and receive blessings and protection from creatures, whose agency comes not within the range of observation, but who were supposed to be the patrons and defenders of those who could name them in erring and extravagant devotion.

-And humility. This has been already explained under the 18th verse. The humility referred to is plainly of that spurious kind, that, in its excess and affectation, could not look up to God, but deemed it wondrous wisdom to invoke angels on its behalf.

. The term is unsparingness, and here unsparingness in the form of severity, or that austere asceticism which the apostle has already reprimanded. In this sense it often occurs among the classical writers. The body is not only kept under, that is, kept in its proper and subordinate position, but it is hated, lacerated, and tormented into debility. The appetites are looked upon as sinful, and are checked-not supplied in healthful moderation. Every species of support is grudged-to back and belly too. The physical constitution is thus enervated and sickened. Yet its sinful tendencies are only beaten down, not eradicated. Job made a covenant with his eyes, but those fanatics would dim theirs by fasting. The whole process was a cardinal mistake, for it was a system of externals, both in ceremonial and ethics. The body might be reduced, but the evil bias might remain unchecked. A man might whip and fast himself into a walking skeleton, and yet the spirit within him might have all its lusts unconquered, for all it had lost was only the ability to gratify them. To place a fetter on a robber’s hand will not cure him of covetousness, though it may disqualify him from actual theft. To seal up a swearer’s mouth will not pluck profanity out of his heart, though it may for the time prevent him from taking God’s name in vain. To lacerate the flesh almost to suicide, merely incapacitates it for indulgence, but does not extirpate sinful desire. Its air of superior sanctity is only pride in disguise-it has but a show of wisdom, and is not-

, . There is difficulty in arriving at a correct interpretation of these clauses, and one reason is, that we have first to solve whether they should be joined or disconnected. It is quite plain that the apostle intends a contrast, and the preposition is repeated.

1. Very many interpreters supply to . The Greek interpreters held this view, followed by Pelagius, Calvin, Luther, and other reformers; by Estius, and a-Lapide in the Popish Church; by Daill, Davenant, and Macknight; and in later times by the lately deceased critics, De Wette and Baumgarten-Crusius. The meaning, then, is-which things have a show of wisdom in will-worship, humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honour shown to the body in reference to such things as satisfy corporeal appetite. This is a favourite interpretation, but we cannot receive it. For, as Meyer remarks, it gives the meaning of , which had just been previously used-a meaning which it cannot bear. Then, too, this exegesis supplies without any reason, and it restricts the contrast introduced by to only one member of the sentence. That contrast seems to refer to all the manifestations of this specious wisdom, and not simply to one of them. Besides, this interpretation gives a very feeble ending to the verse; austerity towards the body, is weakly characterized as not giving honour to the body in things which satisfy its physical appetites, as if the Colossians needed such a definition. And lastly, this is something more than the gratification of corporeal desire, for in the Pauline vocabulary, is only a portion of .

2. Another view, which holds the same connection, is that which gives the sense of value, and brings out this exegesis-which are not of any value, inasmuch as they are concerned with things which serve only to the gratification of the flesh. These are useless prohibitions, and have but a show of wisdom, for they are concerned with matters which minister only to appetite-quum ad ea spectent quibus farcitur caro. The participle is thus supposed to stand before . This is the idea of Beza and Crocius, and that of Heinrichs is only a worse modification of it. It restricts the meaning of , and needs considerable eking out in its construction.

3. Others take the word in its full sense, and suppose the apostle to mean that all prohibitions which bear especially against the body are of little worth, for they minister all the while to the pride of corrupted humanity. The last clause is thus nearly equivalent to an earlier one-vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. With some varieties, this is the exegesis of Hilary, Bengel, Storr, Flatt, Bhmer, Steiger, Bhr, and Huther. Meyer, in taking the same view, places in contrast with , and with . He also lays the principal stress of the contrast on the words , as if they stood in antagonism to the . That wisdom is all a pretence-it has no honour in reality or basis. Still, with this otherwise good interpretation, the connection of the last clause appears to be hard, for must signify um dadurch, or all of them tend to. A modification of this view is adopted by Conybeare, who gives the clause a pregnant sense-not of any value to check the indulgence of the flesh. His reviewer in the North British Review applauds the exegesis. We do not accept the sense of fleshly passion for , and we cannot believe to be so utterly indifferent in its meaning. In the proposed exegesis, must signify against. It sometimes is so translated, still the idea of hostility is found, not in the particle, but in its adjuncts, as , , or as in the New Testament, Act 6:1, where the idea of antagonism is found in , Act 24:19, where the clause is preceded by , and in Eph 6:11, where there is the idea of combat. In all such cases the idea of hostility is implied in the clause, and the preposition only expresses the reference-but there is no such idea implied in the verse before us. The same principle explains the array of classical instances adduced by Peile

4. While we take this general view, we are inclined to regard the verse, from to , as participial; and with Bhr, closely to connect with . Which things having, indeed, a show of wisdom in superstition, humility, and corporeal austerity, not in any thing of value, are for, or minister to the gratification of the flesh. after denotes result. Joh 11:4. There needs, with this view, the insertion of no explanatory terms, or connecting ideas taken for granted. The verb stands at a distance from the preposition, but is not on that account the less emphatic. The apostle means to condemn those precepts and teachings, and he is about to pronounce the sentence; but to make it the more emphatic he briefly enumerates what they chiefly consist of, and then his censure is, that they produce an effect directly the opposite to their professed design. Their avowed purpose is to lower and abase humanity, and he gives them epithets all showing this object; while he adds with sternness and force, that their only result is to rouse up and inflate unregenerate humanity. That can bear this tropical meaning there is no doubt, as in Hab 2:16, where the word occurs with ; Sir 1:16, where it is used with ; and Isa 65:15, where it stands absolutely, but with a spiritual sense. The phrase , then brings out this contrast-those doctrines have in sooth a show of wisdom, in their will-worship, humility, and corporeal austerity, but they have really nothing of value.

The paragraph therefore reprobates superstitious asceticism. The religious history of the world shows what fascination there is to many minds in voluntary suffering. Such asceticism threw its eclipse over the bright and lovely spirit of Pascal. The oriental temperament feels powerfully the fatal charm. As if the Divine Being might fail to subject them to a sufficient amount of discipline, men assume the labour of disciplining themselves, but choose a mode very unlike that which God usually employs.

The Brahmin kindles on his own bare head

The sacred fires, self-torturing his trade.

Which is the saintlier worthy of the two?

Past all dispute yon anchorite, say you.

Your sentence and mine differ. What’s a name?

I say the Brahmin has the fairer claim,

If sufferings Scripture nowhere recommends,

Devised by self to answer selfish ends,

Give saintship, then, all Europe must agree

Ten starveling hermits suffer less than he.

Such delusions are not confined to religious follies, for their origin lies deep in human nature. Men glory in being what their fellows dare not aspire to, and there is no little self-aggrandizement in this self-annihilation. When Diogenes lifted his foot on Plato’s velvet cushion and shouted, Thus I trample on Plato’s pride, the Athenian sage justly replied, But with still greater pride. The apostle utters a similar sentiment; the carnal nature is all the while gratified, even though the body, wan and wasted, is reduced to the point of bare existence. There is more pride in cells and cloisters than in courts and palaces, and oftentimes as gross sensuality. The devotee deifies himself, is more to himself than the object of his homage. The whole of these fanatical processes, so far from accomplishing their ostensible object, really produce the reverse; such will-worship is an impious invention; such humility is pride in its most sullen and offensive form; and these corporeal macerations, so far from subduing and sanctifying, only gratify to satiety the coarse and selfish passions; nay, as history has shown, tend to nurse licentiousness in one age, and a ferocious fanaticism in another. The entire phenomenon, whatever its special aspect, is a huge self-deception, and a reversal of that moral order which God has established.

In the course of expounding this chapter, we have found several illustrations in post-apostolic times. We now present another, which shows how the practices described in this section were viewed in themselves, and condemned at a very early period. The unknown author of that very precious document, the letter to Diognetus, and now rightly included by Hefele among the remains of the apostolical Fathers, speaks in a style worthy of an apostle. He says of the Jews, But indeed I think that you have no need to learn from me their ridiculous and senseless alarms about their food, their superstition about the Sabbath, their boasting of circumcision, and their pretexts of fasting, and the observance of new moons. How is it right to receive some of the things which God has created for the use of man as fitly created, and to reject others of them as useless and superfluous? How can it be else than impious to libel God, as if He had forbidden any good action to be done on the Sabbath day? How worthy of ridicule their exultation about the curtailment of the flesh as a witness of their election, as though on this account they were the peculiar objects of God’s complacency! Who will regard as a sign of piety, and will not much more regard as a mark of folly, their scrupulous study of the stars, and their watching of the moon, in order to procure the observance of months and days, and to arrange the Divine dispensations and changes of the seasons-some into feasts and others into fasts, according to their inclination? I imagine that you are sufficiently informed, that the Christians rightly abstain from the prevailing emptiness of worship and delusion, and from the fussiness and vainglory of the Jews.

Our readers will pardon us for inserting in a note a modern instance of this pride of sanctity covered with a robe of revolting humility. Last year (1854), a new saint was added to the Popish calendar, by name Benedetto Giuseppe Labre, who had made his residence in the Coliseo for many years, and was noted by travellers for his craziness and filth. At the usual mock trial which takes place at a canonization, the pleading of the so-called Devil’s advocate against him was rebutted by the so-called God’s advocate in the following terms, literally translated from the paper:-He was a model of humility, abstinence, and mortification, taking only for food remains of cabbage, lemon peel, or lettuce leaves, which he picked up in the streets. He even ate, once, some spoiled soup which he found on a dunghill, where it had been thrown. All these facts are fully proved by the juridical documents laid before the tribunal. . . . . Having spoken at length of the wooden cup, all broken and rotten, in which he received his soup at the door of the houses, eternal monument of his voluntary privations, the advocate proceeds: What more shall I say? A glance cast upon him was sufficient to discover in him a perfect model of poverty. His hair and beard were neglected, his face pale, his garments ragged, his body livid; a rosary hung from his neck; he wore no stockings; his shirt was dirty and disgusting; and to give of him a full idea, let us add, that he was so completely covered with vermin (pidocchi), that in the churches many persons kept away from him for fear of catching them!

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Col 2:23. Show of wisdom denotes that these unauthorized theories and practices have an appearance of wisdom only. This verse has special reference to the items of so-called philosophers, and the practices of people called ascetics. Such extremists believed it was a virtue to torture the body in the name of religious philosophy. Will worship means that which is suggested by the human will instead of by the will of God. Humility is the same as “voluntary humility,” and it is explained at verse 18. Neglecting of the body is defined by Robinson as “harsh bodily discipline.” Not in any honor denotes that these things are of no real value, and to the satisfying of the flesh means they are prompted by the fleshly or human notions.

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Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Col 2:23. Which things, a set of things which (Ellicott), have indeed a show of wisdom, have the reputation of wisdom, but lack the reality; this being obviously the meaning. The Apostle thus describes the entire class of human precepts, to which the Colossian prohibitions belonged.

In, governing all three following nouns, points to the sphere in which this reputed wisdom manifests itself.

Will-worship; self-imposed arbitrary worship; comp. Col 2:18.

And humility; external, ostentatious humility, hence only apparent.

And harsh treatment of the body; through ascetic practices. Such mortification is based upon contempt of the creatures, or false views of matter as the seat of sin. The first substantive denotes the religious aspect of their conduct; the second, the ethical in relation to men; the third, the same as respects earthly things. In such ways they gained a repute of wisdom (Braune).

But are not of any value against the satiety of the flesh, i.e., to check its desires after full indulgence. This is, on the whole, the least objectionable explanation of this difficult passage. But flesh must be taken in its full ethical sense, without limiting the phrase to grosser forms of sensual indulgence. For while chap. Col 4:5 suggests these, Col 2:2 points to earthly things in general as the objects of the flesh. Ascetic rules cannot restrain these desires. The view above presented preserves a simple construction of the Greek, and is not open to serious lexical objections. Value is a frequent sense of the word thus rendered, and the preposition (lit., to), in this connection, may mean directed towards, i.e., against Another view, favored by Meyer and many others is: not in any honor, serving- only to the satiety of the flesh. This cannot be objected to properly as too strong, since experience shows that asceticism fosters carnality, in the wide Pauline sense. But it accepts a harsh construction, and makes an unnecessary ellipsis. Still more harsh is the view of Alford, who explains not in any honor (to the body); and connecting the last clause with Col 2:20 : subjected to ordinancesto the satiety of the flesh. All interpretations are false which take body and flesh in the same sense, and give a good meaning to satiety, i.e., a satisfying of the proper needs of the flesh. (The E. V. apparently gives this sense.) Nor can the clause be regarded as part of the View of the false teachers, since their words (in Col 2:21) are too remote. Accepting the first view, and giving flesh its full sense, we find here an appropriate close to the polemical portion of the Epistle: You died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, do not be subject to ordinances, which have no authority from Christ, and which with all their appearance of religion and morality, utterly fail to hinder the empire of the flesh. Depravity, sensuous always, and so often sensual, in its manifestations, is not checked thus. How and why it is overcome the Apostle proceeds to show in the next chapter. Asceticism degenerates into mere mechanical morality, casuistic hair-splitting about the divine law, an externalizing of self-discipline and self-exertion, a stirring up of spiritual pride. Under austerity respecting externals is concealed effeminacy with regard to heart-emotions, and in the unsparing treatment of the body the flesh is fondled (Braune). The history of monasticism is a sufficient commentary. The connection between asceticism and the worship of angels seems a natural one. Monasticism and the adoration of the saints flourished together; and the devotees of modern spiritism are not far removed, in locality and thought, from the fanatics about food and drink. Both alike minister to spiritual pride.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

THE HORTATORY PART

The Christian being dead with Christ, is dead from the rudiments of the world; in other words, worldly methods of obtaining perfection are something with which he has nothing to do. Why then should he act to the contrary, after the commandments and doctrines of men (Col 2:20; Col 2:22)? Why should he ascribe salvation or any part of it, to things which perish with the using? Why should he come under a law which says touch not, taste not, handle not, as though it possessed sanctifying grace? As one who is saved, there are many things he will not touch, nor taste, nor handle, as the next chapter indicates, but this is different from attaching a meritorious value to such things, as these false teachers did. Such things have a show of wisdom in mens eyes perhaps, but are of the nature of will worship, self-imposed ordinances, and nothing more. No neglect of the body, no asceticism of this kind can extirpate evil appetites or get rid of sin (Col 2:23).

On the other hand, the Christian having risen with Christ as we have seen, let him seek, i.e., set his mind on things above (Col 3:1-2). For these things, compare Mat 6:33 and Php 3:20. To seek them means to inquire about and ask for them, as they are revealed in Holy Scripture. The encouragement to do this is found in Col 3:3-4 (compare 1Jn 3:1-3).

The Christian who does this will soon be exhibiting the fruit of it in a life of real holiness as distinguished from the counterfeit recommended by the Gnostics. This holiness will show itself in two ways, by a putting off (Col 3:5-11) and a putting on (Col 3:12-17). The true Christian realizing his risen life with Christ will mortify put to death the members of his body, in the sense that he will eschew the things named in verses 5-9. He will do this through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within him, and by whom he is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. Col 3:11 means that this new man is not depending on the distinctions therein indicted, all of which are obliterated in Christ. But the true believer will not only put to death the things named, but clothe himself with a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness, love, peace and thankfulness.

We have said that this would be done through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer, but the instrument He uses is the Word of Christ (Col 3:16), i.e., the Holy Scriptures. The believer in whose heart that dwells richly, will ever be acting on the principle of Col 3:17.

The apostle now applies all this to the three classes of the social order (Col 3:18 to Col 4:1), as he did in Ephesians, to which lesson the student will turn.

The conclusion of the epistle is an appeal for prayer (Col 4:2-4); apostolic counsel in conduct toward the world (Col 4:5-6); personal matters including commendations of and salutations from fellow workers (Col 4:7-15); directions concerning the epistle (Col 4:16); a charge to one of the elders (Col 4:17), and the benediction (Col 4:18).

Note how aptly the subject of prayer is introduced, following as it does the opening up of the whole subject of practical holiness. How shall we obtain the power to practice such holiness without prayer for the Holy Spirits aid? Note that while the brotherhood of Christ is a world in itself, yet the Christian has responsibilities toward others (Col 4:5). To walk in wisdom with reference to the unconverted means Gospel knowledge applied in common sense. It means the conscious blessedness of the life of the Christian as a visible fact, but no stage effects no self-conceit and no more oddities. The Christian should evince a true sympathy with all genuine human interests while yet in earnest for the salvation of souls. He should redeem the time, or buy up the opportunity, in the sense of knowing just when and how to act in such cases with reference to the world around him. Speech always with grace, seasoned with salt (Col 4:6) means the right adaptation and point in our remarks in addressing the unsaved, as indicated in the last clause of the verse. The allusion to Laodicea (Col 4:13; Col 4:15-16) brings to mind that of Col 2:1, and gives occasion to say that it, and Hierapolis and Colosse lay very near each other. It is interesting to note that an epistle had been sent there as well as to Colosse, though we have no further record to it. Moreover, the circumstance that the epistles were to be interchanged is a hint as to the way in which the church of the first century determined the canon of the New Testament. There was in other words, a circulation of the inspired teachings, and a searching into them by all the Christians in every place.

QUESTIONS

1. Interpret in your own words Col 2:20-23.

2. In what two ways is true holiness exhibited?

3. What does Col 4:11 mean?

4. What connection in thought is there between verses 16 and 17?

5. What does walk in wisdom mean?

6. What is meant by speech seasoned with salt?

7. What hint have we here as to the determination of the canon of the New Testament?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

2:23 {24} Which things have indeed a shew of {f} wisdom in {g} will worship, and humility, and {h} neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the {i} satisfying of the flesh.

(24) The taking away of an objection. These things have a good appearance, because men by this means seem to worship God with a good mind, and humble themselves, and neglect the body, which the most part of men curiously pamper and cherish. But yet nonetheless the things themselves are of no value, for they do not pertain to the things that are spiritual and everlasting, but to the nourishment of the flesh.

(f) Which seem indeed to be some exquisite thing, and such wise devices as though they came from heaven.

(g) From here sprang the works of supererogation, as the papists call them, that is to say, works that form a reserve fund of merit that can be drawn on in favour of sinners, as though men performed more than is commanded them: which was the beginning and the very ground upon which monk’s merits were brought in.

(h) A graphic description of monasticism.

(i) Seeing they stand in meat and drink, in which the kingdom of God does not stand.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes