Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
One of the fun things to do with kittens is to use a laser pointer and get them to chase the light on the floor. They will do it for hours. They never seem to understand that the light can’t be caught.
When I was a kid, we would play a playground game where the object of the game was to step on someone else’s shadow. I guess we had a shortage of those really bouncy balls, and had to make up our own games. Of course, shadows don’t have substance to them, so there was no way to prove you had stepped on the shadow before the person moved. Their shadow didn’t get captured under your foot.
So often in life, people seem to be chasing after things that have no substance. The elusive ‘fame’ of ‘influencers’ on social media is certainly vapor in the wind. Now some have made obscene money doing it, but even money is vapor. No one will put on there tombstone that they were the top influencer in 2022!
In Paul’s day, there were religious false teachers who were trying to influence the churches to keep a certain set of rules as a way to gain God’s favor. Special diets (vegan, keto, paleo, no carb, sustainable, gluten free) like the kosher Jewish diet of that day were used as a weapon to try to force conformity to their standard. Anyone who didn’t follow their ideals were looked down upon as inferior.
There were those who made a big deal about keeping a specific calendar of special event days. And if you didn’t keep the same set of days, you were put on the naughty list. Even if you worshipped on a different day than they did, you were somehow ‘less than’ they were.
Even in our day and age there are external standards that some people place on others as a burden to be carried. In California, State officials interviewed two year old daycare kids about mask compliance. Come on, guys! Let’s have some sense of reality here. While these standards are not religious in nature, it demonstrates the tendency of groups of people to judge others by externals.
At the end of this chapter (2:23) Paul writes, “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” All the external rules just don’t seem to affect the heart. They are just nail polish on a pig. Pretty without affecting the flavor of the bacon.
The point Paul is making is this: if you want real change that carries over to eternity, there is only one way to get it, Christ. It is only in Jesus that the reality of God’s rule and reign here on Earth can be brought into existence. As Paul writes in this book, it is where the image of God that humanity received in the Garden can be fully realized.
We can’t be the kinds of humans we were designed to be apart from Jesus. We must fully embrace Him, putting off our old selves and stepping into His shoes, living His life in us. As long as we try to live our life for Him, we fall short. He wants us to live His life.
He has already conquered sin and we need to step into Him and live out His victory over sin. If we simply try to overcome, we will fail. But we can live His life. We put off the old self and put Him on. We walk in the steps He has already walked, obedience and self-sacrifice. Everything is done “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” We live His life, the life he provided prior to the Fall.
The Arnold Journey 