Colossians 2:21

"If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,"

Key Reflection

Colossians 2:21 challenges the Colossian Christians who were tempted by ascetic practices and legalistic rules to abandon these customs, as they had already died with Christ to such worldly regulations. The original audience would have recognized that dying with Christ meant being freed from the constraints of elemental spirits or basic principles of this world, yet their inclination to follow external rituals indicated a failure to fully grasp this freedom in Christ.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 21. Touch not; taste not; handle not. These words seem intended as a specimen of the kind of ordinances which the apostle refers to, or an imitation of the language of the Jewish teachers in regard to various kinds of food and drink. "Why are ye subject to ordinances of various kinds, such as this--Touch not, taste not, handle not?" That is, such as prohibit you from even touching certain kinds of food, or tasting certain kinds of drink, or handling certain prohibited things.

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