What is so amazing about Paul’s letters, and all the more amazing considering we don’t have the other half of these conversations, is how relevant they are to us living in the 21st century. The issues raised by Paul as reasons for concern among the Colossians are the same as those facing Christians and churches now.
The Christians in Colossi were being tempted to add requirements, based on behaviour to the gospel.
This temptation continues today, people meet God and experience the power of the Holy Spirit but without good teaching can quickly feel they should be doing something more to contribute to their salvation, if they’re really going to make it.
People will always try and add rules to the gospel – rules (religious rules especially) are a way to control people, usually and misguidedly the idea is that religious rules will make people behave better – they don’t.
Paul’s consistent argument is that it is relationship with Jesus that changes behaviour. It’s how the Christian life starts and how it should continue.
Here the Colossians were being berated by fanatical Jews that they needed to keep the Jewish laws as well as believe in Jesus – these laws included rules about food and circumcision.
We don’t face that but I would suggest the rules we can, sometimes unconsciously add to the gospel relate to class. If your church is predominantly middle class people being saved into it who are not middle class can feel that to really be a Christian they should conform to the predominant class and should dress in a certain way, have a new car and watch certain TV shows.
A famous preacher C.J. Mahaney tells the story of his own conversion. Having just met Jesus and experienced being born again came the unexpected religious hit – he was basically told that Christian boys didn’t have long hair and that he should ‘get a hair cut’. This along with a hundred other unspoken religious laws must be guarded against.
We are often so immersed in these issues we miss them entirely – this is usually the way with culture.
Let’s be careful not to load people down with cultural baggage which can rob them of the joy of following Jesus. God does want to change us but he doesn’t do it by waving a finger and tut-tutting at us. Change is born from a grateful heart in close relationship with Jesus.