Larry Reynolds, Denton, TX

While some people insist on making the essence of Christianity the keeping of rules and regulations, the New Testament clearly teaches the essence of Christianity is relationship with Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:16-23 is a strongly worded warning against substituting legalism (the keeping of rules and regulations to win God’s approval) for genuine personal relationship with Jesus.

Colossians 2:18-19 - "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God."

Colossians 2:18 lists three types of religious activity that are poor substitutes for relationship with Christ. 

•  “self-abasement” – This could refer to a physical self-abasement. Some false teachers in the 1^st century contended that the body itself is evil. Therefore, it needed to be abused, beaten down, and battered into submission. The more one abused the body, the more spiritual that person was. 
• “worship of angels” – The worship of angels was a heresy that plagued the region where Colossae was located for centuries. In A.D. 363 a church synod was held in Colossae’s sister city, Laodicea, that declared: “It is not right for Christians to abandon the church of God and go away to invoke angels.” The false teachers would say that God is so high and exalted that He could never be approached directly. There always had to be intermediaries. The great truth of Christianity is that each person can have not only access to God but relationship with God.
• “taking his stand on visions…” – The gnostics prided themselves on their claim to have visions/revelations not open to ordinary people. These supposed visions gave them information about God that others did not have. It is always dangerous when a person thinks he/she has reached a spiritual level that allows him/her see things others cannot see. The danger is that such a person sees what he/she wants to see. Paul made clear in Colossians 1:26-27 that God’s plan is not secret. It has been revealed to all who care to see it. It is “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”