Colossians 2:13-23

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. ²⁰ Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. ²³ 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.

1. FORGET FEELINGS -18-19

To many modern Christians, words like “mysticism” conjure up Eastern religions, yet it is something that Paul was dealing with in the church 2000 years ago and today is running rampant in Christian community with devastating consequences.

DEFINISION – Religious practice based on the belief that knowledge of spiritual truth can be gained by supernatural experiences and feelings. 

This is the opposite of legalism, it is spiritualism. Mysticism “begins with a mist and always ends in schism,” division. The mystic drive and desire is for special supernatural experiences so they can feel pure, they talk about voices and visions, I heard God or saw God. The goal is to know the deep things of God which again isn’t bad but just like purity pondering the deep things of God is found in Christ not craziness. The mystic wants to feel it and they believe that the secret and “deep” things of God cannot be found in conventional or even rational ways, so they turn to feeling. Today many people are seeking a feeling instead of seeking the Father, and in doing so they have made an idol of their emotions. Paul doesn’t want us to fall into the feeling trap when we have the foundation of facts. Today we want to feel like we are loved by God more that knowing we are loved by Him. Christ didn’t die on the cross so you could feel loved He died on the cross so you could be loved. I don’t feel like I’m in loved by my wife I know I’m in love with my wife, the same is true in my relationship with God. The problem with a feeling focused approach is that instead of connecting to Christ we are cut off from him. There is no life when the body is separated from the head. You can chase after revelations, out-of-body experiences, visions, and spiritual feelings and slowly strangle yourself from a real relationship with Jesus Christ.