“If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances”
The full verse · Colossians 2:20 · KJV
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Asked by
Paul: the apostle writing to the church at Colosse, warning against teaching "after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Colossians 2:8)
Asked to
Colossians: the saints and faithful believers at Colosse, being pressed to keep rules about food, drink, and holy days (Colossians 2:16)
The Scene
Paul has told the Colossians not to let anyone judge them "in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday," or beguile them with "worshipping of angels" (Colossians 2:16-18).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionPaul wants the Colossians to see a contradiction in their own lives. They had died with Christ, yet they were acting as if they still belonged to the old order. Barnes paraphrases Paul's point: "Why do you allow them to influence you, as though you were living and acting under those worldly principles?" Gill explains that they were dead with Christ "by having communion with him in his death." The question presses them to live from that union, not from rules laid on them by others.
The Response
What Scripture recordsPaul's question runs on through Colossians 2:22. He gives samples of the rules, "Touch not; taste not; handle not," and says they concern things that "all are to perish with the using" (Colossians 2:21-22). He grants they "have indeed a shew of wisdom," but says they are "not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh" (Colossians 2:23). Then he gives the positive answer: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1).
Historical Context
The world behind the words"Rudiments" translates stoicheia, a word for things in a row, such as letters of the alphabet, and so basic elements. Barnes explains "rudiments of the world" as "elements or principles which are of a worldly nature." "Are ye subject to ordinances" is a single Greek verb, dogmatizesthe, "to decree, to subject oneself to an ordinance." The Colossians were letting decrees be imposed on them. Matthew Henry says that "Christians are freed by Christ from the ritual observances of Moses's law."
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyUnion with Christ changes a believer's relationship to man-made rules for holiness. Paul has just said believers were "Buried with him in baptism" and are "risen with him" (Colossians 2:12). Christ also blotted out "the handwriting of ordinances that was against us," nailing it to His cross (Colossians 2:14). To go back under such ordinances is to live as if that death had not happened.
The answer is not to have no direction but to set the heart on Christ. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). The cure for the flesh is not stricter rules but a new life in Him.
Look Closer
What does Paul say has happened to believers in relation to "the rudiments of the world"?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Father, I have died and risen with Christ; which rules am I still living under as though they could make me holy?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- Why do you think outward rules feel safer to people than trusting their union with Christ?
- Share a time when you found that a new rule did not change your heart, but Christ did.
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
If you belong to Christ, you are not under a list of man-made rules to earn holiness. You have died with Him and been raised with Him (Colossians 2:12, 20). When someone presses "Touch not; taste not; handle not" as the path to God, remember that such rules cannot change the heart (Colossians 2:23).
Instead, set your mind on Christ: "Set your affection on things above" (Colossians 3:2). Growth comes from holding fast to the Head (Colossians 2:19).
This does not mean every personal discipline is wrong. Paul's concern is rules imposed as necessary for spiritual standing, which turn people back to the world's way of thinking. Scripture's own application: Colossians 3:1-3
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources