Respecting Discipline
Colossians 2:18-23
May 21, 2006
David Flowers
Wildwind Community Church
My girls are taking final exams in school right now as the school year comes to a close. I got to thinking about tests this week. Most of the time on a test, for each item, there is one correct answer, and several incorrect answers. But think about this: the correct answer is determined by what the question is, right? If the question is, “Who wrote the book of Colossians?” the answer is “Paul.” That answer is only correct because of what the question is. That same answer “Paul,” will be an incorrect answer to most questions in the world that could be asked – you can think of a million questions that do not have “Paul” as a correct response. But if the question is who wrote Colossians, the answer is Paul. If the question is who wrote Corinthians, the answer is also Paul. If the question is who wrote 1/3 of the New Testament, the answer again is Paul. If the question is, “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” the correct answer is not “Paul,” it is Grant. The correct answer is determined by the question.
For any given correct answer, there are an infinite number of ways to be wrong, because no answer is correct in itself. Answers can only be correct when they are paired with the proper questions.
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Now if your question is where can I find a place that makes a good patty melt at 2 in the morning, this passage won’t help you. If your question is where’s the party, this won’t help you. But for those who might be asking the question can I know the right spiritual path to take, this will start to get you to the right place. Jesus says it plain as day. The path to life is narrow – it’s not very big. Only a few people will find it, not because it’s hidden from sight, but because most people will refuse to see. The path to destruction is wide – many people will follow that way. When it comes to finding true spiritual life, there is one correct answer, and an infinite number of incorrect answers. The path to life is narrow – it’s easy to miss. You have to be really looking for it if you’re going to find it.
So we’re going along in life going, “Narrow path – narrow path. I’m looking for the narrow path – the one most people aren’t taking – the road less traveled – because according to Jesus, that’s the one that will lead to life.” And then that brings up more questions. What does this path look like? How do I get on this path? Then you may remember what Jesus said in John 14:6 – I am the way, the truth, and the life – no one comes to the Father except through me.
So Jesus said “The way that leads to life is narrow and only a few find it.” And he said “I am the way.” How will I recognize the way? Because it’s the way most other people won’t be taking. What is, or who is, the way? Jesus.
This fact is what Paul understood when he wrote Colossians. Paul wrote Colossians to say, “The way is narrow, folks. Not everyone is gonna take the right path. Not all roads lead to the same destination. Not all religions and beliefs lead to the same god. Not all belief systems bear good fruit in the lives of their adherents." Paul writes to the Colossians to say, “Open your eyes and keep them opened to this fact – the path called Jesus Christ is the only way that you will ultimately see God.” Chapter 2 is especially about all that.
The answer is not to be found in any religious system. The answer is not in Hinduism, it’s in Jesus. The answer is not in Buddhism, it’s in Jesus. The answer is not in Islam, it’s in Jesus. And folks, the answer is not in Christianity, either, it’s in Jesus. Christianity is a religious system, as empty and hollow as all other religious systems. Because people can call themselves Christians, and meticulously follow every single rule in the Christian religion all their lives and if they have not thrown themselves upon the mercy and grace of Jesus, they will die in their sins like everybody else. There is no religious system that will save us. Only Jesus can do that, and that’s what Paul writes about in Colossians.
In chapter two of Colossians, Paul tells the Colossians to watch out for empty philosophies and religious legalism – trying to get to God by obeying a set of rules. We’ve talked about empty philosophies and religious legalism the last two weeks.
In the third part of Colossians chapter two, Paul extends religious legalism one step further and discusses what we are today going to call man-made disciplines. Legalism is substituting rules and regulations for faith in Christ. Man-made disciplines would include any activity whatsoever that human beings might undertake with the thought that it will earn them a place close to God. Let’s look at the man-made disciplines Paul was dealing with in the Colossian church.
Colossians 2:20-23 (NIV)
20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:
21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?
22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on 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.
Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. There are the manmade disciplines he writes about. These all had to do with Jewish and Gnostic ideas about meat, and the Greek words for handle, taste, and touch imply levels of contact. The Greek word for handle means “close contact.” The Greek word for touch means “momentary contact.” So Paul is arguing not simply against the idea that meat was unspiritual, but against the whole notion of using something as ridiculous as your beliefs about meat and your behavior toward meat as a measure of how spiritual you are. That’s what they were doing. Jewish law had (and still has) all kinds of rules about meat – you know, kosher and all that. And of course it was not unusual for the Gnostics to be against meat – remember, they believed flesh was evil – one of the lowest life forms. So the handling of meat was a big deal. And we have already talked about circumcision and how that was a big deal. And the observance of certain festival days was a big deal.
You think, “My gosh, why get so upset about these ridiculous things!” That’s precisely my point. Today it may not be circumcision and meat and festivals, but it’s something else, like clothing, music, drinking, politics, or any number of other issues. People are always willing to make up standards for you and then tell you that you can’t know God unless you follow the standards. Usually standards are set for good reasons, and then descend into legalism when people lose their grip on God and allow the standards and rules to become the main thing.
Paul refers to what I call spiritual reality when he says we died with Christ to the basic principles of this world. In other words, this world operates according to certain laws and rules. For example, generally people try to get the best of things for themselves. People usually find within themselves desires to be noticed, to be appreciated, to be esteemed over other people, to be superior. Another basic principle of this world is that people seem to sense there is something missing in their lives, and resort to all kinds of religious gimmicks to fill that empty place. Paul states that Christ died and that we died with him to all of that stuff. In going to the cross, Jesus refused to do what is most basic in human nature – preserve his own life. He violated the strongest natural drive we have. He died to it by submitting voluntarily to his own torture and execution. Jesus’ whole life was one of rejection of the basic principles of this world. His death was the same. And his resurrection was CERTAINLY a rejection of the basic principle that all things that die are dead for good.
So Paul is saying that just as Jesus lived free of the constraints of these worldly principles, we are free from them as well. When Jesus died, canceling that written code that was against us, he freed us from having to live our lives raking through all these things people do to find fulfillment. We don’t have to try to impress God. We don’t have to follow some strict set of laws like the Jews and the Muslims do. We don’t have to sit meditating for hours and attempt to join the cosmic nothingness like the Buddhists do. We are not sentenced to a life of do-overs through reincarnation like the Hindu’s believe.
Faith in Jesus is exactly the opposite of all this. Not only do we not have to impress God, but God is sickened by our attempts to look better than we are. To the religious legalists of his day – those whose faith was in their own spiritual discipline, Jesus said:
Matthew 23:27-28 (NIV)
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Not only can we not earn our salvation through compliance to disciplines created by men and women, but salvation remains completely out of reach for as long as we continue trying to earn it. We don’t accumulate points. We don’t try to drop names. There’s no president or king who will save us, it doesn’t matter what family we are born into. Those are all human ways of trying to reach God.
And how do you know they are human? Because they’re easy. Our natural tendency would be to find a powerful person to get us to God, or to appeal to our noble birth, or the wealth in our family, or how we have not cheated on our taxes. We want to show how good we are, how deserving we are, how faithful and special we are.
But that’s not what God wants. What is it that God wants? We find the answer in Psalm 51. King David, in his prayer of repentance to God, prays these words:
Psalms 51:17 (NIV)
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
It is not offerings that unite us with God. It’s not our time (those of you addicted to busyness in order to win the approval of others, including God). It’s not our money. It’s not our pedigree. In fact I believe that there are going to be a lot of people in heaven you might not expect to see there. King David who wrote the words in Psalm 51 we just read was a murderer, a liar, a rapist. The Apostle Paul who wrote Colossians and 1/3 of the New Testament was himself a murderer by way of association. God accepts people who have broken the rules – even the big rules we all acknowledge as important to follow! One thing all these people in heaven will have in common is they will all have thrown themselves upon the mercy of God, knowing they cannot save themselves.
See, even the most rigorous human system we can concoct is easier than admitting our sin, and our helpless desperation before God. And that’s exactly what God is looking for – not Gnostic assurances that they have it all figured out if we’ll just learn what they have learned, not the proud declaration of agnostics and atheists that it’s all bologna, and definitely not the smarmy assertions of preachers and churches that you’ll get to heaven if you follow enough rules, or submit to whatever disciplines they have created. Jesus saves you, my friends, and that is all.
We’ve brought in new members the last few weeks. Being a member of this church or any other won’t provide salvation for anybody. Attending here weekly won’t do it. Serving in our ministries, supporting us financially, building relationships with our people – none of that stuff will save a human soul. These are man-made disciplines. I have a whole list of what we could call man-made disciplines for those who are members at Wildwind. There’s nothing wrong with having these things. Remember, as we said last week, rules can help structure our lives, help us know what’s expected, even help us take steps forward in our lives. In fact, let’s look at that list right now:
Membership Requirements at Wildwind
• Commitment to Christ (including public profession and baptism)
• Serve at least one hour per week in Wildwind ministry
• Participate in a small group
• Financial support at level of tithe
• Pray faithfully for Wildwind and its leadership
• Attend services with at least 75% consistency
• Take advantage of opportunities for growth and discipleship by attending Wildwind classes whenever possible
• Affirm commitments and re-interview every two years
Do any of these things make you a Christian? Nope. Do they make you superior to anyone else? Nope. But if you are already a Christ-follower and looking for a way to serve a local church and its people and help make sure that both the church moves forward and you have the greatest possible opportunity to grow and develop in your own spiritual journey, can these commitments be helpful to both you and the church? Most certainly. There is a healthy and an unhealthy perspective that can be adopted toward rules and disciplines. Rules and man-made disciplines become legalism when we allow these things, and not faith in Jesus, to become the focus. We can never begin thinking they are the main thing – we can never think that any of them can do what Jesus can do. Here’s what Jesus said to people in his day who had allowed their rules and disciplines to become the focus:
Mark 7:5-9 (NIV)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ’unclean’ hands?"
6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
That’s what rules and man-made disciplines end up doing if we’re not careful. We have to keep our hearts close to God, and keep our own rules and disciplines in their proper perspective. Rules and man-made disciplines will never save us, yet without them we will never have anything to structure our progress in our faith. Things like daily prayer and Bible reading, serving in ministry at your church, supporting the church financially, church attendance, being in small group – these all give us the opportunity to build lives on habits and values that are different from what we would be doing were Christ not in our lives. Jesus said we are to use his life as an example for living ours:
Matthew 11:29 (MSG)
29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
God will not make you like Jesus while you sleep – you need to be learning to walk as Jesus walked, and live as he lived. Jesus gave and served and connected to people and prayed and knew his scriptures and went to services. So must we.
So what is Paul arguing here? Paul is saying that these three things are connected – empty philosophies produce empty rules to follow and disciplines to observe, and claim to be directing you toward God. But Paul points out that rules based on empty systems will disappear one day. They will, as he said, “perish with use.” So is Paul saying down with all rules – throw out your church membership commitments, your employee manuals, your marriage and business contracts – let’s have anarchy?
Of course not. Paul knows that anarchy isn’t workable. We just studied Titus where he outlines in great detail exactly what guidelines to lay out for the people. What Paul is saying is that empty belief systems inevitably produce empty rules and disciplines which inevitably take over and place people into spiritual slavery. None of the rules in those systems can point back to God or grace because the system was never built on God and grace in the first place, so the rules ALWAYS become the point. That’s why Paul writes Colossians, remember – to declare, defend, and display the preeminence of Christ.
So where are you at with rules, especially in the context of your spiritual life? Do you bristle at the idea of membership in a church because there are specific commitments required? Do you think the only thing that matters is saying some prayer for salvation and then it’s irrelevant how you live from that point on? Or are you understanding Paul’s point, that rules and disciplines become bad at the point where they cause us to “lose touch with the Head,” which is Christ? I hope you will examine your perspective on this issue for two reasons: first, I think it’s essential for your own spiritual development that you are able to embrace some specific habits and disciplines that will help you take definitive steps forward. Second, the future of Wildwind depends on more and more people being willing to step forward and lock arms in membership with us to make the sacrifices it takes to continue creating the church we love.
