Paul exhorts the believers NOT to be beguiled by enticing
words, BUT rather to walk in Christ as Lord just as they have received Him as Savior - by grace (Colossians 2:4-7)
Just as the believer received salvation as a gift by the
grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), so the believer is also to walk and be built up by the Word of His
grace (Acts 20:32 cf. Colossians 3:16)
Paul exhorts the believers not to be spoiled (robbed)
thru the philosophy and tradition of men for they are complete in Christ (the God-Man) as their Head (Colossians 2:8-10)
Note Paul's charge to Timothy concerning the avoidance
of false knowledge from others (I Timothy 6:20) and the keeping of that which was commited to him (II Timothy 2:1-2)
- the dispensation of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:1-2)
The believer's completeness in Christ is emphasized by
the spiritual application of Israel's two main physical ordinances (circumcision and baptism) to our identification
with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension (Colossians 2:11-13 cf. Ephesians 2:5-6)
The Cross of Christ removed the Law, which separated the
Jew and the Gentile (Colossians 2:14)
It is the Church which is now to make known to the angels
the manifold wisdom of God concerning His dispensation of grace to the Church (Ephesians 3:2-4,8-10)
Paul exhorts the believers NOT to be judged by those who
would pay heed to the physical ordinances of the Law (Colossians 2:16)
The physical ordinances of the Law were shadows (types)
of the True Substance (Essence), which is Christ (Colossians 2:17)
To go back to the observance of these physical ordinances
would be a denial of the One Who has given us freedom from the bondage of the Law (Galatians 4:8-11 cf. Romans 8:14-15; II Timothy 1:7)
To go back to the observance of these physical ordinances
would be a denial of God's righteousness, which we possess in Christ according to the "glorious gospel of
the blessed God" (I Timothy 1:8-11 cf. Romans 3:24-26; II Corinthians 5:20-21)
Paul exhorts the believers NOT to be beguiled by those
who would submit to a voluntary humility associated with the worship activities of the angels for they who do such
things are "puffed up" by their "fleshly mind" seeing that they intrude into things they have
not seen (Colossians 2:18)
The form of worship that honors the Headship of Christ
over His Body is based upon spiritual illumination from the Father concerning the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21),
which flows from the Head to the members (Colossians 2:19 cf. Ephesians 4:15-16)
"For the Gentiles" under the "dispensation
of grace" (Ephesians 3:1-2) - the physical observances of the Law are called the "doctrines
of devils (demons)" and are contrary to the "words of faith and of good doctrine" (I Timothy 4:1-6)
Physical restrictions (such as those in the Law) have
an outward show of wisdom in the willful denial of the physical appetites of the flesh (Colossians 2:23),
but the inner man is renewed by "looking on the unseen things" which are NOT temporal BUT eternal (II Corinthians 4:16-18)