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Good-Looking Hypocrisy
Col. 2:16-23
Our text this morning is Colossians 2:8, 16-23.
I have titled this message “Good-Looking Hypocrisy.”
It isn’t hard to illustrate hypocrisy.
We have all been surprised by something that looked good on the outside but was nasty on the inside.
When I worked with college students they were of course prone to play pranks on each other.
One night Kristalyn was making cookies for a group of them.
These were regular cookie dough wrapped around half of a miniature snickers bar and then baked.
Some of the guys took garlic powder and filled the inside of the dough with garlic powder rather than a snickers bar, and then gave it to one of the guys.
[Didn’t Don tell us about the time when someone sent you Oreos, but they had replaced the filling with toothpaste].
Those examples are humorous, but this morning we will look at some warnings in Colossians 2 that are very serious.
There is a kind of Christian living that looks great on the outside but is ugly on the inside.
It is good-looking hypocrisy.
This message is very important for each of us today because, like the Colossians, we are tempted to maintain a wonderfully spiritual appearance and actions, while neglecting true spirituality.
Watch out for good-looking hypocrisy: watch out for in yourself!
*READ* 2:8, 16-23
Two main points this morning: 1) watch out for good-looking signs of hypocrisy 2) understand how these are different from true spirituality.
*Watch out for good-looking signs of hypocrisy*.
We’ll see four of them:
*Giving allegiance to men’s philosophy:*
*READ* v.8
We are tempted to give our allegiance to the philosophies of men.
This word “philosophy” is not a bad word, it means love of wisdom.
But this is the love of man’s wisdom, not God’s.
Verse 8 gives us three characteristics:
- Empty deception.
Man’s wisdom that sounds spiritual but really isn’t is a trick – it’s empty.
It’s like getting a beautifully wrapped present, but when you open it, there’s nothing in it.
- Tradition of men.
This is not from God, it’s from men.
Their tradition.
- Elementary principles of this world.
I believe that this is a reference to the regulations of the law.
This word “elementary principles” means the “ABCs.”
And Paul seems to use it in Galatians 4:1-10 to refer to the regulations of the Mosaic law.
We can call those things the ABCs, because they were just foreshadowing Christ.
They were to bring us to Christ.
They were an important stage in the story of redemption, but an incomplete one until Christ came.
These things were good - they pointed people to God’s perfect priest, perfect sacrifice: they pointed to Christ.
But now that Christ has come, going back to focus on those ABCs is like a college student deciding to go back to kindergarten.
Men’s philosophy looks spiritual; it follows traditions, it may be connected in some way with the regulations of the law – but ultimately it is just the tradition of men.
It just looks spiritual, it isn’t really.
So watch out for giving allegiance to men’s philosophy.
*Trying to appease others based on your observance of religious traditions: *
*READ* vv.16-17
We might also try to look spiritual and make people happy just by observing religious traditions.
Paul says “let no one act as your judge” about these things.
As we saw three weeks ago, these are matters of liberty.
It DOES matter what you do in these areas, you can’t just do whatever you want.
But you must decide in your conscience before God what He wants you to do, not let other people decide what you should do.
Beware of trying to make other people think we are spiritual by following the traditions that they like!
- Food ~/ drink.
This refers to the Jewish dietary laws about what and how you eat and drink.
In a little bit we will look at Matthew 15, which contains an example of this: the Pharisees say “Jesus, why don’t your disciples wash their hands before they eat bread, like the elders say we are supposed to.”
There was a tradition that if you didn’t wash your hands before you ate, you became spiritually unclean.
Another example, which we talked about 3 weeks ago, is the issue of eating meat that had been offered to idols.
- Special days (festivals ~/ new moons ~/ Sabbaths).
Festival refers to the official Jewish festivals, like the Sabbath and the feast of tabernacles; the new moon was a monthly Jewish celebration that God ordained for Israel; of course the weekly Sabbath.
Christ has come, so these are matters of liberty.
You decide in your conscience before God what He wants you to do; don’t try to look spiritual by following any tradition that anyone likes.
Are you doing it because you want to look spiritual, or because you have wrestled with the issue before God and concluded what He wants you to do?
*Following man’s ideas about spirituality:*
*READ* 18-19 One commentator called these “two of the most puzzling verses in the NT.”
They are very hard to translate, and as a result of that the meaning is debated.
- self-abasement.
Beating up on yourself may look spiritual but it isn’t really.
It doesn’t save you from sin, doesn’t make you more holy.
- worshipping angels.
Maybe they said that since God is so holy we couldn’t ever worship Him, so we’ll worship angels as our mediators.
Or maybe some men said they had visions of angels or talked to angels.
The worship of angels is just man’s idea about what would be spiritual; it isn’t God’s.
- visions.
Making them up or making much of normal dreams or having demonic visions, I don’t know.
This part is clear: the person who is promoting these things is “inflated without cause in his fleshly mind.”
This isn’t godly – this is from his flesh.
This is just some man’s ideas about spirituality.
Beware of following man’s ideas about spirituality.
*Submitting yourself to decrees of men related to the Law:*
*READ* vv.
20-23
- Don’t handle ~/ don’t taste ~/ don’t touch, refers again to decrees of men related to the Law, whether they were directly from the Law or additions to it.
Paul says “we died with Christ” to that.
He completely fulfilled the Law and paid for our rebellion against it, so that we are now “dead” to the obligations of the Law.
It does not have power over us any longer.
· He says “Why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to these things?”
If you are not saved, and you have rejected Christ, you don’t have any hope for forgiveness of your sins.
So you just hope that you can be good enough.
So if anyone has a rule or regulation that sounds spiritual, you obey it, in the hopes that you will make it.
So if you are still living like that – following any and every rule and regulation in the hopes that it will make you spiritual, you are “living in the world,” not living like someone who has full forgiveness in Christ.
You’re forgiven!
The penalty has been paid!
The Law of Moses is not your judge any longer – you are under the law of Christ.
Why are you trying to look spiritual by submitting yourself to decrees of men related to the Law of Moses?
*Understand how these are different from true spirituality:* These things all look spiritual.
Look at verse 23 “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body.”
They make a person look spiritual!
So you have to pay careful attention to understand how these are different from true spirituality.
*Men’s philosophy doesn’t lead you toward Christ, but away from Him*.
*READ* v. 8 The tradition of men is not “according to Christ.”
It isn’t dependent on Christ; it doesn’t lead you toward Christ; it leads you away.
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