Difficult Scriptures

Colossians 2:16-17 - Does this say it makes no difference today whether or not you keep the Sabbath or the Holy Days and you shouldn’t let any man judge you if you don’t?
 
  1. The word “is” is in italics in verse 17 and is not in the original.  Therefore, this should read, “Let no man therefore judge you,--but the body of Christ.”

  2. The body of Christ is the Church of God (Col. 1:18) and it is the Church that is our pillar and grounding in the truth (I Tim. 3:15) and our standard, not the ideas of men.

  3. The word “judge” in verse 16 is better rendered “call you in question.”  The Gentile Colossians previously knew nothing of God or of His Holy Days.  God’s ministers taught them to observe the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and outsiders called them in question for doing so.  The ascetics in Colossae saw those in the Church eating and drinking, feasting, on the Holy Days and despised them for it.

  4. These Holy Days are shadows of things to come – they picture the major events in God’s master plan to bring all mankind to salvation.

  5. Therefore, Paul is telling the Colossian converts to let no man call them in question for their observance of God’s Holy Days.

 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864