Colossians 2:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having first spoken enigmatically, “Take heed, brethren, lest anyone carry you away according to human tradition” (Col 2:8), and before that, “This I say, lest anyone deceive you with persuasive words” (Col 2:4), he prepared their soul and made it attentive.

Then, having mentioned the benefits of God and thereby strengthened their attention still more, Paul finally begins the reproof and says: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath.”

Do you see how he destroys this? If, he says, you have attained such greatness, why do you subject yourselves to what is petty?

Then he softens the reproof, saying, “or with regard to a festival,” because they had not retained everything from former times. “Or a new moon, or a Sabbath.”

Until now he spoke enigmatically: “lest anyone carry you away by deceit.” Now he speaks more plainly, after mentioning the benefits of God.

For if, he says, you have attained such greatness, why do you subject yourselves to what is petty? Therefore do not submit to those who judge you for not observing Jewish ceremonies in food and drink.

By this he almost praises them as ones alien to Judaism. He says “with regard to a festival” because they did not dare preserve everything.

Even if they kept the Sabbath, they did not do so strictly, since they confessed the Christian faith. Thus he shows that such observance is vain when not everything is observed. It only leads to the violation of the whole.

For if it were good, it would be kept entirely.

Whoever strives to be estranged from this Judaism attached to the flesh must not only depart from observing those old rules.

With the appearing of the New Testament, after that came whose advent had been signified by them, they undoubtedly ceased to be necessary.

Therefore one is no longer judged in food, or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come.

But whatever is prescribed in the law as assisting the formation of the morals of the faithful must also be referred, however far one has progressed in it, not to oneself, but to the grace of God.

This grace was given through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is, however, another life to which the Word calls us. Although our present days are evil (Eph 5:16), there are other days, good days, which are not interrupted by night.

For God Himself will be their eternal light, illumining them with the radiance of His glory. Therefore, when you hear of good days, do not think that the promise speaks to you of this present life.

The days produced by the perceptible sun are corruptible, and what is corruptible cannot be a fitting gift to the incorruptible. But if the soul is incorruptible, the gifts given to the soul must also be incorruptible.

Therefore, after such great works have been accomplished for you, let no one come to you and draw you away from Christ by weak things, that is, by food or drink, or by the feast of a new moon, or by the Jewish celebration of the new year.

Shall we, then, honor the feasts by spending them in eating food and drinking? But let no one judge us in food, for “the law is spiritual, but I am carnal” (Rom 7:14).

“Let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is in Christ.”

The voice of the Father from heaven revealed this body to us, as at the last trumpet, when the Jews cried out, “It thundered” (Jn 12:29).

The body of Christ, in turn, will be manifested to us at the last trumpet. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God.”

“And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess 4:16). “Where the corpse is, there the eagles will be gathered” (Lk 17:37). Where the body of Christ is, there is the truth.

Therefore, having learned that the law has lost its force, do not be at all carried away by those who attempt to sow legal observances among you. The Apostle beautifully added this also: "with respect to a feast." For they could not perform this. How could anyone travel three times a year from Phrygia to Judea in order to celebrate the feasts according to the law in Jerusalem? This was especially impossible because Pentecost is close to Pascha, while more than fifty days were needed for the journey.

Paul teaches that the law has been abolished, for Christ erased our handwritten bond (Col 2:14). The Apostle also teaches us that the evil one has fallen, for the Lord stripped and exposed the principalities and powers to shame (Col 2:15). He commands us no longer to obey those whom the working of Christ has abolished, and says: do not listen to the Jews who persuade you to keep the law. For the shadow runs ahead of the body, but has no existence by itself. Therefore the Apostle says: do not obey the law, and still less the Gentiles, who lead you to worship angels or the elements of this world (cf. Col 2:8, 18).

The first warning: “Let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbaths. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ’s” (Col 2:16-17).

The meaning of this instruction is as follows: do not agree to accept Jewish customs. For the false teachers of Colossae, despite all the mysticism of their philosophical speculations, considered circumcision and other prescriptions of the Jewish law necessary for attaining moral perfection.

Thus the Apostle’s words show us the ritual side of the Phrygian false teaching. They also indicate a fanatical attachment to the prescriptions of the ceremonial law of Moses.

Turning to the question of observing particular Old Testament ritual ordinances concerning fasting and feasts, the Apostle speaks very briefly. He says that one must not judge anyone for this.

At the same time he explains that all this had a preparatory significance for Christ and was no more than a shadow in relation to the body.

“The Apostle called the law a shadow of things to come,” says blessed Theodoret, “teaching that the grace of the New Testament was prefigured by it. The evangelical life is the body, and the law is the shadow.

A shadow, when light appears, precedes the body. The law is the shadow, grace is the body, and the Master Christ is the Light.”

"At first he spoke in general terms: beware (cf. 2:4, 8). Now he indicates more definitely what must be guarded against, after first setting before them the benefactions in Christ Jesus. It is as though he says: if you have received such great things, why submit to such little things?" This is from Saint Chrysostom and blessed Theophylact.

"The hope of life is in Christ Jesus. The hope of salvation in Him does not allow us to mix with it submission to any superstition or custom under the Law. Therefore one must not heed those who make noise among you and whisper something incompatible with faith in Christ" (Ambrosiaster).

“Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath.”

If what was legislated concerning distinctions in food, festivals, and the Sabbath preserved, like a shadow, the image of other true and mystical realities, then you will not be wrong to say this also.

The high priest was a symbol pointing to another High Priest. He was called an anointed one, a “Christ,” according to the image of another, the one true Anointed One, Christ.

Shadows and images truly reflect reality itself. They share in the same name and, for this reason, must be honored. Thus the high priest of the Old Testament can be called “christ,” that is, anointed one, because he is a real image and type of Christ Himself.