Asceticism - Colossians 2:18-23

2:18-19 - If the saints in Colossae are not to pay attention to the opinions of people within their own Christian community, then they certainly are to “let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.” The counsel here is to work out what you should and shouldn’t do with the Spirit and prophetic counsel, and take everything else with a grain of salt, testing it with the Spirit before believing or adopting any of it. That’s good advice for everyone today and one of the reasons why I love this Church, because we are advised to gain our own personal testimony of all counsel and not many other religions do that. About the mention of angels specifically, the IM says, “Although angels hold a position of honor is God’s kingdom, they are not to be worshipped. The worshipping of angels is evidence that some teachings of Gnosticism were making their way into the Church, since Gnostic philosophy held that God communicated with mortals through angels and that the physical body was evil.” I’m not exactly sure what Paul is saying about the “Head, from which the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increased with the increase of God.” My guess is that Paul is saying that Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church nourishes the whole body, alluding to the physical body, which people were saying was evil. Jesus in his physical body is head of the Church and it’s people in their physical bodies. 2:20-23 - Again, I’m not exactly sure what Paul’s saying here, but what I think is going on is also helped by the JST and cross references to Romans. I think Paul’s saying, “if you were spiritually dead because of sin and was made alive again by Christ through baptism, why are you doing these other ordinances that have to do with the physical body and not spiritual?” Paul specifically states “touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using.” The phrase “will worship” was used by Paul to describe these extra ordinances that were created by people as “religious rules and practices devised by the will, or mind, of man,” which the IM mentions as “asceticism.” The IM continues, “People who practiced asceticism abstained completely from physical pleasures in an effort to overcome desires of the flesh. They often adopted extreme dietary restrictions and renounced sexual relations even within the bonds of marriage. Such excessive practices are not in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” I can understand how people could take the counsel to control bodily urges to the extreme. I’m like that, if one is good then ten is better. If it’s good to resist natural urges, then it’s best to completely control them to the point that it is all consuming and your focus is on your body just as much as if you were giving in to all your urges, just to the other extreme. That’s an interesting point that I have never considered before. The whole point of this life is to focus on the spiritual and taking all focus onto our bodies in which ever extreme we choose is just as damaging and it doesn’t matter which side. Well, I mean one has eternal consequences and the other does not so I guess it does matter, but the asceticism approach is detrimental as well. Paul even says at the end of verse 23 as seen in the JST that “neglecting the body as to the satisfying the flesh, not in any honor to God.” Neglecting or indulging the body takes our focus away from God, so both as not good.