Colossians 2:20-23 (NIV)
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Paul had heard the concerns of Epaphras that many of those who had come to receive Jesus had turned to a legalistic way of life. They had chosen the heavy yoke of an external man-made righteousness, instead of taking up Jesus’ easy yoke of transformation and internal righteousness that results in external righteousness.
Paul had just laid out a complete exposition of God’s power to save to the uttermost those who turned to Jesus, circumcising their hearts, and making them genuinely holy from the inside out. That’s the real thing, the results of the real good news. But Paul is genuinely confused why someone who has experienced for themselves the real good news would then turn back to a false, man-made, labor-intensive righteousness that, in the end, can’t save anyone or transform a life.
Some argued that this striving, these restrictions, this harsh treatment of the body will help them to be able to resist temptation and turn away from indulging the flesh. But Paul knows that such external disciplines don’t lessen the pull, the desire for those things. In fact, they tend to give them more power. But real transformation that only comes through faith in Jesus actually changes what the heart wants. In Christ, the heart wants righteousness above all else. It craves God’s love and grace to the point that it expels all things that will block access to them, including sin, compromise, and fleshly indulgences.
Father, I used to be one of those who tried to discipline myself out of bad habits, sinful thoughts, and harmful behaviors. And I constantly failed and had to start over. Thank You for showing me the way of inner transformation through Jesus. In him I literally was born again as a new creation. You filled me with such a love for You, such a craving for Your presence, that anything in my life that would diminish that instantly became anathema to me. I didn’t try to be righteous, You made me righteous from the inside out, and completely changed the orientation of my life. Thank You, Lord, for the real good news of salvation and transformation in Jesus. Amen.