“…no
one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect
to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day — things which are
a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no
one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and
the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen,
inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast
to the head, from Whom the entire body, being supplied and held
together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If
you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the
world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself
to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which
all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance
with the commandments and teachings of men? 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, but are of no value
against fleshly indulgence”
(Colossians 2:16-23).[1]
This is Good News. We are
freed from the rituals of the ceremonial Old Testament Law because they existed
only to point to Christ and His saving work. With that work accomplished and
the all-sufficient Word concerning it complete (the New Testament), this Law is
fulfilled. Along with it, all of the man-made traditions and additional rules
formerly chained to the ceremonial Law by legalists are dead, as well.
One of the things about being
human between the Fall and Heaven is that we just aren’t stable, generally
speaking. We have difficulty achieving a right balance, even when attempting to
be careful to live in obedience to the Scripture. This is one of those areas.
With the fulfillment of the ceremonial Law on the cross of Christ, it is easy
to go overboard and abolish any command or structure. As a wise deacon once
told me, people are like pendulums – we never stop in the middle. The abolition
of legalism becomes antinomianism – lawlessness. The Bible has some pretty
strong things to say about legalism. Jesus hates it (Hebrews 1:9), and will
cast those who practice it away from His presence (Matthew 7:23). We don’t want that.
When we read the beginning
of chapter two, we read Paul’s words of concern, prayer, and praise concerning
the Colossians (and Laodiceans, for that matter): “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf
and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have
not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged,
having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the
wealth that comes from the full assurance of
understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s
mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in Whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you
with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body,
nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing
to see your good discipline [τὴν τάξιν, from τάξις] and
the stability of your faith in Christ” (2:1-5).
This word, τάξις, is used of the Jewish priesthood in the Temple
(Luke 1:8) and the priestly order prescribed by the Old Testament (Hebrews
5:6,10; 6:20; 7:11,17,21).
But it’s also used to
describe the orderliness God desires in the worship of the Church: “…God is not a
God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of
the saints…all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner [τάξιν,
from τάξις]” (1 Corinthians
14:33,40). The verb form of τάξις, τάσσω, is variously translated “determined” and
“appointed” (Matthew 28:16; Luke 7:8; Acts 13:48; 15:2; 22:10; 28:23; Romans
13:1; 1 Corinthians 16:15). The semantic domain of this word family, in other words, describes order. This is the dedication to right structure that moved Paul to rejoice over the Colossian congregation before warning them about legalism.
Anonyms of τάξις with the
α privative occur in Paul’s letters to the Church in Thessalonica. In his first
letter, he commands them to “We urge you,
brethren, admonish the unruly [τοὺς ἀτάκτους,
from ἄτακτος], encourage the
fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1
Thessalonians 5:14). In his second letter, he wrote: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly [ἀτάκτως] life
and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you
yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in
an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without
paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night
and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not
have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a
model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were
with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to
work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you
are leading an undisciplined [ἀτάκτως]
life, doing no work at all, but acting
like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord
Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread” (2
Thessalonians 3:6-12). The pattern is “the
tradition” received from the apostles; that’s another way of saying “the
New Testament scriptures.” Paul tells the Thessalonicans not to have fellowship
with those leading disordered lives, those whose disorder spreads into the
lives of others either through nosy meddling or from a refusal to work. The integrity
of the congregation is maintained by order not just in worship, but in all of
our individual lives as disciples of Jesus.
All this is to say that
the opposite of legalism is not antinomianism, libertinism, chaos, or “every man did what was right in his own
eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). The remedy for legalism is not a free-for-all. The opposite of legalism is biblical,
theologically sound order. That’s not the remedy we’d offer, is it? This is
exactly why we need God’s Word to think His thoughts after Him and follow His
will. We must pursue God’s order for His people in worship and in their daily
lives, as ordained in His Word.
Having written this, I am
immediately aware of the temptation for some to use this principle as an excuse
to build a new legalism (the pendulum doesn’t stop). “Order” becomes a tool for putting their own preferences in place
for the Body. We must be diligent not to give our preferences or personal
convictions above and beyond the clear teaching of Scripture equal weight with
the ultimate authority of Scripture. This is difficult. It is the easiest and
most natural thing for our legalistic hearts to attempt to achieve conformity
to our will by linking our preferences with Scripture. And it’s also satanic;
the tempter used Scripture in the desert with Jesus (Matthew 4:5-7). This is
why the phrase “as ordained in His Word” is vital. Taking a good, biblical
principle to a logical conclusion past the dictates of the Bible is a false
teaching. It starts well, is aimed using good reason, but without the guard
rails of Scripture it ends up in the ravine. Stick to the Word in your order. Adding to the Bible in the Church or your personal life is a confession that the Scripture is not enough. Hold to the whole, unfragmented Bible with proper theology (not reinstituting Old Testament
practices fulfilled in Christ, for example, Hebrews 8:13). Proper theology is learned and
maintained in the community of faith, growing together in the Word. Let us
regularly engage in humble self-examination as the Church.
May we be constantly
reforming not just the doctrine, but the practice of the Church, beloved. This
is the responsibility of every generation of believers. May we reject man-made
traditions, the unnecessary, and all that it is added to the practice prescribed
in the New Testament. Let us rejoice in good, theologically sound, and biblical
order.
