Don't touch

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—"Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. – Colossians 2.20-23

Paul wants to make something really clear here – there is no room in the church or our lives to be bound to a set of man-made rules and regulations. We have already seen that these regulations were nailed to the cross along with our sins.

If you sins are nailed to the cross and these earthly regulations are nailed to the cross why do you subject yourself to these silly regulations.

Don’t touch this

Don’t taste this

Don’t even touch this

Something happened there at the very start. Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But somebody messed up because when Eve was talking to the serpent she said that they weren’t even allowed to touch it. From the beginning there was a tendency to add man’s rules to God’s.

I don’t really like to reference such songs, but do you remember the old song that went ‘Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?’ I am not even sure what the song means, but it can seem sometimes that the church takes that kind of attitude to get people to behave a certain way. Obey our rules and everything will be okay. Just do the dos and don’t do the don’ts.

They look good, but these things all perish because they are based on the commandments and doctrines of men. Paul gets pretty serious here – he calls them self-imposed religion, false humility, neglect of the body, and of no value in dealing with the flesh.

Now, don’t get me wrong. When the Bible tells is that certain things are sin and are not acceptable as Christian behaviour we need to preach and teach and live those truths. But where the Bible is silent we have no obligation to obey man’s rules.

Read God’s word. Study God’s word. Obey God’s word.

But don’t be subject to man’s flesh based regulations that do no good. Let’s not be distracted from our goal by those who want to limit us to their rules.