Principles....

I'm going on vacation over Christmas.... so this is my last post on this site until Monday 8th January. Wherever you are travelling to this Christmas get there safely...

Col. 2:20-23 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: [21] "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? [22] These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. [23] 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 is in the middle of a discourse about religious rules and regulations, his premise being that Christ’s grace has freed us from the need to follow them. He says we have died with Christ to the principles of this world….The image is striking, that these ideas no longer give me any life, that it is only through my relationship with Jesus that I am sustained. It talks about sacrifice, of giving something up, of saying that these things have no hold over me, and no use for me anymore! Of course Paul is talkig about the religion versus faith conflict that was in the early Jewish/Gentile church. But I wonder what he would say to our churches today? What conflicts and principles do we need to surrender so that we ‘die with Christ’? Money? Materialism? Self-righteousness? Conformity? Intolerance? Careerism? The list could go on…..

I wonder if there are areas of my life that I still need to die to the world with Jesus in?