Homilies on Colossians — Homily 7

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting

[[Colossians 2.16]]-19

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's. Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the Angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together, through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.

Having first said darkly, Take heed lest there shall be any one that makes spoil of you after the tradition of men [[Colossians 2.8]]; and again, further back, This, I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech [[Colossians 2.4]]; thus preoccupying their soul, and working in it anxious thoughts; next, having inserted those benefits, and increased this effect, he then brings in his reproof last, and says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day. Do you see how he depreciates them? If you have obtained such things, he says, why make yourselves accountable for these petty matters? And he makes light of them, saying, or in the part of a feast day, for in truth they did not retain the whole of the former rule, or a new moon, or a sabbath day. He said not, Do not then observe them, but, let no man judge you. He showed that they were transgressing, and undoing, but he brought his charge against others. Endure not those that judge you, he says, nay, not so much as this either, but he argues with those persons, almost stopping their mouths, and saying, You ought not to judge. But he would not have reflected on these. He said not in clean and unclean, nor yet in feasts of Tabernacles, and unleavened bread, and Pentecost, but in part of a feast: for they ventured not to keep the whole; and if they did observe it, yet not so as to celebrate the feast. In part, he says, showing that the greater part is done away. For even if they did keep sabbath, they did not do so with precision. Which are a shadow of the things to come; he means, of the New Covenant; but the body is Christ's. Some persons here punctuate thus, but the body is of Christ, i.e. the truth has come in with Christ: others thus; The Body of Christ let no man adjudge away from you, that is, thwart you of it. The term καταβραβευθῆναι, is employed when the victory is with one party, and the prize with another, when though a victor you are thwarted. You stand above the devil and sin; why do you again subject yourself to sin? Therefore he said that he is a debtor to fulfill the whole law [[Galatians 5.3]]; and again, Is Christ found to be the minister of sin [[Galatians 2.17]]? Which he said when writing to the Galatians. When he had filled them with anger through saying, adjudge away from you, then he begins; being a voluntary, he says, in humility and worshiping of Angels, intruding i