Filled & Bearing Fruit: Shadow, Substance, and Sufficiency of Christ

16 Therefore no one is to ^aact as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—

17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

18 Let no one keep ^adefrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, ^cinflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

19 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.

20 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,

21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”

22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in ^aself-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

Be aware of the difference between the shadow and the substance.

Be resolved to hold fast to the head.

Be aware of the substitutions of self-made religions.

We are warned to avoid:

Ceremonialism

Ascetism

Angelolatry and Mysticism

Legalism

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