Colossians 2:18-19 - Homilies By T. Croskery.

A warning against angel worship.

The apostle now notices the theological error of the false teachers, which was the interposition of angelic mediators between God and man. "Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, dwelling in the things he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."

I. ANGEL WORSHIP IS CLEARLY CONDEMNED .

1 . The angel whom John would have worshipped, said, "See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, worship God" ( Revelation 22:9 ).

2 . God will not share his rights with another. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." The first commandment forbids all other worship.

3 . There is but one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus ( 1 Timothy 2:5 , 1 Timothy 2:6 ). Papists say that the apostle merely condemns such worship of angels as excludes Christ, but the condemnation is most absolute and simple. Besides, Christ is declared to be the one single and only way to the Father, to the exclusion of all angelic mediators. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" "If ye shall ask anything in my Name, I will do it" ( John 14:6 , John 14:14 ). "We offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ" ( 1 Peter 2:5 ).

4 . The worship of angels implies an omniscience on their part which belongs only to God. God only knows the hearts of men ( 2 Chronicles 6:30 ).

5 . Our Lord's superiority to all angels, as asserted in Hebrews 1:1-14 . and it implies the same condemnation; for they are merely "ministering spirits, sent to minister to the heirs of salvation."

II. THE MOTIVE OF THIS ANGEL WORSHIP . "A voluntary humility." The idea of the false teachers, like that of modern Papists, was that God was so high and inaccessible that he could only be approached through the mediation of inferior beings. It was remembered that the Law was given "by the ministration of angels" ( Acts 7:53 ), and that angels exercised a certain tutelary guardianship ( Daniel 10:10-21 ). But it was, after all, a mere parade of humility to approach God through the mediation of such inferior creatures. It implied, besides, a serious misrepresentation of the fitness of the one Mediator, of whom it was said, "It behoved him to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God" ( Hebrews 2:17 ). He surely can sympathize with us even more closely than angels, for he shared our human nature. It was, therefore, a false and perverted humility that sought the intercession of angels.

III. THE SPIRIT THAT SHAPED THIS DOCTRINE OF ANGEL WORSHIP . "Dwelling in the things he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."

1 . The false teachers claimed to have visions of the heavenly world and a knowledge of angels which they could not possibly possess. They claimed to know the secrets of a region which they had never seen.

2 . They were filled with great self conceit, notwithstanding their parade of excessive humility. "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." The Gnostic tendency was always associated with an assumption of superior knowledge, but it was an utterly groundless assumption. It was "in vain." It was without reason or ground. God would resist it ( James 4:7 ); men would not regard it ( Proverbs 11:2 ); and they themselves would inherit nothing by it but folly ( Proverbs 14:8 ; 1 Timothy 6:4 ). Even where real visions are vouchsafed, there is a temptation to self elation, as in the case of the Apostle Paul ( 2 Corinthians 12:7 ). But, in the case of false visions, the tendency would be still more manifest. The mind would be "the mind of the flesh," as it is literally; not "the mind of the Spirit." It was "the carnal mind that is enmity with God." Let us rather seek to become "fools that we may be wise" ( 1 Corinthians 3:18 ), and not be "puffed up one against another." It is knowledge that puffeth up ( 1 Corinthians 8:1 ); it is only love that edifieth.

IV. THE NEGATIVE SOURCE OF THE HERESY OF ANGEL WORSHIP . "Not holding the Head from whom the whole body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God." The Colossian errorists invented angel worship because they did not see in Christ the true and only Mediator who was to bridge the chasm between God and men. They put inferior beings in the place of him who is the only Source of spiritual life. They did not "hold the headship' doctrinally; they had no individual or vital adherence to the Head as the Source of life to them.

1 . Jesus Christ, as the Head, is the true Source of spiritual life and energy. He who is "at once the lowest and the highest," who is "the Word made flesh," "raises up man to God, and brings God down to man" The fulness of the Godhead resides in him bodily, and out of that fulness he communicates freely to us.

2 . The relation of the body to the Head. "From whom the whole body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands."

(a) The supply of nutriment. Christ is the sole Source of supply to our souls—"through the joints." God calls us "to this fellowship with his Son" ( 1 John 1:7 ).

( α ) We can have no spiritual nutriment from Christ till we have believed in him.

( β ) The joints through which our supply of grace comes cannot be broken. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" ( Romans 8:39 ).

( γ ) It is through these joints we receive Christ's "unsearchable riches" ( Ephesians 3:9 ); all spiritual blessings in heavenly places" ( Ephesians 1:3 ); so that we come behind in no spiritual gift.

(b) The compacting of the frame into a perfect unity—"knit together by bands." Christ is the Source of the Church's unity. "He hath made both one" ( Ephesians 2:14 ). There is a unity of faith, a unity of spiritual life, a unity of ordinance, a unity of love, a unity of final destiny, in the Church, by virtue of her connection with her Head.

3 . The end of this relation. "Increaseth with the increase of God;" that is, with the increase which he supplies.

V. THE DANGER OF ANGEL WORSHIP . "Let no man rob you of your prize." The apostle implies that the prize of eternal life—"the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"—would be lost by turning aside from the Head to angelic mediators. We must not "lose what we have wrought" in this way ( 2 John 1:10 ). "Let no man take thy crown" ( Revelation 3:11 ). Let us, therefore, avoid "profane babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called" ( 1 Timothy 6:20 ), and hold fast "the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jud Hebrews 1:4 ).—T. C.