Elemental Spirits – Colossians 2:20-23

In the Wikipedia article on asceticism it describes it this way: “Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their practices or continue to be part of their society, but typically adopt a frugal lifestyle, characterized by the renunciation of material possessions and physical pleasures, and time spent fasting while concentrating on the practice of religion or reflection upon spiritual matters.”

Asceticism has often been touted as a means to holiness. It was in Paul’s day, as well.

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23, ESV)

If we are to ask how one deals with one’s sinful tendencies as a Christian there is an appearance of wisdom in the answer that we must harshly subdue our bodies and the body’s temptations to sin. We could do this, it would be argued, by denying the body any of its pleasures related to touching and tasting. We could employ fasting from food, from comfort, from sex, and from any other indulgences. This, in fact, is what to one degree or another all self-made religions have required. It speaks to the spirit of the world and its confidence in our own inward ability to make God sit up and take notice of us and reward our hard work and seeming self-denial. It satisfies our craving to stay in control of our lives and destinies and enables us to make sense of why God might love us and save us.

But it doesn’t work.

Refusing to indulge the flesh bodily, keeping ourselves from comforts to the body, does not quell the flesh spiritually, our sinful nature. I am still very capable of pride, lust, envy, greed and malice no matter how much I mistreat my body. The key to holiness is not self-endeavor. Even if I were to cut off my hands or pluck out my eyes, though I might thus render my body incapable of doing outward sins, my heart is still evil and I can sin quite successfully, thank you, without my body. This is why Jesus approached the Law of Moses in his sermon on the mount as having its true focus on the heart and not just the external behavior.

So how, then, do we become holy? Paul is about to clarify that for the Colossians.