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013 - Verses 20-23 · Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians

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  Speaker 1: Section thirteen of commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians
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  Speaker 1: by John Calvin, translated by Reverend John Pringle. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Verses twenty to twenty three. Wherefore,
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  Speaker 1: if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of
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  Speaker 1: the world, why, as though living in the world, are
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  Speaker 1: ye subject to ordinances, touch, not taste, not handle not,
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  Speaker 1: which all are to perish with the using after the
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  Speaker 1: commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a
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  Speaker 1: show of wisdom in will, worship and humility, and neglecting
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  Speaker 1: of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh. Twenty If ye are dead, he had
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  Speaker 1: previously said that the ordinances were fastened to the cross
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  Speaker 1: of Christ verse fourteen. He now employs another figure of speech,
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  Speaker 1: that we are dead to them, as he teaches us elsewhere,
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  Speaker 1: that we are dead to the law and the law.
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  Speaker 1: On the other hand, to us Galatians two nineteen, death
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  Speaker 1: means abrogation, but it is more expressive and more emphatic
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  Speaker 1: chi emphaticoteron. He says, therefore that the Calausians have nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with ordinances. Why because they have died with
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  Speaker 1: Christ to ordinances. That is, after they died with Christ
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  Speaker 1: by regeneration, they were through His kindness set free from ordinances,
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  Speaker 1: that they may not belong to them anymore. Hence he
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  Speaker 1: concludes that they are by no means bound by the
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  Speaker 1: ordinances which the false apostles endeavored to impose upon them.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty one, eat not, taste not hitherto this has been
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  Speaker 1: rendered handle not, but as another word immediately follows, which
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  Speaker 1: signifies the same thing. Everyone sees, how cold absurd were
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  Speaker 1: such a repetition farther The verb haptistae is employed by
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  Speaker 1: the Greeks, among its other significations, in the sense of
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  Speaker 1: eating in accordance with the rendering that I have given.
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  Speaker 1: Plutarch makes use of it in the Life of Caesar
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  Speaker 1: when he relates that his soldiers, in destruction of all
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  Speaker 1: things eight animals which they had not been accustomed previously
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  Speaker 1: to use as food. And this arrangement is both in
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  Speaker 1: other respects natural, and is also most in accordance with
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  Speaker 1: the connection of the passage. For Paul points out mymeticos
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  Speaker 1: by way of imitation, to what length the waywardness of
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  Speaker 1: those who bind consciences by their laws is wont to
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  Speaker 1: proceed from the very commencement, they are unduly rigorous. Hence
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  Speaker 1: he sets out with their prohibition not simply against eating,
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  Speaker 1: but even against slightly partaking. After they have obtained what
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  Speaker 1: they wish, they go beyond that command, so that they
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  Speaker 1: afterwards declare it to be unlawful to taste of what
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  Speaker 1: they do not wish should be eaten. At length, they
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  Speaker 1: make it criminal even to touch. In short, when persons
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  Speaker 1: have once taken upon them to tyrannize over men's souls,
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  Speaker 1: there is no end of new laws being daily added
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  Speaker 1: to old ones, and new enactments starting up from time
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  Speaker 1: to time. How bright a mirror there is as to
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  Speaker 1: this in popery. Hence Paul acts admirably well in admonishing
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  Speaker 1: us that human traditions are a labyrinth in which consciences
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  Speaker 1: are more and more entangled. Nay more, are snares which
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  Speaker 1: from the beginning bind in such a way that, in
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  Speaker 1: course of time they strangle in the end twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: All which things tend to corruption, he sets aside, by
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  Speaker 1: a twofold argument, the enactments of which he has made mention,
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  Speaker 1: because they make religion consistent things outward and frail, which
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  Speaker 1: have no connection with the spiritual kingdom of God, and secondly,
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  Speaker 1: because they are from men, not from God. He combats
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  Speaker 1: the first argument also in Romans fourteen seventeen, when he
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  Speaker 1: says the Kingdom of God is not meat and Drinkwise,
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  Speaker 1: in First Corinthians six thirteen, meet for the belly and
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  Speaker 1: the belly for meats. God will destroy both. Christ also
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  Speaker 1: himself says, whatever entereth into the mouth, defileth, not the man,
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  Speaker 1: because it goes down into the belly and is cast
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  Speaker 1: forth Matthew fifteen eleven. The sum is this, that the
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  Speaker 1: worship of God, true piety, and the holiness of Christians
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  Speaker 1: do not consist in drink and food and clothing, which
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  Speaker 1: are things that are transient and liable to corruption and
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  Speaker 1: perish by abuse. For abuses properly applicable to those things
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  Speaker 1: which are corrupted by the use of them. Hence, enactments
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  Speaker 1: are of no value in reference to those things which
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  Speaker 1: tend to excite scruples of conscience. But in popery you
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  Speaker 1: would scarcely find any other holiness than what consists in
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  Speaker 1: little observances of corruptible things. A second refutation is added
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  Speaker 1: that they originated with men and have not God as
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  Speaker 1: their author. And by this thunderbolt he prostrates and swallows
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  Speaker 1: up all traditions of men. For why this is Paul's
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  Speaker 1: reasoning quote those who bring consciences into bondage do injury
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  Speaker 1: to Christ and make void his death. For whatever is
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  Speaker 1: of human invention does not bind conscience end quote twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Which have indeed a show. Here we have the anticipation
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  Speaker 1: of an objection, in which, while he concedes to his
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  Speaker 1: adversaries what they allege, he at the same time reckons
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  Speaker 1: it wholly worthless. For it is as though he had
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  Speaker 1: said that he does not regard their having a show
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom. But show is placed in contrast with reality,
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  Speaker 1: for it is an appearance, as they commonly speak, which
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  Speaker 1: deceives by resemblance. Observe however, of what colors this show consists.
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  Speaker 1: According to Paul, he makes mention of three self invented worship, humility,
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  Speaker 1: and neglect of the body. Superstition among the Greeks receives
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  Speaker 1: the name of ethelobriscia, the term which Paul here makes
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  Speaker 1: use of. He has, however, an eye to the etymology
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  Speaker 1: of the term, for ethobriscia literally denotes a voluntary service,
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  Speaker 1: which men choose for themselves at their own option, without
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  Speaker 1: authority from God. Human traditions therefore are agreeable to us
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  Speaker 1: on this account that they are in accordance with our understanding.
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  Speaker 1: For any one will find in his own brain the
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  Speaker 1: first outlines of them. This is the first pretext. The
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  Speaker 1: second is humility, inasmuch as obedience both to God and
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  Speaker 1: men is pretended so that men do not refuse even
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  Speaker 1: unreasonable burdens, And for the most part, traditions of this
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  Speaker 1: kind are of such a nature as to appear to
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  Speaker 1: be admirable exercises of humility. They allure also by means
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  Speaker 1: of a third pretext, inasmuch as they seem to be
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  Speaker 1: of the greatest avail for the mortification of the flash,
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  Speaker 1: while there is no sparing of the body. Paul, however,
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  Speaker 1: bids farewell to those disguises, for what is in high
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  Speaker 1: esteem among men is often an abomination in the sight
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  Speaker 1: of God Luke sixteen fifteen. Farther that is, a treacherous
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  Speaker 1: obedience and a perverse and sacrilegious humility, which transfers to
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  Speaker 1: men the authority of God. And neglect of the body
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  Speaker 1: is not of so great importance as to be worthy
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  Speaker 1: to be set forth to admiration as the service of God. Someone, however,
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  Speaker 1: will feel astonished that Paul does not take more pains
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  Speaker 1: in pulling off those masks. I answer that he, on
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  Speaker 1: good grounds rest contented with the simple term show, for
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  Speaker 1: the principles which he had taken as opposed to this
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  Speaker 1: are incontrovertible. That the body is in Christ, and that
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  Speaker 1: consequently those do nothing but impose upon miserable men who
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  Speaker 1: set before them shadows. Secondly, the spiritual kingdom of Christ
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  Speaker 1: is by no means taken up with frail and corruptible elements. Thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: by the death of Christ, such observances were put an
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  Speaker 1: end to that we might have no connection with them.
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  Speaker 1: And Fourthly, God is our only lawgiver Isaiah thirty three
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  Speaker 1: twenty two. Whatever may be brought forward on the other side,
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  Speaker 1: let it have ever so much splendor is fleeting show. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: he reckoned it enough to admonish the colautions not to
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  Speaker 1: be deceived by the putting forth of empty things. There
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  Speaker 1: was no necessity for dwelling at greater length in reproving them,
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  Speaker 1: For it should be a settled point among all the
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  Speaker 1: pious that the worship of God ought not to be
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  Speaker 1: measured according to our views, and that consequently any kind
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  Speaker 1: of service is not lawful simply on the ground that
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  Speaker 1: it is agreeable to us. This also ought to be
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  Speaker 1: a commonly received point, that we owe to God such
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  Speaker 1: humility as to yield obedience simply to his commands, so
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  Speaker 1: as not to lean to our own understanding, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: Proverbs three five. And that the limit of humility towards
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  Speaker 1: men is this, that each one submit himself to others
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  Speaker 1: in love. Now, when they contend that the wantonness of
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  Speaker 1: the flesh is repressed by abstinence from meats, the answer
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  Speaker 1: is easy. That we must not therefore abstain from any
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  Speaker 1: particular food as being unclean, but must eat sparingly of
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  Speaker 1: what we do eat of both in order that we
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  Speaker 1: may soberly and temperedly make use of the gifts of God,
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  Speaker 1: and that we may not impeded by too much food
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  Speaker 1: and drink forget those things that are gods. Hence, it
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  Speaker 1: was enough to say that these were masks, that the Colautians,
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  Speaker 1: being warned, might be on their guard against false pretexts. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: at the present day, pappus are not in want of
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  Speaker 1: specious pretexts by which to set forth their own laws.
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  Speaker 1: However they may be, some of them impious and tyrannical,
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  Speaker 1: and others of them silly and t When however, we
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  Speaker 1: have granted them everything, there remains, nevertheless, this reputation by Paul,
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  Speaker 1: which is of itself more than sufficient for dispelling all
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  Speaker 1: their smoky vapors, not to say how far removed they
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  Speaker 1: are from so honorable an appearance as that which Paul describes.
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  Speaker 1: The principal holiness of the papacy at the present day
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  Speaker 1: consists in monk could And of what nature that is?
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  Speaker 1: I am ashamed and grieved to make mention, lest I
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  Speaker 1: should stir up so abominable an odor farther. It is
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  Speaker 1: of importance to consider here how prone, nay, how forward,
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  Speaker 1: the mind of man is to artificial modes of worship.
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  Speaker 1: For the Apostle here graphically describes the state of the
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  Speaker 1: old system of monkhold, which came into use one hundred
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  Speaker 1: years after his death, as though he had never spoken
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  Speaker 1: a word. The zeal of men, therefore for superstition is
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  Speaker 1: surpassingly mad, which could not be restrained by so plain
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  Speaker 1: a declaration of God from lines breaking forth as historical
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  Speaker 1: records testify, not in any honor. Honor means care, according
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  Speaker 1: to the usage of the Hebrew tongue, honor widows for
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  Speaker 1: Timothy five three, that is, take care of them. Now
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  Speaker 1: Paul finds fault with this, that they teach to leave
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  Speaker 1: off care for the body. For as God forbids us
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  Speaker 1: to indulge the body unduly, so he commands that these
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  Speaker 1: be given it as much as is necessary for it. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: Paul in Romans thirteen fourteen does not expressly condemn care
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  Speaker 1: for the flesh. But such as indulges lust have no care,
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  Speaker 1: says he, for the flesh to the gratifying of its loss. What, then,
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  Speaker 1: does Paul point out as faulty in those traditions of
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  Speaker 1: which he treats, It is that they gave no honor
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  Speaker 1: to the body for the satisfying of the flesh, that is,
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  Speaker 1: according to the measure of necessity. For satisfying. Here means
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  Speaker 1: a mediocrity which restricts itself to the simple use of nature,
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  Speaker 1: and thus stands in opposition to pleasure and all superfluous delicacies.
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  Speaker 1: For nature is content with little, hence to refuse what
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  Speaker 1: it requires for sustaining the necessity of life is not
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  Speaker 1: less at variance with piety than it is inhuman and
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  Speaker 1: of Section thirteen read by David Ronald