Colossians 2:18-19 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels… A false philosophy — I. THREATENS TO ROB THE RELIEVER OF HIS REWARD. Many erroneous opinions may be held without invalidating salvation; but any error that depreciates our estimate of Christ, and interrupts the advance of our Christian life, is a robbery. II. ADVOCATES THE MOST PRESUMPTUOUS AND PERILOUS SPECULATIONS. 1. It affects a spurious humility. God is unknowable to the limited powers of man, so it reasons. But this humility was voluntary, self-induced, and was in reality another form of spiritual pride. 2. It invents a dangerous system of angelolatry. 3. It pretends to a knowledge of the mysterious. Locke says a work in the drawer of a cabinet might as well pretend to guess at the construction of the universe, as man venture to speculate about the unseen world. III. IGNORES THE DIVINE SOURCE OF ALL SPIRITUAL INCREASE. 1. Christ is the great Head of the Church — the centre of its unity, the source of its life, authority, and influence. 2. The Church is vitally and essentially united to Christ. 3. The vital union of the Church with Christ is the condition of spiritual increase. Lessons: A false philosophy — 1. Distorts the grandest truths. 2. Substitutes for truth the most perilous speculations. 3. Against its teachings be ever on your guard. (G. Barlow.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, |
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