Colossians 2:20

The Apostle, recalling them to the time of their conversion, points out how inconsistent with a death to the elemental spirits any submission to ordinances belonging to their sphere would be. The death of the believer with Christ is a death to his old relations, to sin, law, guilt, the world. It is a death which Christ has Himself undergone (Romans 6:10). Here it is specially their death to the angels, who had ruled their old life, and under whose charge the Law and its ceremonies especially stood. They had died with Christ to legalism, how absurd then for ordinances to be imposed upon them. εἰ ἀπεθάνετε σὺν Χριστῷ : “if, as is the case, you died in union with Christ”. The aorist points to the definite fact, which took place once for all. It was in union with Christ, for thus they were able to repeat Christ's own experience. ἀπὸ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ κόσμου. The use of ἀπὸ with ἀποθν. expresses more strongly than the dative (as in Romans 6:2) the completeness of the severance, and adds the idea of escape from the dominion of the personal powers. On στ. τ. κ. see note on Colossians 2:8. ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ. For the death of the Christian with Christ includes his crucifixion to the world (Galatians 6:14). The world is ruled by these angels; but Christians belong to the world to come (cf. τ. μελλόντων, Colossians 2:17), which, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, has not been made subject to the angels. Since they were still living in the physical world κός. has evidently an ethical sense. δογματίζεσθε may be middle, “subject yourselves to ordinances,” or passive. Since Paul nowhere says that the readers had accepted the false teaching, the latter is better: “Why are ye prescribed to?” (Mey., Winer, Hofm., Findl., Haupt.) Alford also takes it as a passive, but thinks it implies a keener rebuke than the middle. The middle asserts rather that they had submitted, the passive need only imply, not their submission, but that their resistance might have been more energetic. If there is blame it seems to be slighter. The verb δογματ. is chosen with reference to τοῖς δόγμασιν in Colossians 2:14.