Colossians 2:16

Colossians 2:16. Let no man therefore judge you. ‘Therefore' bases these practical admonitions on the positive truths set forth in Colossians 2:8-15. ‘Judge,' sit in judgment, condemning you if you do not respond to their demands.

In eating, or in drinking; the words occur in Romans 14:17, referring to the acts of eating and drinking, not to food and drink. A few authorities read: ‘and' instead of ‘or.' This makes of the two a single category, while ‘in respect of' introduces a second class. But the evidence for ‘and' is not strong enough to warrant the substitution. The Mosaic law had prohibitions respecting food alone (Leviticus 7:10-27), forbidding wine to Nazarites (Numbers 6:3) and to priests in service (Leviticus 10:9); hence the Phrygian ascetics had probably gone beyond the law (so Meyer, followed by most recent commentators). Comp. Romans 14.

Or in respect of a festival. The first term refers to yearly feasts, the second to monthly, the third to the weekly Sabbath; a sabbath day is the usual rendering of the plural form here used, and joined with two other terms in the singular number. The Jewish Sabbath was kept by many of the early Christians as well as the Lord's Day, and the practice was finally condemned at a council in Laodicea. It has been asserted that Paul's language is inconsistent with the lasting obligation of the Sabbath, in any form, on the Christian Church, But this is too sweeping. The Lord's Day is in a different position, has a fresh sanction, and should have its higher observance. The need of such a day is written in man's body, and experience proves that Christianity is the loser by the neglect of a religious observance of one day in seven. Here the Lord's own words hold good: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath' (Mark 2:27).