Colossians 2:18

Colossians 2:18. Let no man. The singular number in these warnings does not point to a particular person, but gives emphasis.

Rob you of the prize. The figure, borrowed from the games, suggests an unfair decision of the umpire in awarding the prize; but it need not be pressed further than to mean depriving the Christian of his ‘prize,' which is future blessedness, eternal life. The false teachers, by their errors, might prevent their obtaining this.

Of his own will, lit., ‘willing.' This expression is very difficult to interpret satisfactorily. Some (among them, Lightfoot) explain: ‘delighting in humility,' etc. But this is a harsh and unusual Hebraism, and the word ‘willing' rarely, if ever, has the sense of delight ‘Willing,' or ‘willingly,' as we must express it, a qualification of the verb ‘rob you of the prize,' but three senses have been given it. (1.) Willingly, of his own choice or impulse; this is almost equivalent to ‘arbitrarily,' and agrees best with the exact sense of the Greek word. The E. V. seems to have endeavored to give a similar thought. (2.) ‘Desiring to do it, which presses the word somewhat. (3.) ‘Purposing to do it;' a sense that the word would bear, but not so natural as the first. The context referring to the human origin of the precepts of the false teachers (Colossians 2:22) and to their ‘will-worship,' etc., seems to favor (1), which gives emphasis to the purely human impulse. The methods they adopt to de-fraud you of the prize have their origin in their own choice, not in any objective truth. (On the exact sense of the word ‘willing,' comp. my note in Lange, Ephesians, p. 42.)

By (lit., ‘in,' pointing to the sphere of the actions) humility. The word, occurring elsewhere always in a good sense, in this chapter (comp. Colossians 2:23) seems to point to something blameworthy: ‘a false and perverted lowliness, which deemed God was so inaccessible that He could only be approached through the mediation of inferior beings' (Ellicott).

And worship of the angels. This was the outward evidence of the false humility. The word ‘worship' refers properly to the external rites of religion, and so get to signify an over-scrupulous devotion to external forms' (Lightfoot). It was at Colossae that special worship was given in after days to the archangel Michael for an alleged miracle, Jewish influences might have led to this worship of the angels.

Dwelling in, or, ‘taking his stand upon,' the things which he hath seen. The weight of authority has led recent editors to reject ‘not;' and the sense ‘intruding' is inappropriate with the reading. Of the two explanations given above, the former is preferable, both on lexical grounds, and from its aptness in this connection, pointing to the false teacher as continually poring over the visions (‘which he hath seen'), his ‘illusions,' but ‘delusions' in their influence. The ‘spiritism' of modern times naturally suggests an illustration of the meaning.

Vainly puffed up; puffed up with pride despite the show of humility, and that without ground.

By the mind of his flesh. As ‘the flesh' has a body, so it has a ‘mind;' the unrenewed nature is personified (comp. Romans 8:6), and its ‘mind' is represented as causing the pride of the false teacher. There may be a reference to some favorite phrase of the errorists.