Colossians 2:20

Colossians 2:20. If ye died, as is actually the case, since they died with Christ (see references). When baptized their death with Christ was signified and sealed (comp. Colossians 2:12). ‘Wherefore,' though a correct gloss, is sustained by but one ancient manuscript, and the insertion of it can readily be accounted for.

From the rudiments (or, ‘elements') of the world; see Colossians 2:8. They died ‘from' these, because they were separated from them. ‘The law and all its ordinances were wiped out by the death of Christ (Colossians 2:14), they who were united with Him in His death shared with Him all the blessings of the same immunity' (Ellicott). Here, as everywhere, the Apostle finds in the facts of salvation the motive for believers.

Why, as though living in the world; ‘world' being used in its technical theological sense = ‘in the flesh.' They were not yet relapsed into this state, but obedience to the false teachers would make them live as if they had.

Are ye subjected to ordinances. One word in the Greek, derived from ‘dogma,' i.e., decree. It is doubtful whether the exact sense is: subjected by yourselves, or by others; but the difference is mainly one of expression. It is a curious instance of change in language that ‘subject to dogmas' would now refer to doctrines, whereas then it pointed to practical rules of life.