Episode 756: LTT: Colossians 2:16-17: Shadow vs Reality (Responding to Andrew Farley)

Does Colossians 2:16-17 teach believers to leave the Sabbath and biblical festivals behind? Paul says, “Let no one judge you,” but the passage never explicitly states why the Colossians were being judged. This teaching responds to Andrew Farley’s interpretation and examines the surrounding context, the opponents’ human regulations and bodily self-denial, the meaning of “food or drink,” the “shadow of things to come,” and scholarship arguing that the Colossians may actually have been criticized for observing these practices. TakeawayColossians 2:16-17 does not explicitly say believers were being criticized for refusing to observe Sabbaths and festivals. Reading the passage in its wider context opens another plausible interpretation and raises important questions about what Paul means by a “shadow of the things to come.”