Therefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
All Commentaries on Colossians 2:20 Go To Colossians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
To be a virgin it is not enough just to be unmarried. There must be spiritual chastity, and I mean by chastity not only the absence of wicked and shameful desire, the absence of ornaments and superfluous cares, but also being unsoiled by life’s cares. Without that, what good is there in physical purity? … [Those who do not understand this belong] to the very weak who crawl along the earth. It was impossible to uplift souls so disposed all at once to the argument on behalf of virginity. One who has been so excited by worldly things and so admiring of the present life will think … that what is worthy of heaven and close to the angelic state [the call to virginity] is deserving of disgrace. How would such a one tolerate advice promoting this course? And then is it surprising if Paul has adopted the same strategy of argument in the case of something that has been permitted when he does the same thing in the case of what has been forbidden and is contrary to law? For instance: dietary laws, the acceptance of some foods while rejecting others, were a Jewish weakness. Nevertheless, there were among the Romans those who shared this weakness. Paul has not only vehemently denounced them, but he does something more than this. He disregards the wrongdoers and censures those who attempted to prevent them with the words, “But you, how can you sit in judgment on your brother?” Yet he did not do this when he wrote to the Colossians; rather, with great authority he rebukes them and treats the matter philosophically: “No one is free … to pass judgment on you in terms of what you eat or drink.” And again: “If with Christ you have died to cosmic forces, why should you be bound to rules that say, ’Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ as though you were still living a life bounded by this world? Such prescriptions deal with things that perish in their uses.” Why ever does he do this? Because the Colossians were strong, but the Romans still required much accommodation. .
