Let no man deceive you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
All Commentaries on Colossians 2:18 Go To Colossians 2
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Let no man seduce you. In the Greek, hinder you from getting the prize.
Willing , paid to saints and Angels. We do not ask grace, we do not offer up sacrifice, we hope not for salvation, but from God only, from Christ, God and man. (Witham)
Willing That is, by a self-willed, self-invented, superstitious worship, falsely pretending humility, but really proceeding from pride. Such was the worship that many of the philosophers (against whom St. Paul speaks, ver. 8.) paid to Angels or demons, by sacrificing to them, as carriers of intelligence betwixt God and man; pretending humility in so doing, as if God was too great to be addressed by men, and setting aside the mediator ship of Jesus Christ; who is the head both of Angels and men. Such also was the worship paid by the ancient heretics, disciples of Simon and Menander, to the Angels, whom they believed to be the makers and lords of this lower world. This is certain, that they whom the apostle here condemns, did not hold the head, (ver. 19.) that is, Jesus Christ, and his mediator ship; and therefore what he writes here no ways touches the Catholic doctrine and practice, of desiring our good Angels to pray to God for us, through Jesus Christ. St. Jerome, (Epist. ad Algas) understands by the religion or service of Angels, the Jewish religion given by Angels; and shows all that is here said to be directed against the Jewish teachers, who sought to subject the new Christians to the observances of the Mosaic law. (Challoner)
Walking in the things which he hath not seen. These false teachers pretended to know the number and names of the Angels, and how to distribute them into different orders and classes, with as much precision as if they had walked through heaven. Instead of following the revelation of the holy Spirit in the gospel, they followed their own spirit, boasting of what it was impossible for them to know. (Calmet)
But let no one snatch from you the glory of heaven, which should be the reward of your career, and the recompense of your fidelity, deceiving you by an outward show of false piety and affected humility. (Bible de Vence)
