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Colossians 2:20
20 Wherefore [oun] if [ei] ye be dead [apothnesko] with [sun] Christ [Christos] from [apo] the rudiments [stoicheion] of the world, [kosmos] why, [tis] as though [hos] living [zao] in [en] the world, [kosmos] are ye subject to ordinances, [dogmatizo] KJV-Interlinear
20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, NASB
Death is a separation from something. In our study, that something is life.
We can die physically from life, or we can die (separate) spiritually from fellowship (our environment where our spiritual life, functions).
But here, the death we are studying is from the carnal life of unbelief, in favor of a spiritual life.
All death occurs in a brief moment, a split second, as it were.
When you die physically, your soul and spirit exit the physical body, leaving it behind (because it is or was, never a part of your future).
When you commit a sin, then you die or separate, from your fellowship status, instantly.
And in our passage, your carnal unbelieving life terminates immediately when you believe in Christ. In an instant, in a split second, your spiritual death springs into life, and as far as your previous life as an unbeliever goes, you are separated from it, dead from it, forever. You can never go back to your unborn state, from your re-born state.
So, when you believe in Christ, from that moment on, for all of your eternal life, you are dead to your unsaved life. Likewise, if you are separated from your unsaved state, then you are no longer under the laws that regulate that previous state.
Here Paul calls them the ‘elementary principles of the world.’
Elementary principles refer to the basics of ones education as a child.
When you are a child you learn the alphabet and numbers. You learn sounds and words, and addition and subtraction. You learn to read and write. And these things are the earliest beginnings of ones education. And that is how Paul describes the principles presented by world opinion.
In one respect, the views of a child are humorous, but very simple. From no child who is just entering the learning process, can any advanced opinion, be found.
And no matter what you think of world opinion, no matter what opinions you might subscribe to, or have subscribed to, they have been no better than the simple and silliest views of a child.
After all, what is said to a child who has stated something that we know is obviously wrong? ‘Wait until you grow up and then you will understand.’
That is exactly what unbelievers, or spiritually deficient believers possess – the silliness of immaturity (at their very best).
World opinion is silly, and irrelevant with regard to life, truth and especially with salvation and a relationship with God.
World opinion promotes such things as human dignity, human ingenuity, human sincerity, human good, human righteousness, and so forth. World opinion is supported by the Levitical Priesthood, the Mosaic Law and all of its regulations, by religion, by cults, by philosophies that are beyond counting. There are so many philosophies out there, I don’t think you could list them all. World opinion is backed up by government, forms, bureaucracy, and volumes of legislative regulations.
World opinion promotes the idea that man, by mans effort, can advance to the level of the Most High. World opinion promotes the idea that man can write his own destiny, manage for all of his own needs, and eventually achieve his own eternal life.
And of course, that does us all no good until that fountain of youth is discovered. Anyone dying prior to that discovery (which includes all of us), will never benefit from that discovery.
And yet, people in vast majorities, will continue to pursue and follow those old rules, which Christ nailed to the Cross, and no longer have any power, force or effect on life.
And Paul asks the question, ‘Why’? If you have been freed from slavery, then why would you go back to it? If you have been given better food, then why go back to slop? If you have been cleaned up from filth and putrid rot, then why would you jump right back into the decaying slop pit?
