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Colossians 2:23
23 Which things [hostis] have [echo] indeed [men] a shew [esti] [logos] of wisdom [sophia] in [en] will worship, [ethelothreskeia] and [kai] humility, [tapeinophrosune] and [kai] neglecting [apheidia] of the body; [soma] not [ou] in [en] any [tis] honour [time] to [pros] the satisfying [plesmone] of the flesh. [sarx] KJV-Interlinear
23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. NASB
There are two components to your life in this world. You have a carnal component and a spiritual component.
The carnal deals with the fleshy aspects, the physical aspects of your life, and are primarily intended to satisfy the sin nature side of your life. Anything done in the sphere of the sin nature is a total waste of time and effort, and is broadly categorized as evil.
The spiritual side of your life deals primarily with your soul, and anything spiritually related to your soul always overflows over into the physical side of your life. That is a good thing because when good flows through your soul and then into your temporal side of life, its results are good.
All efforts to do God one better, as it were, serve the carnal side of life. There is nothing that man can do to enhance the spiritual life.
Fasting, beating on ones own back, living in poverty, living in seclusion, eating one type of food verses another, wearing a certain color to the exclusion of another, wearing certain clothing, covering ones self completely with certain clothes, using or not using some form of technology, praying at certain times of the day, facing a certain direction when praying, chanting, using exercise to make the body healthy and therefore the soul, and this list can go on and on and on.
All of these things do absolutely nothing for your spiritual life. They are mans efforts to improve mans life, and therefore are supposed to enhance your spiritual relationship with God. And all they do are satisfy some aspect of your sin nature drive.
That is the thrust of this verse and of this chapter. Mans efforts are irrelevant to mans relationship with God. Mans efforts only serve to satisfy mans fleshy (carnal - physical or mental) desires.
And yet, folks will maintain scrupulous observances of things that are of the carnal world, and pursue them with vigor, while at the same time, they will ignore the one single thing which God mandates, which is your daily Bible study.
People will place tremendous piety, and wisdom on their efforts. Professors and guru’s and priests, and politicians, and celebrities, and friends and neighbors, all have their opinions, and they are all intent with sincerity and argument, that allows them to make a ‘show’ of wisdom and knowledge. But, these things, their opinions are words of false prophets. They are nothing more than salesmen, selling the public a bill of goods, intended to elevate themselves in approbation, or profit, or social status, while the public gains nothing.
The pretenders of wisdom gain while the public suffers. And the public suffers only because they lack the doctrinal discernment that can protect them from the false ideas of life. And the public lacks doctrinal discernment, because they voluntarily ignore it.
There are the deceivers and the deceived, and both are equally guilty of failure in their spiritual lives, because their wants, come from the source of their sin nature. Some want the glory, while others want the free ride.
And collectively they will all lose in life.
The world will always be full of opinions and issues and controversies. The world will always have plans and ideas to solve this or that problem. And, as Solomon has stated, there isn’t anything that is being tried now, that hasn’t been tried before, and all of those former efforts have failed. He is referring to all of the best laid plans of humanity. None have ever worked.
There is only one plan which will solve all problems and promote peace and prosperity and happiness for everyone, and that plan is Gods plan. Gods plan for you and everyone, is the spiritual life, approached legitimately through ones daily study, learning, residence in fellowship, and then the repetition of that process, which we call the circle of wisdom, throughout your life.
From mans efforts, comes failure and suffering, and nothing more.
From Gods work, comes freedom, justice, health, prosperity, happiness, all things good, and things get even better from there.
But unfortunately people will not let go of their former priorities, until things get really bad. Carnal folks hold fast to their carnal possessions and beliefs. You need to make sure that you are not a participant of that failed group.
