On the Other Extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2

Divisions in the church have been started not only by leaders who taught license to attract followers, but also by leaders who taught extreme asceticism-- that God is only pleased by those who keep the strict rules they prescribe.

To this point, we have been dealing with divisions created by leaders who teach license, the abandonment of moral restraint, as the heart of the Gospel, in order that they may live licentiously and make money off of their followers.  But there have always also been divisions created by people of exactly the opposite type:  people who hold to extreme asceticism, follow very strict rules to build up their own egos, and teach that all true Christians must do likewise:

But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

1 Timothy 4:1-3 (WEB).

Divisive people of this kind also, according to Paul, are trying to build a following for themselves.  Their message comes from seducing spirits, spirits that always want to draw people into thinking they can please God on their own, by their own efforts, without him.  The people teaching these demonic doctrines are also lying, and know it, but have made themselves insensitive to their own consciences.

This admonition is not directed to Christians who, for their own reasons, feel a need or a calling to take time away for solitude and fasting.  Such time can be useful, if given for the right reasons, and given privately to God and not to draw praise from others (Matthew 6:1, 16-18).  Nor is it directed at the many Christians throughout the centuries who have privately decided not to marry because of the service to which they were called.  Instead, it is directed at those who would teach that abstention from the good things God gives makes them “better” than other Christians, at those who would judge the rest of us by the list of rules of abstention we keep:

 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Colossians 2:16-23 (NIV).

If we judge ourselves by the list of things we don’t do “because we are Christians,” this looks very “religious,” very “spiritual,” very “wise.”  But it is foolish.  We are, in fact, worshipping our own wisdom, and neglecting the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ, who is the only one who holds us together and makes us grow.  We have died to the world and to its lists of rules.  We live only in Christ—and, therefore, avoid anything that detracts from him and puts the focus on us, whether that is licentious living or extreme asceticism or living by tough rules.  Anyone who would teach us that we must live at either extreme, and who would therefore put the focus back on us, is trying to lead a following away from Christ and after themselves.  This is how an heretic can be recognized, and there is no other way.

Next: Factions, Following Human Leaders Leads to Heresy