MANY OF US have had to watch helplessly as friends and loved ones deteriorated physically at the end of their lives. People who had once been energetic became weak and listless. They lost weight to the point of being almost unrecognizable. We’d stand at their bedside while they slept. And later, when someone asked us about them, we’d shake our heads sadly and say something like, “They’re just a shadow of who they used to be.”

Sayings like these can take for granted that the true measure of a person is in their youth and vigor. We reach the prime of our life and hold onto it as long as we can, because everything is downhill from there.

But what if we saw life differently? What if instead of lamenting how we eventually become mere shadows of our former selves, we look forward in hope to our future selves? True, we may not be what we once were. But neither are we yet who we will be, if we believe in eternal life and the return of Jesus. The present foreshadows that future, and the future is the final reality.

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AS WE EXPLORED in the previous post, the Colossians may have been under some pressure to conform with the religious expectations of others. Those expectations had to be at least partly Jewish, as Paul’s words suggest:

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. (Col 2:16, NIV)

Jewish dietary laws placed restrictions on food but not drink, unless one includes the voluntary Nazirite vow to abstain from wine, strong drink, or anything that comes from a grapevine (Num 6:1-4). And again, while the religious practices Paul mentions weren’t specifically Jewish — with the exception of the Sabbath — his way of listing them echoes the prophets, and thus probably points to the existence of social pressure from people who were at least nominally Jewish. Paul’s point, in context, is that the Colossians don’t have to obey such religious rules because they have freedom in Christ, and he will continue to argue this throughout the rest of chapter 2.

But Paul adds another wrinkle to his argument. Notice what he says next:

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (vs. 17)

Previously in the letter, Paul has spoken of how Christ is superior to all powers and authorities. He doesn’t bother to argue against or deny their existence; he merely points the Colossians to someone higher, someone more deserving of their allegiance and obedience. Similarly, he doesn’t say that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with observing various festivals or the Sabbath. As he argues elsewhere, if these are done in good conscience, fine. But here, he portrays the religious observances of the present as mere shadows compared to the reality that is yet to come.

Paul’s thought is similar to that of the book of Hebrews, where the idea is developed in greater depth. There, Christ is portrayed as our morally perfect, heavenly high priest, the mediator of a new and better covenant. There are, of course, earthly high priests who already offer sacrifices as prescribed by the Law of Moses. But as the author of Hebrews argues, “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven” (Heb 8:5). The heavenly reality is greater; the new covenant has made the old one obsolete (vs. 13).

The vision of Hebrews fits with what Paul wants the Colossians to understand. As we’ve seen throughout his letter, Paul thinks and writes eschatologically; he sees and interprets the present in light of the promised future. The Jews had expected a messianic age, and those like Paul who believed in Jesus as the Messiah believed that that age had already dawned. Put differently, the kingdom Jesus preached was already present — but it was not yet complete.

And where was the evidence of the messianic age to be found? As the New International Version translates it, “the reality…is found in Christ,” while the New American Standard reads, “the substance belongs to Christ.” Either word, “reality” or “substance,” is taken as the counterpoint to what is merely a shadow.

What happens, however, if we translate Paul’s Greek more literally? Where the NIV has the statement that “the reality, however, is found in Christ,” we might have instead the simpler (and stranger) phrase, “but (or now) the body of Christ.”

Translators have to wrestle with the best way to render Paul’s words into sensible English, and having made their decision, they’re stuck with one interpretation; other possibilities are relegated to fine-print footnotes. And don’t get me wrong: I’m not criticizing the translations themselves, as if I were even qualified to do so.

But given the importance of the idea in Paul’s understanding of the church, I find it nearly unimaginable that he would use the phrase “the body of Christ” here in Colossians without at least having the church in the back of his mind. Both Paul and the writer of Hebrews speak of a new and superior covenant begun in Christ; external obedience to the ceremonial law has given way to an age in which the law is written on the hearts of God’s people (Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10). Indeed, Paul applies this logic specifically to Gentiles in Romans 2:15; those who do not technically have the law can nevertheless show that the law is written on their hearts when they act in good conscience (see also 2 Cor 3).

The new reality to which Paul points, therefore, may be the body of Christ itself, in which each member possesses the Spirit of Christ. For the Colossians to think it good or necessary to adhere to externally imposed religious rules is to take a step backward from that reality.

That’s not to say, of course, that believers can do whatever the heck they want. But that’s a different argument for a different congregation. And as we’ll see, religious rules in themselves don’t do much to make people wise or good — and some of them are being pushed on the Colossians by folks who aren’t connected to Christ as they should be.