Measuring Your Life
One of the things I hear popular Christian leaders and speakers talk about is how to measure your spiritual life or your spiritual growth. They’ll bring things up like rules, discipline, or heightened experiences.
I’ll hear things like, “Did you see all of those people lying prostrate before the Lord, raising their hands, crying, jumping up and down, and just being on fire for Him?” They’ll make such a huge deal about heightened experiences and talk about how that is the measure of true spirituality. The message is, “If you aren’t having experiences like this, then you aren’t doing the Christian life right. You aren’t measuring up to all that you should be as a Christian.”
Or I’ll hear another person dismiss the experiences like the ones mentioned above and say, “I’m waiting to see true repentance in their lives,” meaning that they are measuring spirituality by how someone is following the rules or is being disciplined about avoiding sin. The message is, “The more focused you are on sin management and doing the right things, the better Christian you are.”
It might be popular to try and measure our Christian lives by heightened experiences, following rules, or being disciplined, but the apostle Paul had some strong things to say about this in Colossians 2:16-23.
DON’T JUDGE YOUR LIFE BY RULES
Paul starts off this section by saying this in Colossians 2:16
16 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.
The word that is translated as “judge” here means to criticize or find fault with. Paul is saying, “Don’t let anyone find fault with you based on how you are following laws and regulations.”
All these things that Paul mentioned are part of the Old Testament Law, and Paul is telling them not to measure their Christian life by these rules. But why? Why would Paul tell them not to measure how they are doing in the Christian life by God’s laws?
Well, Paul gives the answer in the very next verse. Look at verse 17...
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Paul says that the law is not the measuring stick for living the Christian life. The law was “a shadow of the things that were to come.”
In other words, the law was given to point people to Jesus. The law was given to reveal our sinful nature and our need for Christ. It was a pointer to what was to come.
Now that Christ has come and fulfilled the law on our behalf, we have been released from the law and live by the Spirit who unites us to Christ (Romans 7:4-6).
So, the first thing Paul warns us about is not measuring the Christian life by following rules because doing so would be putting ourselves right back under the very same law that Christ has already fulfilled.
DON’T JUDGE YOUR LIFE BY HEIGHTENED EXPERIENCES
Paul continues in Colossians 2:18 by saying…
18 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
The second area of warning is measuring the Christian life by heightened experiences.
During the time Paul was writing this, there was this idea that one could have a mystical experience where they would have supernatural visions and be ushered into the heavenly realms to worship the angels who emanated from God or to join in with the angels in the worship of God. Then the worshiper would return with all kinds of stories about what he had seen in his vision and would be puffed up in his own mind.
So apparently the Colossians were being taught by some that they needed to measure their Christian walk by these kinds of heightened experiences. But in response to that Paul says to not let these people disqualify them. What does that mean?
Well, the original language that Paul used here means to not let someone act as an umpire against you. An umpire can disqualify you from experiencing the game that you are playing in.
Paul is saying that when the Colossians or any of us let people convince us that emotionally charged experiences are the true measurement of the Christian life, we will miss out on experiencing true Life in Christ.
Paul is not saying that experiences in and of themselves are evil, but when we try to measure our own or someone else’s spirituality based on that experience we’re being arrogant and unspiritual.
Paul says that heightened experiences are not central to the Christian life – Jesus is...look at verse 19...
19 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.
When Paul says “they” in this verse, he is referring to those who try to measure their spirituality by experiences. When we judge our Christian life by experiences, Paul says that we are not operating with Jesus as our Source as the head. We are making ourselves and our emotions the point of reference.
DON’T JUDGE YOUR LIFE BY SELF-DENIAL
As Paul continues in this section, he brings up a third warning. He says in Colossians 3:20-21…
20 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: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
So, one of the areas that naturally kind of follows legalism and Christianity based on experience is asceticism. Asceticism is the self-discipline of denying your physical body indulgences to try and become more spiritual.
Ascetics would consider certain foods and practices unholy and avoid those through self-discipline and self-denial. And we see here through what Paul is saying about not handling, tasting, or touching certain foods that asceticism is another area the false teachers in Colossae were promoting. And did you see how Paul responds to them?
He reminds them of their new position in Christ. See, asceticism arises out of guilt. If one sees themselves as sinful and experiences the guilt of that sin, then he or she often feels the need to deny themselves through strictly following certain rules and regulations to make up for being such a bad person.
But what Paul is saying is that if we know our position in Christ of having died to our old self, then we know that at the core of our being, we are one with Christ. We are righteous and holy in Him.
So, in other words, there is no reason to follow all these strict rules of denying ourselves to make up for something that’s wrong with us, because nothing is wrong with us in our union with Christ.
SELF-MEASURED VS CHRIST-MEASURED
Paul finishes this section by saying this in Colossians 3:22-23…
22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 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.
When we try to measure our Christian life by self-denial, heightened experiences, and following the law, it may look spiritual, but Paul says it is self-imposed worship. It leaves us as our point of reference instead of Christ.
The only appropriate measure for the Christian life is Jesus and what He has accomplished on our behalf and gifted us through His grace.
This is the Christian life. Everything else is religion. Religion looks good because of the activity. Religion seems right because performance and experiences are valued in our world. But religion is self-imposed worship. “See what I did?” “See the rules I followed?” “Look at how emotional I was.”
The Christian life is Christ. We don’t have to look at our activity to measure our Christian life. We are measured by who we are in Him.
He is our Source. We are righteous, holy, clean, and good because of who we are in Him. And we are in Him all the time, regardless of our rule-following, self-denial, or our experiences.
As Paul put it one chapter earlier in Colossians 2:10…
So you also are complete through your union with Christ.