Colossians 2:20
“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Since they died with Christ to the elemental principles of the world, Paul asks why they live as if still belonging to it, submitting to its regulations.
What Does Colossians 2:20 Mean?
Paul appeals to their union with Christ in his death. If ye be dead with Christ -- and they are -- then they have died to the rudiments of the world, the elementary principles that once governed them. That old order no longer has a claim.
So he presses the question: why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? Why submit again to rules they have already died out from under? The logic is that of a new identity: people who have died with Christ have left behind the regime of human regulations. To take up those burdens again is to live as if the death and freedom never happened. Paul does not argue the rules point by point; he reminds the Colossians who they now are. Their death with Christ has set them free, and that freedom is not to be surrendered.