Let no man judge you

 BY Argie Simonis

"​Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days" Col. 2:16 

The Pharisees constantly criticized  people for all the above issues. The Bible stated that a person who disobeyed these laws was to be put to death. But Christ took all these laws and nailed them to His cross (Colossians 2:14), thus freeing us from keeping them.

Obeying all the laws of the Old Testament is an unbearable burden for many Christians today, for those who are unaware that they are living in the New Testament era, a New Covenant the Lord made with us, no longer based on our own performance, but on His grace. 

Look at what Paul says to Timothy:

"Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

1Τιμ. 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." 1Τιm. 4:1-5 

As Paul writes in Col. 2:16, we are also redeemed from keeping the Sabbath, because according to our New Testament with God, we now live in a continual Sabbath (Heb. 4: 3-9 and Col. 2:17). If this passage did not exist in Colossians 2: 14-16, then we would all have to be Seventh-day Adventists. Thank God this is not the case.

Only God can take away what is written in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. God told Israel to distinguish between clean and unclean food in order to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles (Deuteronomy 14: 2 and 21)

According to the New Testament, the wall separating the Jews from the Gentiles has been broken so that everyone has equal access to God:

"For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace; 

For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." Eph. 2:14-15,18 

God hears and answers prayers whether we have eaten pork or not, whether we have worshiped Him on a particular day or not.

Paul made it clear that the observance of the holy days was an individual decision that can neither be imposed nor forbidden to others:

"One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

He that regards the day, regards it to the Lord; and he that regards not the day, to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he that eats not, to the Lord he eats not, and gives God thanks." Rom. 14:5-6 

The dietary laws, the feasts, the offerings of the new moon and the Sabbath, all represented Christ and what He would do (Hebrews 4). Now that we have Christ in us, all these things have served their purpose and are no longer need to be kept.

"Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

But if your brother be grieved with your meat, now walk you not charitably. Destroy not him with your meat, for whom Christ died." Rom. 14:13-15