Sermons on Colossians 2:23
The various sermons below converge on a clear reading of Colossians 2:23 as Paul’s rejection of rule‑making and ascetic displays that only “appear” wise: legalistic prohibitions cannot mortify the flesh, and true holiness is inseparable from Christ’s sufficiency and the Spirit’s work. All the speakers use that hinge to move away from external restraint toward inward, Spirit‑produced fruit (self‑control, renewed affections, thankful reception of created goods), but they diverge in imagery and exegetical tools—some lean on the living‑branch/John 15 metaphor to show abiding as the source of self‑control, others emphasize thanksgiving and sacramental reception of ordinary goods, one presses historical‑linguistic work on ethelothreskeia to make a worship‑principle point, and another reads the verse as warrant for vigorous mortification while warning against mere self‑injury.
Yet the sermons differ sharply in tone and application: some frame asceticism as demonic counterfeit and prioritize gratitude and the doxological reception of creation, others insist grace issues in decisive, even stark mortification of sin (with violent language), and a few situate the verse in corporate‑worship arguments about Christ’s sufficiency and the regulative principle rather than only personal sanctification. Pastoral method varies as well—renewing minds and affections versus calling for active confrontation of idols, exegetical historical nuance versus plain pastoral exhortation—so your sermon choices hinge less on whether Paul condemns legalism (everyone agrees he does) and more on which corrective you will emphasize: Christ’s sufficiency and thankful reception, Spirit‑wrought self‑control, or uncompromising mortification of sin—
Colossians 2:23 Interpretation:
Empowered Self-Control: Choosing Freedom in Christ(Liberty Live Church) reads Colossians 2:23 as Paul’s repudiation of legalistic attempts to manufacture holiness and ties that rejection directly to the fruit of the Spirit: the preacher contrasts “self?made religion” with Spirit?produced self?control, arguing that the verse exposes rules (don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t handle) as powerless “appearances of wisdom” and uses the living?branch/fruit metaphor (an apple on a branch) plus John 15 to say real self?control grows from abiding in Christ rather than from straining or adding prohibitions.
Embracing God's Goodness: Gratitude Over Legalism(Desiring God) interprets Colossians 2:23 as exposing a demonic—rather than merely mistaken—form of asceticism that elevates abstinence into a counterfeit holiness; the preacher argues that Paul is targeting teachers who promote abstinence as a superior sanctity and counters with a positive reading: foods, marriage, and sex are made holy by the Word and by thankful prayer (so thanksgiving, not rule?making, is the means by which ordinary created goods mediate God’s goodness).
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) treats Colossians 2:23 as Paul’s textual proof that bodily mutilation or ascetic severity cannot kill the flesh, and he reads the verse into Jesus’ hyperbolic commands (cut off hand, pluck out eye) to insist the Bible calls for radical mortification of sin but warns that literal bodily harm and mere self?inflicted severity are spiritually fruitless—true mortification is effected by grace and the Spirit, not by self?wounding.
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) analyzes Colossians 2:23 linguistically and historically, highlighting the Greek compound ethelothreskeia (“self?made/ will?worship”) and showing how Paul’s words condemn added worship regulations and ascetic practices; the sermon situates the verse in Paul’s polemic against Colossian heresies and uses the term’s later reception in Reformation and Puritan debates to argue that Colossians 2:23 identifies “self?made religion” as a worship error that undermines Christ’s sufficiency.
Living Out Our New Life in Christ(Reclamation Church, Boulder) treats Colossians 2:23 as a corrective to “try harder” moralism: the preacher emphasizes Paul’s claim that ascetic regimens merely “appear wise” but have no efficacy to curb the flesh, and he frames the verse as the theological rationale for his pastoral counsel—don’t rely on severity or rules; instead renew the mind, set your affections on Christ, and let the Spirit transform you.
Colossians 2:23 Theological Themes:
Empowered Self-Control: Choosing Freedom in Christ(Liberty Live Church) develops the theme that Colossians 2:23 functions within Paul’s larger argument to reclaim freedom: self?control is not the goal of stricter law but the fruit of Spirit?empowered freedom, so the verse is used theologically to shift the telos from external restraint to Spirit?produced transformation and restoration of Christian liberty.
Embracing God's Goodness: Gratitude Over Legalism(Desiring God) advances a distinctive theological theme that ascetic prohibitions often mask a prideful, demonic spirituality and that holiness is not ascetic denial but gratitude?formed worship: eating and marital intimacy become sacramentalized (mediating God’s worth) when received in the light of the Word and thankful prayer—thus holiness is doxological reception, not ritual abstention.
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) pushes the theme that genuine grace issues in radical, active mortification of sin; he refuses a privatized, lax sanctification and insists Colossians 2:23 warns against easy substitutes for costly holiness—true holiness will involve decisive, sometimes violent opposition to idols in one’s life, enabled by grace rather than by mere asceticism.
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) brings out a unique theological application: Colossians 2:23 indicts not only private asceticism but any self?designed worship (ethelothreskeia), and from that Paul derives the sola?Christus claim that Christ’s sufficiency eliminates humanly constructed liturgical requisites—the sermon uses this to press the regulative principle for public worship.
Living Out Our New Life in Christ(Reclamation Church, Boulder) frames a pastoral theological theme: Colossians 2:23 is a corrective to “white?knuckled” moralism and teaches that sanctification proceeds by renewing the mind and fixing affections on Christ (the cognitive/affective formation of holiness), so the practical theology centers study of Scripture and Spirit?wrought desire rather than imposing harsher rules.
Colossians 2:23 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) gives extended historical context for Colossians 2:23: the speaker situates the verse in the Colossian situation (Epaphras bringing news to Paul in prison, Colossae’s syncretic heresies), traces the later theological reception of the Greek term ethelothreskeia through the Reformation and Puritan confessions, and explains how debates about “will?worship” shaped English and Scottish liturgical controversies and the regulative principle of worship.
Embracing God's Goodness: Gratitude Over Legalism(Desiring God) provides cultural?historical context by linking Colossians and Mark 7 to first?century disputes over Mosaic food laws and Jewish ritual observances (festivals, new moons, Sabbaths); the sermon highlights how Judaizing or ascetic emphases functioned in churches like Ephesus and Colossae and shows Paul combating a Judaizing/ascetic influence that borrowed Jewish ritual categories.
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) offers contextual material about how Jesus’ hyperbolic language (Mark 9 / Matthew parallels) was understood in the Church and surveys later historical responses to ascetic impulses (Origen’s extreme practices, reported instances of self?mutilation, Lloyd?Jones’s anecdote about an empty eye socket) to show how literalist or overly?ascetic readings of metaphor produced tragic outcomes and were addressed in church history.
Colossians 2:23 Cross-References in the Bible:
Empowered Self-Control: Choosing Freedom in Christ(Liberty Live Church) ties Colossians 2:23 to a chain of texts: Galatians 5:22–23 (self?control as fruit of the Spirit) and Galatians 5:16–21 (works of the flesh) to contrast Spirit?empowered fruit with fleshly indulgence; John 15:5 and the vine/branch analogy are used to argue abiding in Christ (not added rules) produces self?control; Proverbs 25:28 is cited to illustrate the ruin of a person without self?control—Colossians 2:23 functions as Paul’s rebuke to rule?based self?effort within this pastoral network.
Embracing God's Goodness: Gratitude Over Legalism(Desiring God) groups Mark 7 (Jesus declaring foods clean and overturning dietary defilement as locus of defilement being the heart), Titus 1:1 (Paul’s concern for faith and truth of the elect), and Colossians 2:20–23 (the specific denunciation of “don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t handle”) to argue the biblical solution to ritualism is proclamation of the Word and prayerful thanksgiving that renders gifts holy, not added abstinences.
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) connects Mark 9’s amputation imagery to Matthew 5 and 18 parallels and then to Pauline texts: 1 Peter 2:24 (Christ bore our sins so we might die to sin), Galatians 5:24 (those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh), Romans 6 (dead to sin, alive to God), Jeremiah 32:40 (God puts his fear in hearts) —the preacher uses these cross?references to argue that Christ’s atoning work is meant to produce radical dying to sin, not theological complacency.
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) places Colossians 2:16–23 within Paul’s broader epistolary context and cross?references Romans 12 and Colossians 3:17 to argue all life is worship, and cites 1 Corinthians 12–14 (tongues and prophecy) to illustrate that certain New Testament sign?gifts had apostolic function and ceased, thereby supporting a regulated, Scripture?sanctioned liturgical repertoire; these biblical references support his claim that “self?made” worship departs from apostolic pattern and undermines Christ’s sufficiency.
Living Out Our New Life in Christ(Reclamation Church, Boulder) reads Colossians 2:11–14 (baptism, circumcision without hands) and Colossians 3:1–5 together with Romans 12:2 (renewal of mind), 1 Corinthians 1:18 (word of the cross foolishness to the perishing), and 1 Timothy 4:8 (bodily training vs. godliness) to show Paul’s sequence: first be made alive in Christ, then set your mind on things above, then put to death the earthly members—Colossians 2:23 is used to insist ascetic efforts apart from new life and mind renewal are worthless.
Colossians 2:23 Christian References outside the Bible:
Empowered Self-Control: Choosing Freedom in Christ(Liberty Live Church) explicitly cites contemporary Christian authors and pastors: Thomas Trask and Wade Goodall (a modern treatment of the fruit of the Spirit) to define self?control as Spirit?empowered abstinence and Tim Keller’s aphorism (“Self?control is the ability to always choose the important thing over the urgent thing”) to shape the sermon's practical framing of Colossians 2:23 against mere self?effort.
Embracing God's Goodness: Gratitude Over Legalism(Desiring God) draws on C. S. Lewis to illustrate how created goods (food, sex) can “point up” to God—Lewis’s idea of earthly tastes running “up the beam of light to the original” is used to support the sermon’s claim that thanksgiving and right understanding make ordinary gifts holy, countering the ascetic tendency Paul condemns in Colossians 2:23.
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) references church figures and commentators to criticize literalist asceticism and to ground his pastoral exhortation: he discusses Origen (historical reports of self?harm), cites Martyn Lloyd?Jones (his anecdote about a woman with a gouged?out eye and Lloyd?Jones’s evaluation), and quotes modern preachers (e.g., Charles Leiter) about the fear of God and pastoral warnings, using those voices to show how misguided asceticism has recurred and how genuine Christian mortification is produced by grace and Spirit.
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) repeatedly situates Colossians 2:23 in post?biblical theological reception: the speaker invokes Calvin and the Reformers, John Knox and Strasbourg Reformation practices, the Westminster Divines and Puritan debates (the term ethelothreskeia’s impact in confessional discussions), and later figures such as John Bunyan and Martyn Lloyd?Jones to show how Colossians 2:23 informed historic disputes over worship, liturgy, and the regulative principle.
Living Out Our New Life in Christ(Reclamation Church, Boulder) cites contemporary evangelical teachers as guiding friends for his pastoral application: Matt Chandler (quote “God is not in love with some future version of you”), J. I. Packer (paradox about becoming who you already are), Martin Lloyd?Jones (work on spiritual depression), and also personal mentors (John Stroop) to justify the practical regimen—these references are used to bolster the view that Colossians 2:23 calls Christians away from mere rule?keeping and toward Scripture?saturated mind renewal.
Colossians 2:23 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Empowered Self-Control: Choosing Freedom in Christ(Liberty Live Church) uses several everyday secular illustrations tied into the Colossians point: a disruptive restaurant fight and the awkwardness of leaving early illustrate lack of self?control; the preacher’s Pop?Tart socks and humorous family bedtime/cookie stories (Pillsbury holiday cookies devoured) function as memorable, domestic examples of how mere willpower and rules fail and so underscore his reading of Colossians 2:23 that added prohibitions lack power—he also uses the natural orchard image (apples on a branch) as a non?religious biological analogy showing growth comes from connection (abiding), not straining.
Radical Holiness: Actively Confronting Sin in Our Lives(SermonIndex.net) deploys vivid secular/historical illustrations to amplify the urgency of radical mortification: he recounts an ethnographic?style story of Saharan nomads who amputate a snake?bitten finger to save a child’s life (used as a graphic analogy for immediate, decisive action against sin) and refers to public anecdotes (e.g., reports of extreme ascetic acts) to show the practical stakes and the grotesque consequences of misunderstanding scriptural hyperbole.
Embracing True Worship: The Sufficiency of Christ(Ligonier Ministries) offers historically descriptive, non?biblical portraits to make Colossians 2:23 concrete: the speaker reads a visitor’s diary of Strasbourg Reformation worship (congregational singing in the vernacular) against a remembered pre?Reformation scene of processions, incense, and altars strewn with herbs—these cultural vignettes are used as secular/historical evidence that “man?made” worship forms can supplant biblical worship and illustrate what Paul condemns by “self?made religion.”
Living Out Our New Life in Christ(Reclamation Church, Boulder) brings a number of everyday secular analogies to bear on Colossians 2:23’s lesson: a roommate’s dog named Barrett who can resist treats only while keeping eye contact with its master is the central behavioral metaphor (focus on the master preserves obedience; eyes on the treat invite failure), plus contemporary tech examples (accountability apps, phones) and anecdotes about YouTube archaeology leading a young man to church—these secular, practical stories are mobilized to show that shifting attention toward Christ (not toward rule lists or devices alone) is what actually weakens the flesh.