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Colossians: Jesus is All You Need
Lesson 6: "Spiritual Bullies Beware"
by Michael Lewis
Dalton Gardens Church of Christ
August 8, 2010

Colossians 2:16-23

The message in a nutshell: God doesn’t like the activities of  spiritual   bullies .

List of what bullies were trying to require of Christians in Colossae:

1.  Dietary  restrictions

2. Keeping religious  festivals .

3. Keeping Jewish  traditions  about the  Sabbath .

4.  New   moon  celebrations.

5. False  humility .

6.  Angel  worship.

The first two chapters of Colossians is a theological section about the Fullness of Jesus and the worthlessness of human religion.

Part One:  Holding  up Jesus.

Part Two: Human religion is  empty .

Simplicity is the  enemy  of human religion.

How can we mess up Christianity?

1. You invent  rules  that God did not make and  impose  them on  others  as if He did.

Human religion will always  forbid  things God never  denied .

2. You turn being  spiritual  into a list of  external  behaviors that can be measured.

External religion promotes  haughtiness  not holiness.

You can’t make enough rules to produce the  fruit  of the  spirit .

The key to growth is whether God is allowed to  change   lives  from the inside out.

“So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it.” Col 2:20