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“Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no one defraud you by judging you unworthy of your prize”—Col. 2:16-18a:
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As with a man’s physical body, the body in 2:17 is the substance, and like the shadow of a man’s body, the rituals in the law are the shadow of Christ, who is the substance and reality of the gospel; Colossians unveils such an all-inclusive Christ as the focus of God’s economy—1:17a, 18a; 3:11.
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Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, Christ is the reality of every positive thing, implying the universal extensiveness of the all-inclusive Christ:
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Daily, Christ is our food and drink for our satisfaction and strengthening—1 Cor. 10:3-4.
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Weekly, Christ is our Sabbath for our completion and rest in Him—Matt. 11:28-29.
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Monthly, Christ is our new moon as a new beginning with light in darkness—John 1:5; 8:12.
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Yearly, Christ is our feast for our joy and enjoyment—1 Cor. 5:8.
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The all-inclusive, extensive Christ, who is full of attractiveness and rich in magnetism, is the essence of the Bible—Luke 24:44; John 5:39-40; Matt. 1:1; cf. Rev. 22:21.
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According to the context, “the prize” in Colossians 2:18 is the enjoyment of Christ as the body of the shadows; to be defrauded of our prize is to be defrauded of the subjective enjoyment of Christ—cf. Gen. 15:1; Phil. 3:8.
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Our need is for the subjective Christ to become our enjoyment to complete the divine revelation within us; if we are short in the experience and enjoyment of Christ, we are also short concerning God’s revelation—Col. 1:25-28.
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Whatever we do day by day should remind us of Christ as the reality of that thing; if we follow the practice of taking Christ as the reality of all the material things in our daily life, our daily walk will be revolutionized and transformed, and we will be full of Christ—2 Cor. 4:16; Phil. 1:19-21a.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 11:28-29 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you...and you will find rest for your souls.1 Cor. 10:3 And all ate the same spiritual food.
Christ is not only our life and everything; He is also the reality of every positive thing in the universe. All the physical things that we see, taste, and touch are not real. They are merely figures and shadows, the reality of which is Christ Himself. The food that we eat every day is not real. If we do not have Christ, we are surely hungry and without food.... Christ is the real food for our spirit, our soul, and our body. The Scriptures reveal that man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God and also that Christ Himself is the Word of God (Matt. 4:4; John 1:1)....According to the same principle, we know that Christ is our real life. The physical life that we received from our parents is not the real life. If we do not have Christ, we do not have life; we are just dead people. This is clearly stated in 1 John 5:12, which says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” In His eternal plan God has made Christ to be our real food, our real life, and the reality of all positive things in the universe. (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ,” pp. 157-158)
Today’s Reading
The fact that Christ is everything cannot simply be a doctrine to us; it must be realized in our experience....We need the realization that Christ is our real mind (1 Cor. 2:16).... We may think that we have wisdom, but we have to realize that our wisdom is nothing. Christ is the real wisdom (1:30).... We may have some knowledge, but Christ is the only real knowledge (Col. 2:3)....We may have love, but we have to realize that Christ is the real love (Rom. 8:39; 2 Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:19; 1 Tim. 1:14)....We may think that we have patience, but real patience is Christ Himself (cf. Gal. 5:22)....There is a God, but this God is in Christ....There is man, but this man is in Christ (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:47)....There is a Son, and this Son is Christ....There is life, but only Christ is the real life (John 14:6)....There is light, and this light is Christ Himself (8:12). Every morning when we put on our clothes, do we have the sense that Christ is our real covering and our real clothing (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27)? When we are preparing to lie down on our bed, do we have the realization that Christ is our true rest, our real bed (Matt. 11:28)? When we are on our way home, do we have the feeling that the Lord is our home, our dwelling place (cf. Psa. 90:1; John 15:4)? When we are walking upstairs, do we realize that Christ is our real stairs and that apart from Him we can neither go up nor down (cf. 1:51)? When we are going out of a door, do we tell the Lord, “Lord, You are my door, my entrance and my exit” (10:9)? Do we experience Christ as the reality of all these items? Can we tell the Lord, “Lord, You are my sun, my moon, and my way” (Mal. 4:2; Col. 2:16-17; John 14:6)? Our goal is not merely to understand the Bible according to the printed black and white letters. Rather, we are coming to the living Word of God to gain the deep sense that Christ is everything and to be brought into this experience. This is what God planned in eternity past, and this is what God is doing today. Although very few of the Lord’s children realize this, God’s intention is that Christ would be everything to us. Since this is God’s intention, we must learn the practical way to experience, contact, and apply Christ. (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ,” pp. 158-159)Further Reading: CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ,” chs. 2, 6; CWWL, 1965, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians,” ch. 1