Verse 20
If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?
The rudiments of the world ... has reference to the forms, shadows and ceremonial ordinances of Judaism. See comment on this under Colossians 2:14.
As though living in the world ... A Christian is committed to a different life-style, in which the value-judgments of the world are rejected; and for a Christian to undertake all the ceremonies of Judaism, such would be diametrically opposed to his new life in Christ.
Why ... subject ... to ordinances ... ? The ordinances here have no reference whatever to the great ordinances of the Christian religion, such as baptism and the Lord's Supper, the obligation to keep which lies squarely upon all who ever hope to be saved. The ordinances which the Colossians were admonished to leave off were the Jewish ordinances like those mentioned in Colossians 2:16. The blindness, or perversity, or both which leads some commentators to read this verse as applicable to the Christian ordinances is most deplorable, and traceable, as to its cause, to the great Reformation heresy of salvation by faith alone. May God open the eyes of Bible students. An example of the kind of ordinances Paul meant was immediately given in the next verse.
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