Colossians 2:20
“If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,”
What does Colossians 2:20 mean?
When you became a Christian, something fundamental shifted in your relationship to the world's rules and systems. Paul is asking the Colossians (and us) a pointed question: if you've already died to the old way of operating, why are you still living as though those old standards matter? He's addressing people who seemed to be adopting strict religious rules about what to eat, drink, or touch, treating these external practices as the path to spiritual maturity. Paul wants them to see the contradiction in claiming new life in Christ while still enslaving themselves to regulations that have no real spiritual power. It's like being freed from prison and then voluntarily walking back into a cell because the lock looks impressive.