Common Ground

Colossians 2:16-23 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ... If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? As the church was beginning in the years following the resurrection of Jesus, there were many rules that were trying to keep people from being unified in Christ. False religions grew up around Christianity trying to make the follower of Jesus slaves to the rules of their particular cult. These people were putting new rules on the people in the church and demanding that they follow their rules in order to have, not only salvation, but any kind of mystical experience with God. They demanded a strict