What is will worship and humility?

[Ghada]

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary (willful) humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, (Col 2)

And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. (1 Cor 14)

We see a Bible difference between kinds of worship and humility. One is false idolatry of angels and the other is worship of the true God.

One is willful and 'voluntary' like a planned performance, while the other is more spontaneous and sincere. One gives glory to God, while the gives glory to angels, and appears to glorify it's own performance.

One is from a carnal fleshly mind, and the other is the work of the Spirit within the heart.

The Bible also makes a difference between the godly sorrow that works repentance from the heart, and the worldly sorrow that only works death. (2 Cor 7) This coincides with the two different kinds of humility and worship we see in Col 2 and 1 Cor 14: One produces repentance unto salvation by God, while the other only produces a kind of idolatrous death of the spirit and soul.

The context of Col 2, the results are from deceitful traditions of religion, philosophy, and mysticism of man, while 1 Cor 14 is from preaching and prophesying God's word and gospel.

And so, we are seeing a difference between worship and humility that is made by the devil, that man voluntarily participates in. The form of it is more mechanical and deceptive in nature and appearance, vs that of God which is obviously unplanned, true, and thus spiritually productive for the good of the soul and spirit.

We are obviously seeing a practical difference in matters of worship, humility, and practical results between man's own made up and routine religion vs God's spontaneous pure religion: One remains carnal minded from an insincere heart, which only produces more ungodly living,

But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

While the other is spiritual with an honest heart, that produces the good fruit of righteousness.

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

And so we see what willful worship and humility is, as compared to worshipping God in the Spirit.

What therefore are the specifics of the tradition, philosophy, and mysticism of angels in Col 2, that is believed and practiced by some? And it threatens to corrupt the true worship of God among others, and turn their worship and humility into the phony and practiced displays of carnal men and women?

 

[Ghada]

Col 2 is not addressing lukewarmness that can creep into a long-term religious faithfulness. The warning is specifically about certain teachings and ideologies, that have a near instant affect on our worship and humility. Our hearts and minds are changed being honest in our faith toward God, to a corrupted heart with willful loyalties toward false traditions, philosophies, and mysticism of man.

There is a difference between faith from the heart and loyalty. Loyalty is willful in nature, and even sometimes voluntarily forced, so as not to offend the object of loyalty, rather than having any love with whole hearted agreement.

The source of the corrupting teachings has something to do with the 'rudiments' of the world, which are being taught for the word of Christ Jesus:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men?

They are connected to worldly ordinances made by men's commandments alone, that are injected into the NT law of Christ. (NT kind of Pharisees of course come to mind)

What we first see is a clear difference in manner of life by faith in God's word vs. loyalty to leadership commandments. The result is vain worship and corrupted humility, that are not by the Spirit from the heart, but a more forced and compulsive allegiance to church leaders. (Sabbath commandment comes to mind)

There is less of a right to walk with Christ in white, and more of a right to be counted a 'proper' member of a local church. There is no doubt some amount of this among any church, and in fact we are commanded to keep the same rule among us.

However, what we are warned about in Col 2 is obviously a complete corruption of such honest church discipline, that can destroy the very worship and humbleness of the faithful believers.

And so, the moral of the story so far, is to beware of allowing a good rule of outward unity, to be turned into a cult like loyalty to what men's say, rather than what God says.

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

At this point, a worshipping of angels rather than God could well apply angelically great messengers of God. They become more interested in obedience to their own brand of Christian church law, than strictly that of Christ. Their own personal ministry and leadership supplants the Bible's ministry of Christ, as well as the Head of the body Jesus Christ.

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Paul is warning the Christian believers not to be decieved by unbiblical doctrine and seduced by corrupted leadership, who become defacto more a head over the local body, than Jesus Christ Himself. The sincere believers begin to think and act like they are not complete in Christ, if not completely loyal to the local 'Pastor'.

They must be complete in Christ and the Pastor, in order to be 'completely' in Christ Jesus. (Certain cult organizations readily come to mind. Any dissent with their leadership and ministry is immediately cut off as unbelief in God and His word. The offender also becomes cut off without repentance, extending even to their own family.)