Please can you explain Colossians 2:14-17, where it's says "do not let anyone judge you"?
Col 2:14 (KJV) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Answer:
From the context, this appears to be a warning to the gentile Christians regarding the Jewish Christians trying to incorporate Mosaic Law into the Gospel Message. We see the same problem in Acts 15 where the Jewish Christians were telling the gentiles they must be circumcised in order to be saved. In Acts 15:24 the apostles say they issued no such commandment.
Here in Colossians, the warning covers a more broad spectrum of the law which was being forced upon the gentile converts. Paul is saying that Jesus blotted out the ordinances (mosaic law) which did nothing but condemn Jews because no man could keep the law. Jesus nailed the law to the cross because He (a perfect man) fulfilled the law and thus freed mankind from the condemnation of the law. Therefore let no man judge you (in regard to your status as a Christian) by placing the burden of the Mosaic law (with its food restrictions, holy days, keeping of sabbaths, etc.) upon those who accept Christ and become part of His body.
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Through faith in Christ, we are saved. Jesus boiled down the entire law into two commandments: love the LORD thy GOD will all thy heart and love thy neighbor as thyself (Matt 27:37-39). Any requirements to keep the Mosaic Law are not placed on followers of Jesus by Jesus.
