In Colossians 2:18-19 The apostle Paul said, "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow". Mysticism is the pursuit of a deeper or higher subjective religious experience. It’s the belief that spiritual reality is perceived apart from the mind and the senses. That you can have an immediate experience with the spiritual world apart from the word of God and the Spirit of God. Mysticism comes off as super spiritual. “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility”. These people delighted in their supposed humility which was nothing but pride. The Gnostic would say “I’m not good enough to directly go to God, so I will start with one of the angels”. These are people who will brag about their spirituality— how long they fast, or pray etc. They also engage in “The worship of angels”. The worship of angels was a heresy that plagued the region that Colossae was located for centuries. In A.D. 363 a church synod was held in Colossae’s sister city of Laodicea. It declared “It is not right for Christians to abandon the church of God and go away to involve angels”. The archangel Michael was worshiped in Asia Minor as late as A.D. 739. The Bible forbids the worship of angels. Jesus told Satan, “It is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Matt.4:10). Trying to reach God the Father through anyone or anything other than His Son Jesus Christ is idolatry. There are many Christians today that are drawn away to false teaching because some preacher said he saw an angel or that an angel has been visiting him and giving him revelations. You need to run from anyone who claims spiritual authority or revelation on the basis of his relationship with an angel.
In addition to practicing false humility and worshiping angels, these false teachers were taking their stand on visions they had seen. They claimed support for their teachings by their visions, “Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions”. I've seen many people that follow some preacher because he had a vision or claimed he visited heaven. They come back and tell everything they see or hear, so they didn't see or hear much. Paul went to heaven and when he came back he said it was not permitted for him to tell what he heard.
Are visions, prophecies, gifts of the Spirit scriptural? Of course they are. Peter had visions, Paul had visions and moved in the gifts of the Spirit. Remember you can’t counterfeit something unless it’s real. The danger is when the people moving in these realms are deficient in the Scriptures, they exalt their gifts above the Word of God and become inflated with pride.
When people are claiming to be moving by the Spirit how do you know what you’re seeing is of God? Ask yourself these questions: Do they have Christ-like humility? Do they have sound doctrine? Are they exalting themselves or Jesus? Are they using their gifts to personally profit financially? Remember that Satan can counterfeit the gifts of the Spirit. Christians who have genuine spiritual gifts can fall into error and become deceived. Jesus didn’t say you would identify false prophets by their gifts but by their fruit. Look for Christ-like character and judge everything by the Scriptures. The believers in Colossae were young believers who were looked down upon by these false teachers and were judged deficient because they did not have certain subjective experiences. Paul tells them “Do not let anyone. . . disqualify you for the prize”.
The root of the problem is laid out in verse 19, “He has lost connection with the head, from who the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow”.
1. Spiritual growth comes from union with Christ. “He who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit” (John15:4-5).
2. There is safety in the body of believers around you, challenging, exhorting, encouraging and motivating you to grow in Christ. It is impossible to grow spirituality outside a healthy on-going relationship with a community of believers in a local church.
3. Satan will always try to isolate you, keep you away from the assembly of believers, keep you ignorant of the Scriptures and keep you immature.
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