‘Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility or worshipping of the supernatural messengers, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.'
The Christian life is here thought of as an athletic contest (compare 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 12:1). In order to win the prize everything that could hinder, anything that could ‘slow us down', must be laid aside. By fixing our eyes on anyone or anything other than Christ we will hinder our growth, for He is our Head, the Great Direct Supplier, and He alone can provide that which makes us ‘increase with the increase of God'. To look to intermediaries is to choke the line of contact and thus prevent maximum benefit. And this is true whether of priests, angels, saints or Mary.
‘Let no man rob you of your prize (or ‘give an unfavourable ruling against you').' Paul may have intended us to see Christ as ‘the prize', God's response to our faith. Or it may refer to our failing to achieve our future reward because false humility renders us useless. The verb (there is no separate word for ‘prize') may, however simply mean, ‘give an unfavourable ruling against you', but the consequence is the same.
‘A voluntary humility and worshipping of supernatural messengers.' The word for supernatural messengers is ‘angelos', usually translated ‘angels'. But we must not here think in terms of angels as we see them with our Christian interpretation. It refers to a whole host of supernatural beings, gods, demi-gods, principalities, powers and so on as believed on in the ancient world. The voluntary humility is an attitude of humility that makes a great show of being ‘nothing' in comparison with these supernatural messengers. It ignores what God has said and debases itself to look to lesser things. They choose what they see as the ‘humble' position not realising that this is to insult God.
The argument for intermediaries always seems right to the person who is aware of his sinfulness and yet has not come to an understanding of the wisdom of God revealed in Christ. ‘I am not worthy', he says. But it is a sign of a darkened mind that has not ‘learned Christ'. It demonstrates that he does not understand the free grace of the Gospel. The Gospel is Christ in all His fullness, ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Colossians 1:27), offered to men. To accept anything less robs us of Christ and robs us of our prize. The intermediary will not bring us to Christ but will hide Christ from us.
‘Worshipping.' The particular word denotes the external practise of religion, and is used regularly of false worship.
‘Dwelling in (taking delight in, devoting himself to) the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.' The verb ‘dwelling' is difficult to translate. It has been found in inscriptions as a technical term for certain types of ritual response in the mystery religions. It means ‘to set foot on, enter, visit, go into detail, come into possession of ', thus leading on in context to the translations ‘taking delight in, devoting oneself to, dwelling in'. The idea is partly sarcastic. He takes delight in and is puffed up by what produces his voluntary ‘humility', demonstrating that it is not genuine.
This probably in context refers to visions which so often result in giving prominence to intermediaries (‘angels'). But if those intermediaries seek honour and veneration for themselves then they are false and must be rejected (Revelation 19:10; Revelation 22:8-9). Any true vision from the other world would magnify Christ and turn attention from itself to Him. Those who dwell in visions inevitably go wrong, and lead others astray, for in their pride (often seen by themselves as humility) they magnify the subject of the vision rather than Christ Himself.
Visions are always a problem for the godly person. They do not like to denigrate them and recognise that, rarely, there have been genuine visions. Yet if they are wise they will recognise that visions regularly arise from wrong sources, and are often drug induced or arise from a chemical imbalance in the brain. They are the ‘easy way' to ‘certainty'. There are some whose mental make up is such that they are susceptible to ‘visions'. They ‘see things' that others do not see, especially when they indulge in asceticism (see Colossians 2:23), and are thus inevitably very sincere, but they are experiencing mental aberrations rather than contacting spiritual sources (it comes from their ‘fleshly mind' - compare Romans 8:5-6 - it is the mind controlled by the flesh and pandering to the flesh as opposed to the spiritual mind). So we are right to be wary of them. The general principle must be, if at all in doubt reject them, although treating the visionary gently. In themselves they prove nothing for they can never be substantiated. Personal visions should be retained for personal use. They should never be the foundation for doctrine. That is why Jesus stressed that He referred to what He had actually seen (John 3:11; John 3:32; John 8:38).