What Does Colossians 2:16 Mean?
Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in the portion of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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:THE KEY
The verse removes another person’s authority to make your food and sacred days a verdict on your standing.
THE MEANING
Your standing is not settled by someone else’s judgment of what you eat or drink, or which days you observe. The verse names these judgments and denies them authority to define you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that someone else’s criticism of your food or calendar proves you are unfaithful loses its force here.
THE ROOT
κρινέτω
krinetō
GROWS FROM
κριν-
The Greek stem κριν- means to separate, decide, or judge.
The verb κρινέτω (krinetō, “let someone judge”) comes from κριν- (krin-, “separate, decide”). Its word family holds deciding and distinguishing together, so the verse addresses another person’s verdict over these observances without erasing the broader capacity to discern.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, a decision
κρίσις
This noun makes the verdict dimension of judging visible: the verse refuses others authority to decide what your observances mean about you.
kritēs: judge, one who decides
κριτής
This word names the person who gives the verdict, bringing the verse’s focus onto who claims authority to judge you.
diakrinō: distinguish, discern, judge
διακρίνω
This compound retains the κριν- stem and shows how judging can involve making distinctions, the very act another person applies to your food and sacred days.
THE PATTERN
Human evaluation of outward practices does not determine the standing God recognizes.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.Judge not, that you be not judged.Let not the one who eats make nothing of the one who does not eat, and let not the one who does not eat judge the one who eats, for God has taken him in.THE THREAD
Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will be held upright, for God is able to make him stand.Romans 14:4 uses the same Greek word family, κρίνω (krinō, “to judge”), and asks who has authority to decide another servant’s standing. Colossians names food and sacred days; Romans makes clear that the servant stands before their own master.
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