Freedom From Human Rules

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you^(A) by what you eat or drink,^(B) or with regard to a religious festival,^(C) a New Moon celebration^(D) or a Sabbath day.^{(E) 17} These are a shadow of the things that were to come;^(F) the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(G) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(H) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head,^(I) from whom the whole body,^(J) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(K)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(L) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(M) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(N) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(O) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^{(P) 23} Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(Q) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath^(A)(B)

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain^(C) and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”^(D)

³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?^{(E) 4} He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.^{(F) 5} Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath^(G) and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.^{(H) 7} If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’^[a](I) you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man^(J) is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁹ Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, ¹⁰ and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus,^(K) they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”^(L)

¹¹ He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?^{(M) 12} How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!^(N) Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

¹³ Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. ¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.^(O)