Spiritual Olympics Qualification

With the Olympic Games currently taking place in Paris, I was thinking about all the athletics analogies Paul uses in his epistles. The first Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece, in 776 B.C.E. and Paul is well acquainted with athletic events. For instance, he describes our lives in Christ like running a race (e.g., Heb. 12:1).

Sometimes an Olympian gets disqualified from their event. Can you imagine what that would be like? You’ve spent years training only to be disqualified. But it always happens for a reason. For instance, badminton players from South Korea, China, and Indonesia, were disqualified during the London games of 2012 for deliberately trying to lose matches in order to land a more favorable draw in the next round.

Taking disqualification to a spiritual level, can that ever happen with brothers and sisters in Christ? Paul thinks so because he uses the word katabrabeuo in his letter to the Colossians to warn about just that eventuality. The word katabrabeuo has the idea of the ruling of an umpire or referee in an athletic contest. So, who do you think is doing the refereeing?

If you thought it was God, or Christ, in the context Paul uses the word, you’d be wrong. Maybe you think that Christ, who will come to judge the world in righteousness, will act as an umpire or referee in weighing up our actions in the grand arena of life. But that’s not how Paul uses the word. Here’s the verse in question:

“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind” (Col. 2:18)

In the context Paul talks about people who were teaching things contrary to the gospel, or in addition to the gospel. A couple of verses earlier he says a similar thing, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” (v16). Later, he asks why they “submit to regulations—'Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’” (v21).

What was happening in Colossae was there were some who were making up their own rules instead of relying on the message of the gospel. And if you didn’t keep those rules you were threatened with disqualification. That would produce an arena of division as the brothers and sisters in Colossae failed to play together as a team, with some keeping these man-made rules and others disqualified 

Paul uses the related word brabeuo in the next chapter. The TDNT says of brabeuo, “this word refers originally to the activity of the umpire… whose office at the games is to direct, arbitrate and decide the contest.” This time Paul talks about umpiring in a positive sense. Here’s the verse with brabeuo translated “rule”:

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Col. 3:15)

In contrast to being disqualified the umpiring that goes on in our lives if we’re heeding the gospel message is the peace of Christ. Peace speaks of reconciliation and fellowship – of being one body as Paul says here. Earlier Paul wrote we should be “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (v13). Instead of disqualifying one another for failing to keep up with our particular standards we have the recipe here for true spiritual union and working together as a team. What rules in our hearts is the peace of Christ – the knowledge that in Christ God is our loving father and Christ is the captain of our team. And, as Paul says elsewhere, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect” and “Who is to condemn” (Rom. 8:33-34). The answer is – not God and not Christ. It’s only when we start disqualifying one another that we destroy the work of God in our lives. So, let the peace of Christ do the umpiring in your life and know that if we do that we shall run the race together and reach the finishing line as a united team.