Colossians 2:18-19

1. Are there things that people have said, or things that people have insisted you should do or experience if you are a true believer, that have made you question your Christianity or your closeness to God? What is your assurance that you haven’t been disqualified? (Romans 10:9-10; Colossians 1:11-14)

2. Fasting is a good practice; Jesus even said, “when you fast.” But at what point do you think fasting becomes asceticism? What is the difference between asceticism and Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 9:27: “I discipline (pummel) my body and keep it under control”? (Consider the surrounding verses 19-27).

3. If we are to understand ‘worship of angels’ to mean an individual who engages in heavenly worship and enters into heavenly realms through visions, how can insisting on this practice be dangerous for a church? How could teaching that all Christians should have visions, which are as much a revelation from God as Scripture, be dangerous? (Galatians 1:8-9; Consider Jeremiah 23:16-17 & 28-32).

4. Read 1 John 4:1-6. How does this passage give us guidance and wisdom in determining if someone’s teaching (or supposed vision or prophecy) is correct?

5. This false teacher is claiming spiritual superiority, yet how does their conduct display their spiritual immaturity? (Consider James 3:17-18, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Galatians 5:22-26). According to verse 19, what has caused this immaturity, and what will help us grow in Christian maturity?