Short answer: The passage does not address Lent, which is a later voluntary practice, so it cannot be read as a direct verdict on missing a Lenten commitment. What it does say is that no one may judge a believer over eating, drinking, feast days, new moons, or Sabbaths, because God has wiped out the record of debt against us and triumphed over the hostile powers in the cross. Those observances are called a shadow, and the body belongs to Christ. So the passage rules out making any such practice the basis of your standing before God, and it turns your attention from the practice to the one it points to.
What Paul is actually arguing in Colossians 2:16-17
Colossians is a letter, and this paragraph sits inside an argument, not on its own. Paul writes to a congregation he did not plant, in a city in Asia Minor, and he is protecting them from teachers who treated ascetic rules and religious calendars as the measure of spiritual maturity. Notice the shape of the sentence: verses 14 and 15 state what God has already done, and verses 16 and 17 draw the conclusion. The commands about judging and eating rest on a finished victory, not on a fresh set of regulations. Paul is correcting and shielding a pressured church, not speculating about religious practice in general.
The ground comes first. Paul pictures a written record of debt against us, wiped out and taken away, nailed to the cross. He then pictures the hostile powers stripped and publicly displayed, defeated in that same event. Only after that does he say, in effect, therefore let no one judge you. The dietary and calendrical matters in 2:16 are named as examples of what was being pressed on the congregation. Paul's point is not that these things are wicked, but that they cannot function as the test of belonging once the debt is cancelled and the accuser is disarmed.
Then 2:18 turns to a related danger. False humility and angel worship, coupled with dwelling on what the person has not seen, pull believers away from holding firmly to the Head. Verse 19 completes the thought: the whole body grows from Christ, supplied and knit together. That closing image shows what worries Paul. The issue is attachment to the Head, not merely external behavior. Read this way, the passage addresses teachers who made extra requirements a mark of maturity. It does not tell a sincere believer that a missed devotional commitment is unrepentant sin, and it offers no comfort to someone avoiding repentance.
What the words of Colossians 2:16-17 actually say
Start with the word therefore. Paul has just described God wiping out a written record of debt, nailing it to the cross, and disarming the powers that stood against us (2:14–15). The command not to judge rests on that finished work. So the freedom in view is purchased, not self-declared. No one in Colossians is claiming a right to skip a religious observance; they are being told their standing does not hang on the observance because Christ has already settled the account. That distinction matters for anyone asking about Lent. The question is not whether you are free to invent your own terms, but whether you are resting in what God has already done.
Now the terms. The phrase handwriting in ordinances pictures a written certificate of debt, an IOU that stood against us. Paul says God removed it, not that he overlooked it. That is stronger than forgiveness as mere forgetting; the debt itself was taken out of the way. Then judge: the word means passing a verdict on someone's standing before God, not offering an opinion about their habits. The false teachers were doing exactly that, measuring people by food, drink, festivals, new moons and Sabbaths. Paul's answer is not that such practices are wicked, but that they cannot function as the basis on which anyone's standing is decided.
Finally, shadow and body. A shadow is a preliminary outline; it points to something solid but is not the thing itself. Paul says the observances were a shadow of what was coming, and then states plainly that the body is Christ's. The reality belongs to him. Notice what this does not say. It does not say the shadow was worthless, and it does not say that keeping a fast or a season is sin. It says the shadow cannot bear the weight of your standing. A believer who keeps Lent sincerely is not rebuked here; a person using religious practice to dodge repentance is not comforted here either. The passage presses one question: where is your confidence resting?
Why the shadow cannot judge you
Start with the ground Paul has just laid. In 2:14–15 he describes a record of debt wiped out, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross, and hostile powers stripped and publicly displayed in triumph. Only then does he say, in 2:16, that no one may judge believers about eating, drinking, a feast, a new moon, or a Sabbath. The commands are not a fresh rulebook; they are the outflow of a finished victory. The question at stake is who has the right to rule on a person's standing before God, and the answer given is the one who triumphed at the cross.
The reason follows in 2:17: these observances are a shadow, and the body belongs to Christ. A shadow is real and can be useful, but it is not the thing itself, and no one is condemned for failing to grasp a shadow more tightly. Notice what the passage does and does not claim. It rules out treating food, drink and calendar practices as the basis on which a believer is judged. It does not say the practices are wicked, and it does not address whether someone has broken a voluntary Lenten commitment. That is a different question, and this text should not be stretched to answer it.
Verse 18 shows where the danger actually lies: a self-imposed humility and angel worship that pull people away from holding firmly to the Head, and 2:19 completes the thought with a body that grows only as it is supplied from Christ. The concern is attachment to the Head, not merely external behavior. So the passage gives no comfort to someone using liberty to excuse unrepentant sin, and no ground for shaming a believer who keeps Lent sincerely. It turns attention from the practice to the one the practice points to.
Where readers differ on the calendar and the conscience
Careful readers part company over how far the freedom of Colossians 2:16 reaches. Some take the list of a feast day, a new moon and a Sabbath as the old covenant calendar, now fulfilled in Christ, so the verse settles Jewish observances and nothing more. Others see a wider principle: if God no longer judges a believer by days, then no later church calendar can bind the conscience either. Both readings have weight. Notice what Paul actually does. He forbids judgment over these practices; he does not command them and does not forbid them. The verse sets a limit on human verdicts, not a rule for or against any Lenten fast.
That distinction matters for the question at hand. A Christian who keeps Lent with a sincere heart is not rebuked by this text, and a Christian who skips it is not condemned by it. Paul's concern in 2:18 runs elsewhere, toward self-abasement and inflated claims to spiritual insight, so some readers worry that any fixed observance drifts toward the posture he warns against. That is a wisdom concern, not a verdict the passage pronounces. The text attaches no guilt to a missed devotional commitment, and it offers no cover to anyone treating unrepentant sin as a small thing.
What stays central across these readings is stated plainly in 2:17: the observances are a shadow, and the body belongs to Christ. No calendar earns standing before God, and no one may use a calendar to condemn a believer. So the disagreement is real but bounded. Readers may differ on how far verse 16 extends without either side turning a shadow into a savior. The test is whether a practice points a person to Christ or quietly replaces him, and whether it produces humility or the puffed-up confidence Paul describes.
The shadow, the body, and the head who supplies life
Paul does not argue for or against Lent here. He argues from what God has already done. Two verses earlier he pictures a written debt against us, taken away and nailed to the cross, and hostile powers stripped and publicly triumphed over in that same cross. So when he says in 2:16 that no one should judge you over eating, drinking, festivals, new moons or Sabbaths, the freedom he describes is purchased, not self-made. The observances are not dismissed as worthless. They are called a shadow, and a shadow is not a lie; it is a real shape cast by something solid. The question Paul presses is whether you are still treating the shadow as the thing itself.
That is why 2:17 ends as it does: the shadow belongs to things to come, and the body belongs to Christ. A shadow has no substance of its own; it points away from itself. If a Lenten fast, an abstention from meat, or a set of extra services helps you look toward Christ, it is doing shadow work, and that is honest work. But the moment the practice itself becomes the measure of your standing, the shadow has been asked to carry weight only the body can carry. The gospel does not tell you to despise the sign. It tells you where the sign leads and who fulfills it.
Paul then turns from the calendar to the community. In 2:18–19 he warns against a religion that looks humble, talks about what it claims to have seen, and yet does not hold firmly to the Head. That is the test, and it cuts both ways. If you keep Lent sincerely, this passage is not a rebuke; it is an invitation to keep pressing past the practice to the person. And if your struggle is not a missed devotion but unrepentant sin, no observance will cover it and no omission will excuse it. The body grows only from the Head, supplied and knit together by him. Life comes from Christ, not from the discipline that points to him.
What failing a lenten commitment actually means
Read Colossians 2:16–17 before you decide what a missed commitment says about you. Paul has just described a record of debt wiped out and nailed to the cross, and a public triumph over the powers. Only then does he say, "Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day" (Colossians 2:16). The practices he names are real and were commanded for a time. His point is that they are a shadow, and the substance belongs to Christ. A Lenten fast is not one of those Old Testament institutions, but the logic holds: the practice points beyond itself.
If you chose a fast or discipline, its value lies in directing attention to Christ, not in securing a verdict about you. When you fail, the passage does not send you to make satisfaction. It sends you back to the record already taken out of the way. So keep the practice or drop it with a clear conscience, and refuse both errors: do not judge a believer who keeps Lent differently, and do not let anyone judge you by it. Grace is the ground of any obedience. Scripture promises no particular outcome from a season of fasting, and the text will not carry that weight.
One caution cuts both ways. This passage is not a shield for unrepentant sin. A missed devotional commitment is not the same as a pattern of disobedience someone is protecting. If that is the real struggle, the answer is repentance, not reassurance. Nor should these verses be used to shame believers who keep Lent sincerely and find it helps them pray. The body grows from the Head, and the Head is Christ, not the calendar. Examine the practice honestly, hold it loosely, and let the cross, not your record, settle where you stand.
Biblical fidelity check
Read closely, Colossians 2:16–17 hangs on the word therefore: because God wiped out the record of debt and triumphed over the powers, no one may pass a verdict on a believer's standing over food, drink, festivals, new moons or Sabbaths. The risk here is to lift verse 16 loose from the cross and treat it as a bare slogan of freedom, or to hear judge as mere opinion rather than a verdict on standing. The shadow and body contrast is a preliminary outline against the reality that casts it, and the text says the body belongs to Christ.
Evangelical readers differ over how far that freedom reaches. Some take the list as the old covenant calendar fulfilled in Christ; others see a wider principle covering later church calendars and voluntary seasons. Some say Paul rejects judgment over such practices, not the practices, so a Lenten discipline may be kept freely; others worry fixed observance drifts toward the self-abasement of 2:18. The passage neither commands nor forbids a Lenten fast, and it attaches no guilt to skipping one. What stays central is that Christ is the substance, no observance earns standing before God, and none may be used to condemn a believer.
Studies that take up Colossians 2:16-17 from another angle
For a fuller picture, compare the surrounding argument in Colossians 2:14–15 with Paul's treatment of conscience and freedom in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, then consider how Hebrews 10:1 speaks of the law as a shadow Colossians 1: Paul's Prayer and Christ's Supremacy. Further study could trace the Old Testament feast calendar in Leviticus 23 Colossians 2: Fullness and Freedom in Christ, the place of Sabbath in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8–11 Colossians 4: Prayer, Speech, and Greetings, and Jesus' own teaching on fasting in Matthew 6:16–18 What Does Colossians 1:23 Mean?.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Bible require Christians to observe Lent?
No, this passage does not require Christians to observe Lent, and it does not mention it. Paul tells the Colossians to let no one judge them over eating, drinking, feast days, new moons, or Sabbaths, since those things were a shadow of what was coming, and the substance belongs to Christ. Lent is a later church practice, not a command in this text, so observing it can be a free choice rather than an obligation. What stays central is Christ himself, not the calendar.
What does Paul mean when he says the Sabbath and festivals are a shadow of things to come?
A shadow is not the thing itself but the outline cast ahead of it, so the feast days, new moons and Sabbaths sketched in advance what Christ would bring. Paul tells the Colossians not to let anyone judge them over these observances, because the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ. The days were never the destination; they pointed forward to him. So the shadow has served its purpose now that the substance has come, and the center stays Christ himself.
When I break a commitment I made to God, how should I respond?
Look first at the cross, where the record against us was taken out of the way, and let no one judge you on eating, drinking, feast days, new moons or Sabbaths. In Colossians 2:16–17 those observances are called a shadow of things to come, while the body belongs to Christ, so a broken commitment does not cancel your standing in him. Examine what you promised honestly, confess any sin, and make amends where you can. Then rest in Christ rather than in the calendar you kept or failed to keep.
