歌羅西書 2
1 我實願意你們知道：我為你們和那些在勞狄克雅以及所有末曾親眼看見過我的人，作如何的奮門，
For I would have you know in how severe a struggle I am engaged on behalf of you and the brethren in Laodicea and of all who have not known me personally,
2 為使他們的心受到鼓勵，使他們在愛內互相連結，充分的得到真知灼見，能認識天主的奧秘──基督，
in order that their hearts may be cheered, they themselves being welded together in love and enjoying all the advantages of a reasonable certainty, till at last they attain the full knowledge of God's truth, which is Christ Himself.
3 因為在祂內蘊藏著智慧和知識的一切寶藏。
In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up, hidden from view.
4 我說這話，免得有人以巧言花語欺騙你們。
I say this to prevent your being misled by any one's plausible sophistry.
5 我肉身雖然不在你們那裏，但心靈卻與你們同在，高興見到你們生活的秩序，和你們對基督的堅定信仰。
For although, as you say, I am absent from you in body, yet in spirit I am present with you and am delighted to witness your good discipline and the solid front presented by your faith in Christ.
6 你們既然接受了基督耶穌為主，就該在祂內行動生活，
As therefore you have received the Christ, even Jesus our Lord, live and act in vital union with Him;
7 在祂內生根修建，堅定於你們所學得的信德，滿懷感恩之情。
having the roots of your being firmly planted in Him, and continually building yourselves up in Him, and always being increasingly confirmed in the faith as you were taught it, and abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 你們要小心，免得有人以哲學，以虛偽的妄這，按照人的傳授，依據世俗的原理，而不是依據基督，把你們勾引了去。
Take care lest there be some one who leads you away as prisoners by means of his philosophy and idle fancies, following human traditions and the world's crude notions instead of following Christ.
9 因為是在基督，內真實地住有整個圓滿的天主性，你們也是在祂內得到豐滿。
For it is in Christ that the fulness of God's nature dwells embodied, and in Him you are made complete,
10 祂是一切率領者和掌權者的元首，
and He is the Lord of all princes and rulers.
11 你們也是在祂內受了割損，但不是人手所受的割損，而是基督的割損，在乎脫去肉慾之身。
In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not performed by hand, when you threw off your sinful nature in true Christian circumcision;
12 你們既因聖洗與祂一同埋葬了，也就因聖洗，藉著信德，即信祂由死者中復活的天主的能力，與祂一同復活了。
having been buried with Him in your baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith produced within you by God who raised Him from among the dead.
13 你們從前因了你們的過犯和未受割損的肉身，原是死的；但天主卻使你們與基督一同生活，赦免了我們的一切過犯：
And to you--dead as you once were in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your natural state--He has nevertheless given Life with Himself, having forgiven us all our transgressions.
14 塗抹了那相反我們，告發我們對誡命負債的債卷，把它從中除去，將它釘在十字架上；
The bond, with its requirements, which was in force against us and was hostile to us, He cancelled, and cleared it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross.
15 解了率領和掌權者的武裝，把他們公然示眾，仗賴十字架，帶著他們舉行凱旋的儀式。
And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by the Cross He triumphed over them.
16 為此，不要讓任何人在飲食上，或在節期或月朔或安息日等事上，對你們有所規定。
Therefore suffer no one to sit in judgement on you as to eating or drinking or with regard to a festival, a new moon or a sabbath.
17 這一切原是末來事物的陰影，至於實體乃是基督。
These were a shadow of things that were soon to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
18 不可讓那甘願自卑而敬拜天使的人，奪去你們的獎品，這種人只探究所見的幻象，因自己的血肉之見，妄自尊大，
Let no one defraud you of your prize, priding himself on his humility and on his worship of the angels, and taking his stand on the visions he has seen, and idly puffed up with his unspiritual thoughts.
19 而不願與頭相連接；其實由於頭，全身才能賴關接和脈絡獲得滋養而互相連接，藉天主所賜的生長力而生長。
Such a one does not keep his hold upon Christ, the Head, from whom the Body, in all its parts nourished and strengthened by its points of contact and its connections, grows with a divine growth.
20 既然你們與基督已同死於世的原理，為什麼還如生活在世俗中一樣，受人指點
If you have died with Christ and have escaped from the world's rudimentary notions, why, as though your life still belonged to the world, do you submit to such precepts as
21 ：「不可，不可嘗，不可摸，」
"Do not handle this;" "Do not taste that;" "Do not touch that other thing" --
22 拘泥於人的規定和教訓呢﹖──其實這一切一經使用，便敗壞了。
referring to things which are all intended to be used up and perish--in obedience to mere human injunctions and teachings?
23 這些教規既基於隨從私意的敬禮、謙卑和克己，徒有智慧之名，並沒有什麼價值，只為滿足肉慾而已。
These rules have indeed an appearance of wisdom where self-imposed worship exists, and an affectation of humility and an ascetic severity. But not one of them is of any value in combating the indulgence of our lower natures.
