Colossians 2
1 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face,
I want you to know in how great a struggle I am engaged for you and for Christ’s people at Laodicea, and for all who have not yet seen me;
2 that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
in the hope that they, being bound to one another by love, and keeping in view the full blessedness of a firm conviction, may be encouraged to strive for a perfect knowledge of God’s hidden truth,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
even Christ himself, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden.
4 I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.
I say this to prevent anyone from deceiving you by plausible arguments.
5 For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.
It is true that I am not with you in person, but I am with you in spirit, and am glad to see the good order and the unbroken front resulting from your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,
Since, therefore, you have received Jesus, the Christ, as your Lord, live your lives in union with him –
7 rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
rooted in him, building up your characters through union with him, growing stronger through your faith, as you were taught, overflowing with faith and thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
Take care that there is not someone who will carry you away by his ‘philosophy’ – a hollow sham! – following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.
For in Christ the Godhead in all its fulness dwells incarnate;
10 And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
and, by your union with him, you also are filled with it. He is the head of all archangels and powers of heaven.
11 In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
By your union with him you received a circumcision that was not performed by human hands, when you threw off the tyranny of the earthly body, and received the circumcision of the Christ.
12 And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
For in baptism you were buried with Christ; and in baptism you were also raised to life with him, through your faith in the omnipotence of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
And to you, who once were dead, by reason of your sins and your uncircumcised nature – to you God gave life in giving life to Christ! He pardoned all our sins!
14 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
He canceled the bond which stood against us – the bond that consisted of ordinances – and which was directly hostile to us! He has taken it out of our way by nailing it to the cross!
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
He rid himself of all the powers of evil, and held them up to open contempt, when he celebrated his triumph over them on the cross!
16 Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
Do not, then, allow anyone to take you to task on questions of eating or drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly or weekly festivals.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.
These things are only the shadow of what is to come; the substance is in the Christ.
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.
Do not let anyone defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called ‘humility’ and angel-worship. Such a person busies themselves with their visions, and without reason are rendered conceited by their merely human intellect.
19 He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
They fail to maintain union with the head, to whom it is due that the whole body, nourished and knit together by the contact and connexion of every part, grows with a divine growth.
20 If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as if you still belonged to the world,
21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?
to such ordinances as ‘Do not handle, or taste, or touch’?
22 These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.
23 Such restrictions indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-prescribed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body; but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called ‘humility,’ and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.
