Colossians 2
1 I want you to know how hard I'm working for you, and for those at Laodicea—in fact for all those who haven't met me personally—
I want you to know how great is my concern for you and those in Laodicea, even all who have not met me personally,
2 so that you may be encouraged. May you be bound together in love, experiencing the great benefit of being completely sure in your understanding, for this is what the true knowledge of God brings. May you know the revealed mystery of God, which is Christ!
that their hearts may be encouraged, being united in love and into a great wealth of confident understanding, into a real knowledge of the mystery of the God and Father and of the Christ,
3 In him you can discover all the rich wisdom and knowledge of God.
in whom all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge are hidden.
4 I'm telling you this so that no one will fool you by spinning you a tale.
Now I say this so that no one may deceive you with specious arguments.
5 Even though I'm not physically there with you, I'm with you in spirit. I'm so happy to see the way you stick together and how firm you are in your trust in Christ.
For although in fact I am physically absent, yet my spirit is with you, rejoicing as I observe your orderliness and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6 Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, go on following him,
So then, keep on walking in the Christ, Jesus the Sovereign, just as you received Him,
7 grounded in him and built up by him. May your trust in him continue to grow strong, following what you were taught, full of gratitude to God.
having been rooted and being built up in Him and being established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 Watch out that nobody enslaves you through their philosophy and worthless delusions, following human traditions and concepts of this world, and not following Christ.
Be careful that no one captures you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.
9 For the fullness of God's divine nature lives in Christ in bodily form,
Because all the Fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him in bodily form,
10 and you have been made full in him. He is supreme over every ruler and authority.
and you are complete in Him who is the head over all rule and authority.
11 You were “circumcised” in him but not by human hands. You have been set free from sinful human nature by the “circumcision” Christ performed.
In Him you were also ‘circumcised’ by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, not with a circumcision done by hands but with the circumcision of the Christ,
12 You were buried with him in baptism, and you were raised with him through your trust in what God did by raising him from the dead.
having been buried with Him in the baptism. In Him you were also raised together through your faith in the productive power of the God who raised Him from among the dead.
13 And even though you were dead because of your sins and being physically “uncircumcised,” he brought you to life together with him. He has forgiven us all our sins.
Yes you, though being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh—He has made you alive together with Him; having forgiven us all our trespasses;
14 He wiped out the record of our debts according to the Law that was written down against us; he took away this barrier by nailing it to the cross.
having wiped out the written record about us that was against us (based on the ordinances), indeed He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;
15 He stripped away the power of spiritual rulers and authorities, and having publicly revealed what they were truly like, he led them captive behind him in victory.
having stripped the principalities and the authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, having triumphed over them by it [the cross].
16 So don't let anyone criticize you for what you eat or what you drink, or regarding which religious festival, new moon ritual, or ceremonial sabbaths you choose to observe.
So do not let anyone judge you about food or drink, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or Sabbaths,
17 These are just a shadow of what was to come, for the physical reality is Christ.
which things are but a shadow of those to come, while the body is Christ's.
18 Don't let anyone cheat you out of your prize by insisting you have to beat yourself, or worship angels. They think they are better than anyone else because of visions they say they've had, and become ridiculously conceited in their sinful minds.
Nor let anyone disqualify you, taking pleasure in a subservience and devotion to the angels, ‘taking possession’ of things that he has not seen, being puffed up by his carnal mind to no useful purpose,
19 Such people are not connected to the head that directs the body, nourished and joined together through the body's sinews and muscles. As the body is united together it grows the way God wants it to grow.
and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, supported and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
20 If you died with Christ to the religious demands that this world insists upon, why would you make yourself subject to such demands as if you were still part of this world?
Now then, since you died with Christ away from the basic principles of the world, why, as though still living in it, are you subjecting yourselves to regulations
21 Things like: don't handle that, don't taste that, don't touch that!
—Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!—
22 These commands refer to things that don't last since they're used up, and they're based on man-made requirements and teachings.
(all of which result in corruption through overuse) according to the commands and teachings of men?
23 Such rules may make some kind of sense to those who practice self-centered piety, who are so proud of being humble, and who “mortify the body;” but in reality they don't help at all in dealing with sinful desires.
Such things do indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and subservience and asceticism, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
