< Colossians 2 >
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have had for you, for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
我想让你们知道我是多么的努力工作,为了你们、为了老底嘉的人们,事实上还为那些不曾见过面的人们。
2 I work so that their hearts may be encouraged by being brought together in love and into all the riches of full assurance of understanding, into the knowledge of the secret truth of God, that is, Christ.
我的努力是为了让你们能够受到鼓舞,让你们在爱中彼此联系,可以凭借领悟而感到完全的确信,以此获得巨大的益处,因为这才是上帝带来的真正知识。希望你们知道,上帝显化的奥秘,那就是耶稣!
3 In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
通过耶稣,你们可以发现一切智慧和知识。
4 I say this so that no one may trick you with persuasive speech.
我说这些话,免得有人用花言巧语欺骗你们。
5 Although I am not with you in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit. I rejoice to see your good order and the strength of your faith in Christ.
我的身体虽然没有和你们在一起,灵却与你们同在。很高兴看见团结在一起,坚定地信基督。
6 As you received Christ the Lord, walk in him.
一如你们如何接受基督耶稣为主,就按照这种方式追随他,
7 Be rooted in him, be built on him, be established in faith just as you were taught, and abound in thanksgiving.
以他为根基,以他进行修建。希望你们对他的信能继续变得更强壮,遵循一直向你们教导的,对上帝充满感激。
8 See that no one captures you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, conforming to the elements of the world, and not conforming to Christ.
要小心,不要哪些不遵循基督、而是按照人的传统和世俗言论,皆有其哲学和骗人的空谈,奴役你们。
9 For in him all the fullness of God lives in bodily form.
因为上帝神圣本性,以基督身体的形式完整存在,
10 You have been filled in him, who is the head over every power and authority.
你们也因他而完整。他远远高于所有执政掌权者。
11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by humans in the removal of the body of flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ.
通过它,你们接受了“割礼”,但并非由人手进行,而是通过基督提供的割礼,从人类罪的天性中获得自由。
12 You were buried with him in baptism, and in him you were raised up through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
你们在洗礼中已与他埋葬在一起,也因信上帝将基督从死人中复活的行为,与耶稣一同复活了。
13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him and forgave us all of our trespasses.
尽管你们因罪和肉体未受割礼而死亡,但上帝让你们与基督一起复活,上帝赦免了我们的一切罪。
14 He canceled the written record of debts that stood against us with its regulations. He took it away by nailing it to the cross.
他根据那用于反对我们的律法,抹去了我们的债;他把这障碍钉在十字架上,以此将其移除。
15 He disarmed the powers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them, by being victorious over them by the cross.
他废除了精神统治者和掌权者的权利,将他们的真正的样子公开显示,用胜利彻底征服他们。
16 So then, let no one judge you in eating or in drinking, or about a feast day or a new moon, or about Sabbath days.
所以不要让任何人因你们所选择遵循的饮食、宗教节日、新的拜月仪式或安息日庆祝,而批评你们。
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is Christ.
这些不过是即将到来之事的影子,因为那真正的现实就是基督。
18 Let no one who wants humility and the worship of angels judge you out of your prize. Such a person enters into the things he has seen and becomes puffed up by his fleshly thinking.
不要让人通过欺骗夺去你们的奖赏,他们坚持让你们故作谦卑或敬拜天使。他们说自己曾看到过异像,所以就认为自己好于任何人,他们的有罪思想也变得如此自负,令人可笑。
19 He does not hold on to the head. It is from the head that the whole body throughout its joints and ligaments is supplied and held together; it grows with the growth given by God.
这样的人并没有与自己的头连接,没有用头指导身体,没有通过身体的关节和筋络获得滋养,连接在一起。因为身体是连接在一起的,按照上帝希望它成长的方式成长。
20 If you died together with Christ to the elements of the world, why do you live as obligated to the world:
你们若与基督一同死去,摆脱世俗强加给你们的宗教要求,为什么好像仍然是这个世界的一部分,仍然要受这些要求的摆布,
21 “Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch”?
比如“不可拿、不可尝、不可触”的要求?
22 All these things will perish with use, according to the instructions and teachings of men.
这些要求所指,是一经使用就会坏掉的东西。这些规条是照着人的要求和教训而定。
23 These rules have the wisdom of self-made religion and humility and severity of the body. But they have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
对于那些以自我为中心敬拜之人、故作谦卑之人和“苦修身体”之人,这些规则似乎合情合理。但事实上,它们在应对所有罪恶欲望方面,没有任何帮助。