Colossians 2
1 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,
For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
2 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.
that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Messiah,
3 In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up, hidden from view.
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
4 I say this to prevent your being misled by any one's plausible sophistry.
Now I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive words.
5 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.
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Messiah.
6 As therefore you have received the Christ, even Jesus our Lord, live and act in vital union with Him;
As therefore you received Messiah Yeshua, the Lord, walk in him,
7 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.
rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 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.
Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty and deceptive philosophy, according to human tradition, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Messiah.
9 For it is in Christ that the fulness of God's nature dwells embodied, and in Him you are made complete,
For in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and He is the Lord of all princes and rulers.
and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not performed by hand, when you threw off your sinful nature in true Christian circumcision;
in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Messiah;
12 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.
having been buried with him in immersion, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 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.
You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 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.
wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
15 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.
having disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 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.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you about food and drink, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
17 These were a shadow of things that were soon to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Messiah's.
18 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.
Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 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.
and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God's growth.
20 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
If you died with Messiah from the elementary principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21 "Do not handle this;" "Do not taste that;" "Do not touch that other thing" --
"Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch"
22 referring to things which are all intended to be used up and perish--in obedience to mere human injunctions and teachings?
(all of which perish with use), according to human commandments and teachings?
23 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.
Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
