Colossians 2
1 For I would have you know what a great conflict I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen me in person:
For I would have you know how great a contest I am waging for you and the brethren in Laodicea, and for all who have never seen my face.
2 that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and to all the riches of a full assurance of understanding in these things, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of our God and Father, and of Christ:
May their hearts be comforted! May they be knit together in love! May they gain in all its riches the full assurance of their understanding! May they come to a perfect knowledge of the secret truth of God, which is Christ himself.
3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!
4 And this I say, least any one should deceive you with fine speeches.
And this I say, lest any one should mislead you with enticing words.
5 For though I be absent in body, yet am I with you in spirit, rejoicing and beholding your regularity, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
For though I am absent from you in body, I am with you in spirit, happy to note your discipline and the solid front of your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him;
As then you have received Jesus Christ, your Lord, in him live your lives;
7 rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught it, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
since you are rooted in him, and in him continually built up. Be firmly established in the faith as you were taught it, and continually abound in it with thanksgiving.
8 Take heed least any one make a prey of you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ:
Take care lest any man drag you away captive by his philosophy which is a vain deceit, following the traditions of men and the world’s crude notions, and not Christ.
9 for all the fulness of the deity dwelleth personally in Him.
For it is in Christ that all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,
10 And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
and in him you have your fulness, and he is the Lord of all the principalities and powers.
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision not performed by hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision which is of Christ:
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands; even in putting off your sensual nature in Christ’s own circumcision,
12 being buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are raised together with Him, through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
when you were buried with him in baptism. In baptism also you were raised with him, through your faith in the energy of that God who raised him from the dead.
13 And when ye were dead in trespasses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
And you also, at one time dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sensual nature, he has made alive together with himself. For he forgave us all our transgressions,
14 and cancelled the obligation we were under by ritual decrees, which was grievous to us, and hath taken it quite away, even nailing it to his cross.
blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that stood against us and was hostile to us, and took it out of our way, nailing it to his cross.
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made them an open spectacle, triumphing over them by it.
Principalities and powers he disarmed, and openly displayed them as his trophies, when he triumphed over them in the cross.
16 Let no one therefore judge you on account of meat, or drink, or in respect of a feast, or a new-moon, or sabbaths;
Therefore do not permit any one to sit in judgment on you in regard to what you may eat or drink, or in regard to feast-days or new moons or sabbaths.
17 which are a shadow of good things to come, but the body is of Christ.
These were a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one deprive you of your reward by an affected humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into what he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his carnal mind;
Let no man at his will defraud you of your prize through his false humility and worship of the angels, taking his stand on the visions he has seen, and vainly puffed up by his material mind;
19 and not adhering to the head, from which all the body, being supplied and held together as by joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.
instead of keeping connection with the Head from the whole body draws nourishment for all its needs by the joints which bind it; and is knit together, and grows with a divine growth.
20 If therefore ye be dead with Christ from the elements of the world; why, as if living in the world, are ye subject to ceremonial ordinances,
If you died with Christ to the world’s rudimentary notions, why, as if you still lived in the world, do you submit yourselves to dogmatisms found on teachings and doctrines of men -
21 (such as "touch not, taste not,
such as "Do not handle this," "You must not taste that," "Do not touch this" -
22 handle not," which all tend to corruption in the using, ) according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
all things which are intended to perish in the using?
23 which things indeed have a pretence to wisdom in voluntary worship, and humiliation, and bodily penance, as having no regard to the satisfying of the flesh.
For these precepts, although they have a show of wisdom with their self-imposed devotions and fastings and bodily austerities, are of no real value against the indulgence of the carnal appetites.
