Colossians 2

¹For 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,

²that 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,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.

⁵For 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.

⁶Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,

⁷rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸See 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.

⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.

¹⁰And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

¹¹In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.

¹²And 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.

¹³When 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,

¹⁴having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!

¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁶Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.

¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Do 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.

¹⁹He 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.

²⁰If 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:

²¹“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?

²²These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

²³Such 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.

Colossians 2

¹For I wish you to know how great a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

²that their hearts may be comforted, being united in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the full knowledge of the secret of the God and Father, and of the Christ,

³in whom are all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge hid,

⁴and this I say, that no one may beguile you in enticing words,

⁵for if even in the flesh I am absentyet in the spirit I am with you, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in regard to Christ;

⁶as, then, ye did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk ye,

⁷being rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as ye were taughtabounding in it in thanksgiving.

⁸See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,

⁹because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,

¹⁰and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority,

¹¹in whom also ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ,

¹²being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with him through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of the dead.

¹³And youbeing dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your fleshHe made alive together with him, having forgiven you all the trespasses,

¹⁴having blotted out the handwriting in the ordinances that is against us, that was contrary to us, and he hath taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;

¹⁵having stripped the principalities and the authorities, he made a shew of them openlyhaving triumphed over them in it.

¹⁶Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths,

¹⁷which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body is of the Christ;

¹⁸let no one beguile you of your prize, delighting in humble-mindedness and in worship of the messengers, intruding into the things he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,

¹⁹and not holding the head, from which all the bodythrough the joints and bands gathering supply, and being knit togethermay increase with the increase of God.

²⁰If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?

²¹thou mayest not touch, nor taste, nor handle

²²which are all for destruction with the using, after the commands and teachings of men,

²³which are, indeed, having a matter of wisdom in will-worship, and humble-mindedness, and neglecting of bodynot in any honour, unto a satisfying of the flesh.