1
For I want you to know
1how great a
2struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
2
that
3their hearts may be encouraged, being
4knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of
5God's mystery, which is Christ,
3
6in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4
I say this in order
7that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
5
For
8though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your
9good order and
10the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Alive in Christ
6 11Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
7
12rooted and
13built up in him and
14established in the faith, just
15as you were taught, abounding
16in thanksgiving.
8
See to it that no one takes you captive by
17philosophy and
18empty deceit, according to
19human tradition, according to the
20elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
9
For
21in him the whole fullness of deity dwells
22bodily,
10
and
23you have been filled in him, who is
24the head of all rule and authority.
11
In him also
25you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by
26putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12
27having been buried with him in baptism, in which
28you were also raised with him through faith in
29the powerful working of God,
30who raised him from the dead.
13
31And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God
32made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14
by
33canceling
34the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
15
35He disarmed the rulers and authorities and
36put them to open shame, by
37triumphing over them in him.
Let No One Disqualify You
16 Therefore let no one
38pass judgment on you
39in questions of food and drink, or with regard to
40a festival or
41a new moon or a Sabbath.
17
42These are a shadow of the things to come, but
43the substance belongs to Christ.
18
Let no one
44disqualify you,
45insisting on asceticism and worship of angels,
46going on in detail about visions,
47puffed up without reason by
48his sensuous mind,
19
and
49not
50holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20
If with Christ
51you died to the
52elemental spirits of the world,
53why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations--
21
54"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"
22
(
55referring to things that all perish as they are used)--according to
56human precepts and teachings?
23
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in
57promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are
58of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.