Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Let me tell you how hard I have worked for you and for the people in Laodicea and for all others who do not know me personally.
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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 I do this in order that they may be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God's secret, which is Christ himself.
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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, both of the Father and of Christ,
3 He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.
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in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4 I tell you, then, do not let anyone deceive you with false arguments, no matter how good they seem to be.
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Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
5 For even though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I am glad as I see the resolute firmness with which you stand together in your faith in Christ.
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For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him.
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As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
7 Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.
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rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
8 See to it, then, that no one enslaves you by means of the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.
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Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elemental spirits of the world, and not after Christ.
9 For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity,
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For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,
10 and you have been given full life in union with him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority.
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and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
11 In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self.
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In him you were also 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 Christ,
12 For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death.
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having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins;
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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 he canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross.
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wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
15 And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.
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Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath.
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Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
17 All such things are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ.
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which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
18 Do not allow yourselves to be condemned by anyone who claims to be superior because of special visions and who insists on false humility and the worship of angels. For no reason at all, such people are all puffed up by their human way of thinking
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Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and have stopped holding on to Christ, who is the head of the body. Under Christ's control the whole body is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow.
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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 You have died with Christ and are set free from the ruling spirits of the universe. Why, then, do you live as though you belonged to this world? Why do you obey such rules as
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If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21 "Don't handle this," "Don't taste that," "Don't touch the other"?
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“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
22 All these refer to things which become useless once they are used; they are only human rules and teachings.
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(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?
23 Of course such rules appear to be based on wisdom in their forced worship of angels, and false humility, and severe treatment of the body; but they have no real value in controlling physical passions.
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These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body, but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.