Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 For I desire to have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
1
I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn't make any difference. Know that I'm on your side, right alongside you. You're not in this alone.
2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Messiah,
2
I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery.
3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
3
All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we've been shown the mystery!
4 Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
4
I'm telling you this because I don't want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or "the Secret."
5 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.
5
I'm a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I'm on your side, right beside you. I am delighted to hear of the careful and orderly ways you conduct your affairs, and impressed with the solid substance of your faith in Christ.
6 As therefore you received Messiah Yeshua, the Lord, walk in him,
6
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him.
7 rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
7
You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
8 Be careful that you don't let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Messiah.
8
Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ.
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
9
Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him.
10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
10
When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
11 in whom 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 Messiah;
11
Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in - insiders - not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin.
12 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.
12
If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ.
13 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;
13
When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive - right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven,
14 having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he has taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross;
14
the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross.
15 having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
15
He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
16 Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or Shabbat,
16
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days.
17 which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Messiah's.
17
All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
18 Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
18
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are.
19 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.
19
They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
20 If you died with Messiah from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
20
So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it?
21 "Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch"
21
"Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!"
22 (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men?
22
Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention?
23 Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren't of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
23
Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.