Colossians 2

1 For I want you to know a how great a b struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that c their hearts may be encouraged, being d knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of e God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3  f in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order g that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For h though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your i good order and j the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Alive in Christ

6  k Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7  l rooted and m built up in him and n established in the faith, just o as you were taught, abounding p in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by q philosophy and r empty deceit, according to s human tradition, according to the t elemental spirits ▼
▼ Or elementary principles; also verse 20
 of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For v in him the whole fullness of deity dwells w bodily, 10 and x you have been filled in him, who is y the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also z you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by aa putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12  ab having been buried with him in baptism, in which ac you were also raised with him through faith in ad the powerful working of God ae who raised him from the dead. 13  af And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God ag made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by ah canceling ai the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15  aj He disarmed the rulers and authorities ▼
▼ Probably demonic rulers and authorities
 and al put them to open shame, by am triumphing over them in him. ▼
▼ Or  in it (that is, the cross)

Let No One Disqualify You

16 Therefore let no one ao pass judgment on you ap in questions of food and drink, or with regard to aq a festival or ar a new moon or a Sabbath. 17  as These are a shadow of the things to come, but at the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one au disqualify you, av insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, aw going on in detail about visions, ▼
▼ Or  about the things he has seen
 ay puffed up without reason by az his sensuous mind, 19 and ba not bb holding 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 bc you died to the bd elemental spirits of the world be why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21  bf “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 ( bg referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to bh human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in bi promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are bj of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

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