Colossians 2
1 I want you to know in how great a struggle I am engaged for you and for Christ’s people at Laodicea, and for all who have not yet seen me;
I want you to know how hard I'm working for you, and for those at Laodicea—in fact for all those who haven't met me personally—
2 in the hope that they, being bound to one another by love, and keeping in view the full blessedness of a firm conviction, may be encouraged to strive for a perfect knowledge of God’s hidden truth,
so that you may be encouraged. May you be bound together in love, experiencing the great benefit of being completely sure in your understanding, for this is what the true knowledge of God brings. May you know the revealed mystery of God, which is Christ!
3 even Christ himself, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden.
In him you can discover all the rich wisdom and knowledge of God.
4 I say this to prevent anyone from deceiving you by plausible arguments.
I'm telling you this so that no one will fool you by spinning you a tale.
5 It is true that I am not with you in person, but I am with you in spirit, and am glad to see the good order and the unbroken front resulting from your faith in Christ.
Even though I'm not physically there with you, I'm with you in spirit. I'm so happy to see the way you stick together and how firm you are in your trust in Christ.
6 Since, therefore, you have received Jesus, the Christ, as your Lord, live your lives in union with him –
Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, go on following him,
7 rooted in him, building up your characters through union with him, growing stronger through your faith, as you were taught, overflowing with faith and thanksgiving.
grounded in him and built up by him. May your trust in him continue to grow strong, following what you were taught, full of gratitude to God.
8 Take care that there is not someone who will carry you away by his “philosophy” – a hollow sham! – following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.
Watch out that nobody enslaves you through their philosophy and worthless delusions, following human traditions and concepts of this world, and not following Christ.
9 For in Christ the Godhead in all its fulness dwells incarnate;
For the fullness of God's divine nature lives in Christ in bodily form,
10 and, by your union with him, you also are filled with it. He is the head of all archangels and powers of heaven.
and you have been made full in him. He is supreme over every ruler and authority.
11 By your union with him you received a circumcision that was not performed by human hands, when you threw off the tyranny of the earthly body, and received the circumcision of the Christ.
You were “circumcised” in him but not by human hands. You have been set free from sinful human nature by the “circumcision” Christ performed.
12 For in baptism you were buried with Christ; and in baptism you were also raised to life with him, through your faith in the omnipotence of God, who raised him from the dead.
You were buried with him in baptism, and you were raised with him through your trust in what God did by raising him from the dead.
13 And to you, who once were dead, by reason of your sins and your uncircumcised nature – to you God gave life in giving life to Christ! He pardoned all our sins!
And even though you were dead because of your sins and being physically “uncircumcised,” he brought you to life together with him. He has forgiven us all our sins.
14 He canceled the bond which stood against us – the bond that consisted of ordinances – and which was directly hostile to us! He has taken it out of our way by nailing it to the cross!
He wiped out the record of our debts according to the Law that was written down against us; he took away this barrier by nailing it to the cross.
15 He rid himself of all the powers of evil, and held them up to open contempt, when he celebrated his triumph over them on the cross!
He stripped away the power of spiritual rulers and authorities, and having publicly revealed what they were truly like, he led them captive behind him in victory.
16 Do not, then, allow anyone to take you to task on questions of eating or drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly or weekly festivals.
So don't let anyone criticize you for what you eat or what you drink, or regarding which religious festival, new moon ritual, or ceremonial sabbaths you choose to observe.
17 These things are only the shadow of what is to come; the substance is in the Christ.
These are just a shadow of what was to come, for the physical reality is Christ.
18 Do not let anyone defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called “humility” and angel-worship. Such a person busies themselves with their visions, and without reason are rendered conceited by their merely human intellect.
Don't let anyone cheat you out of your prize by insisting you have to beat yourself, or worship angels. They think they are better than anyone else because of visions they say they've had, and become ridiculously conceited in their sinful minds.
19 They fail to maintain union with the head, to whom it is due that the whole body, nourished and knit together by the contact and connexion of every part, grows with a divine growth.
Such people are not connected to the head that directs the body, nourished and joined together through the body's sinews and muscles. As the body is united together it grows the way God wants it to grow.
20 Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as if you still belonged to the world,
If you died with Christ to the religious demands that this world insists upon, why would you make yourself subject to such demands as if you were still part of this world?
21 to such ordinances as “Do not handle, or taste, or touch”?
Things like: don't handle that, don't taste that, don't touch that!
22 For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.
These commands refer to things that don't last since they're used up, and they're based on man-made requirements and teachings.
23 Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called “humility,” and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.
Such rules may make some kind of sense to those who practice self-centered piety, who are so proud of being humble, and who “mortify the body;” but in reality they don't help at all in dealing with sinful desires.
