1I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have never met me face to face.
2I want their hearts to be comforted, and them to be joined together in love. I want them to have all the riches of full certainty of understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.
3In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4I say this so that no one may fool you with words that sound attractive.
5For even though I am not there in body, I am with you in spirit. I am glad to see your good order, and how steady your faith in Christ is.
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, go on walking in him.
7Be rooted in him and built up in him. Be made firm in the faith, as you were taught, and overflow in it with thanksgiving.
8Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit. Such teaching follows the tradition of men and the basic rules of the world, and not Christ.
9For in him all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form.
10And you are complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
11In him you were also circumcised, with a circumcision not made by hands. It is the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.
12You were buried with him in baptism. In it you were also raised with him, through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. But God made you alive together with him, and forgave you all your wrongdoing.
14He wiped out the written record of rules that stood against us and opposed us. He took it away, nailing it to his cross.
15And having stripped the rulers and authorities, he showed them openly, and in it he triumphed over them.
16So do not let anyone judge you about food, or drink, or about a holy day, or a new moon, or sabbath days.
17These are a shadow of things that were to come, but the body is Christ's.
18Do not let anyone rob you of your reward by a humility he has chosen for himself and by the worship of angels. Such a person pushes into things he has not seen, and is puffed up for no reason by his fleshly mind.
19He does not hold on to the Head. From the Head the whole body is fed and joined together through its joints and ligaments, and it grows with the growth that God gives.
20If you died with Christ to the basic rules of the world, why do you submit to regulations, as though you still lived in the world?
21(Do not touch; do not taste; do not handle;
22all these things perish as they are used.) Such rules follow the commands and teachings of men.
23These things do have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-made worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they are of no value against the satisfying of the flesh.