Colossians 2
2
1I want you to know what a struggle I am going through for you, for God's people at Laodicea, and for all those followers who have never met me. 2I do it to encourage them. Then as their hearts are joined together in love, they will be wonderfully blessed with complete understanding. And they will truly know Christ. Not only is he the key to God's mystery, 3but all wisdom and knowledge are hidden away in him. 4I tell you these things to keep you from being fooled by fancy talk. 5Even though I am not with you, I keep thinking about you. I am glad to know that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
Christ brings real life
6You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him. 7Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful.
8Don't let anyone fool you by using senseless arguments. These arguments may sound wise, but they are only human teachings. They come from the powers of this world#2.8 powers of this world: Spirits and unseen forces were thought to control human lives and were believed to be connected with the movements of the stars. and not from Christ.
9God lives fully in Christ. 10And you are fully grown because you belong to Christ, who is over every power and authority. 11Christ has also taken away your selfish desires, just as circumcision removes flesh from the body. 12And when you were baptized, it was the same as being buried with Christ. Then you were raised to life because you had faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from death.#Ro 6.4. 13You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make you#2.13 you: See the note at 1.7. alive, when he forgave all our sins.#Eph 2.1-5.
14God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.#Eph 2.15. 15There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory.
16Don't let anyone tell you what you must eat or drink. Don't let them say that you must celebrate the New Moon festival, the Sabbath, or any other festival.#Ro 14.1-6. 17These things are only a shadow of what was to come. But Christ is real!
18Don't be cheated by people who make a show of acting humble and who worship angels.#2.18 worship angels: Or “worship with angels (in visions of heaven)”. They boast about seeing visions. But it is all nonsense, because their minds are filled with selfish desires. 19They are no longer part of Christ, who is the head of the whole body. Christ gives the body its strength, and he uses its joints and muscles to hold it together, as it grows by the power of God.#Eph 4.16.
New life with Christ
20You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe#2.20 forces of the universe: See the note at 2.8. don't have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as, 21“Don't handle this. Don't taste that. Don't touch this.”? 22After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up? 23Obeying these rules may seem to be the clever thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don't really have any power over our desires.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Colossians 2
2
1I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who haven’t known me personally. 2My goal is that their hearts would be encouraged and united together in love so that they might have all the riches of assurance that come with understanding, so that they might have the knowledge of the secret plan#2.2 Or mystery of God, namely Christ. 3All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. 4I’m telling you this so that no one deceives you with convincing arguments, 5because even though I am absent physically, I’m with you in spirit. I’m happy to see the discipline and stability of your faith in Christ.
Error threatening the church
6So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. 7Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught. 8See to it that nobody enslaves you with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to human traditions and the way the world thinks and acts rather than Christ. 9All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body. 10And you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by human hands. The circumcision of Christ is realized in the stripping away of the whole self dominated by sin. 12You were buried with him through baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13When you were dead because of the things you had done wrong and because your body wasn’t circumcised, God made you alive with Christ and forgave all the things you had done wrong. 14He destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross. 15When he disarmed the rulers and authorities, he exposed them to public disgrace by leading them in a triumphal parade.
16So don’t let anyone judge you about eating or drinking or about a festival, a new moon observance, or sabbaths. 17These religious practices are only a shadow of what was coming—the body that cast the shadow is Christ. 18Don’t let anyone who wants to practice harsh self-denial and worship angels rob you of the prize. They go into detail about what they have seen in visions and have become unjustifiably arrogant by their selfish way of thinking. 19They don’t stay connected to the head. The head nourishes and supports the whole body through the joints and ligaments, so the body grows with a growth that is from God.
20If you died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts, why do you submit to rules and regulations as though you were living in the world? 21“Don’t handle!” “Don’t taste!” “Don’t touch!” 22All these things cease to exist when they are used. Such rules are human commandments and teachings. 23They look like they are wise with this self-made religion and their self-denial by the harsh treatment of the body, but they are no help against indulging in selfish immoral behavior.
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