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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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Colossians 2
2
1For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at La-odicea, and for all who have not seen my face, 2that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ, 3#Is 45.3. in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I say this in order that no one may delude you with beguiling speech. 5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, 10#Eph 1.21-22. and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15#Eph 1.21. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.#2.15 Or in it (that is, the cross)
16 #
Rom 14.1-12. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. 17#Eph 1.23. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19#Eph 1.22; 4.16. and not 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 #
Gal 4.3. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, 21“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22#Is 29.13; Mk 7.7. (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.#2.23 Or are of no value, serving only to indulge the flesh
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America