Colossians 2
2
1For I want you to know how great a struggle # 2Tm 4:7 I have for you, for those in Laodicea, # Col 4:13-16; Rv 1:11; 3:14 and for all who have not seen me in person. 2I want their hearts to be encouraged # Lk 16:25; Col 4:8 and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery # Php 3:8 — Christ. # Other mss read mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ ; other ms variations exist on this v. # Col 1:27 3All the treasures of wisdom # Pr 3:19; Is 11:2; 45:3; Jr 23:5; Ac 7:22; 1Co 1:21 and knowledge # 1Co 14:6 are hidden in Him.
Christ versus the Colossian Heresy
4I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, # Ps 51:12; 1Th 2:17 rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.
6Therefore, as you have received # Jd 3 Christ Jesus the Lord, # Eph 3:11 walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him # Eph 2:20 and established in the faith, just as you were taught, # Eph 4:21; Heb 13:9 overflowing with gratitude.
8Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, # Mk 7:3 based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ. # 1Tm 6:20 9For the entire fullness # Php 2:6; Col 1:19 of God’s nature # Or of the deity dwells bodily # Or nature lives in a human body in Christ, 10and you have been filled by Him, who is the head # 1Co 11:3; Eph 1:22; 4:15; 5:23 over every ruler and authority. 11You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, # Col 1:22; 3:9 in the circumcision of the Messiah. # = His death # Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2 12Having been buried with Him # Rm 6:4 in baptism, you were also raised with Him # Eph 2:6; Col 3:1 through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. # Mt 17:9; Jn 5:25; 20:9; 21:14; Ac 2:24 13And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. # Lk 9:23; 23:26 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him. # Or them through it ; = through the cross # Lk 10:18; Jn 12:31; 16:11; Eph 6:12; Heb 2:14
16Therefore, don’t let anyone judge # Lk 6:37 you in regard to food and drink # Jn 6:55; Rm 14:3,17; 1Co 8:4; Heb 9:10 or in the matter of a festival or a new moon # Ps 81:3 or a Sabbath day. # Or or sabbaths 17These are a shadow # Heb 8:5; 10:1 of what was to come; # Rm 8:38 the substance is # Or substance belongs to the Messiah. # Gl 3:24; 5:2 18Let no one disqualify you, # Or no one cheat us out of your prize # 1Co 9:24; Php 3:14 insisting on ascetic practices # Col 3:12 and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated # 1Co 4:6 without cause by his unspiritual # Lit fleshly mind. 19He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, # 1Co 6:13; Eph 4:4 nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
20If you died with the Messiah # Rm 6:8; 1Pt 2:24 to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: 21“Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22All these regulations refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men. 23Although these have a reputation of wisdom # Ac 7:22 by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence. # Lit value against indulgence of the flesh # 1Tm 4:8
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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Colossians 2
2
1I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. 2I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. 3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. 5For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ
6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers#2:8 Or the spiritual principles; also in 2:20. of this world, rather than from Christ. 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.#2:9 Or in him dwells all the completeness of the Godhead bodily. 10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.#2:11 Greek the cutting away of the body of the flesh. 12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15In this way, he disarmed#2:15 Or he stripped off. the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
16So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. 18Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels,#2:18 Or or worshiping with angels. saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
20You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
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