Colossians 2
2
1 FOR I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you [how severe an inward struggle I am engaged in for you] and for those [believers] at Laodicea, and for all who [like yourselves] have never seen my face and known me personally.
2 [For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).
3 In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.
4 I say this in order that no one may mislead and delude you by plausible and persuasive and attractive arguments and beguiling speech.
5 For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ [that leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].
6 As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.
7 Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).
9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
10 And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power].
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).
12 [Thus you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.
13 And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.
15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
16 Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.
17 Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
19 And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?–such as]
21 Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22 Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines. [Isa. 29:13.]
23 Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.]
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1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Colossians 2
2
1For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling#2Tm 4:7 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 complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery#Php 3:8 — Christ.#2:2 Other mss read mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ; other ms variations exist on this v.#Col 1:27 3In him are hidden all 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
Christ versus the Colossian Heresy
4I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. 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.
6So then, just as you have received#Jd 3 Christ Jesus as Lord,#Eph 3:11 continue to walk in him, 7being rooted and built up in him#Eph 2:20 and established in the faith, just as you were taught,#Eph 4:21; Heb 13:9 and 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 elements of the world, rather than Christ.#1Tm 6:20 9For the entire fullness#Php 2:6; Col 1:19 of God’s nature dwells bodily#2:9 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 Christ,#Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2 12when you were buried with him#Rm 6:4 in baptism, in which 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 away 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 in him.#2:15 Or them through it#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.#2:16 Or or sabbaths 17These are a shadow#Heb 8:5; 10:1 of what was to come;#Rm 8:38 the substance is#2:17 Or substance belongs to Christ.#Gl 3:24; 5:2 18Let no one condemn#2:18 Or disqualify you#1Co 9:24; Php 3:14 by delighting in ascetic practices#Col 3:12 and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated#1Co 4:6 by empty notions of their unspiritual#2:18 Lit fleshly mind. 19They don’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, grows with growth from God.
20If you died with Christ#Rm 6:8; 1Pt 2:24 to the elements 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 destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. 23Although these have a reputation for wisdom#Ac 7:22 by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.#2:23 Lit value against indulgence of the flesh#1Tm 4:8
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