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 #Phil. 1:30 how great a #[See ch. 1:29 above]struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2that #ch. 4:8; Eph. 6:22 their hearts may be encouraged, being #[ch. 3:14] knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of #See ch. 1:27God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3#Isa. 11:2; 45:3; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:6, 7; [Luke 11:49; Eph. 1:8]in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I say this in order #Rom. 16:18; [Eph. 5:6; 2 Pet. 2:3]that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5For #1 Cor. 5:3 though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your #1 Cor. 14:40 good order and #1 Pet. 5:9the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Alive in Christ
6 # ch. 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:1 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7#Eph. 3:17 rooted and #Acts 20:32; Eph. 2:20; See 1 Cor. 3:9 built up in him and #Heb. 13:9 established in the faith, just #Eph. 4:21 as you were taught, abounding #ch. 4:2; Eph. 5:20in thanksgiving.
8See to it that no one takes you captive by #[1 Tim. 6:20] philosophy and #Eph. 5:6 empty deceit, according to #See Matt. 15:2 human tradition, according to the #ver. 20elemental spirits#2:8 Or elementary principles; also verse 20 of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For #ch. 1:19; John 1:14 in him the whole fullness of deity dwells #[ver. 17]bodily, 10and #Eph. 3:19 you have been filled in him, who is #See Eph. 1:21, 22the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also #[Eph. 2:11]; See Rom. 2:29 you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by #ver. 15; ch. 3:9putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12#Rom. 6:4 having been buried with him in baptism, in which #ch. 3:1; [Rom. 6:5] you were also raised with him through faith in #[1 Cor. 6:14]; See Acts 2:24; Eph. 1:19the powerful working of God, #[1 Cor. 6:14]; See Acts 2:24; Eph. 1:19who raised him from the dead. 13#See Eph. 2:1 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God #See Eph. 2:5made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by #See Acts 3:19 canceling #See Rom. 7:4the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15#[See ver. 11 above] He disarmed the rulers and authorities#2:15 Probably demonic rulers and authorities and #[Gen. 3:15; Ps. 68:18; Isa. 53:12; Matt. 12:29; Luke 10:18; John 12:31; 16:11; Eph. 4:8; Heb. 2:14] put them to open shame, by #Eph. 2:16triumphing over them in him.#2:15 Or in it (that is, the cross)
Let No One Disqualify You
16Therefore let no one #Rom. 14:3, 10, 13 pass judgment on you #Rom. 14:17; Heb. 9:10; See Lev. 11:2 in questions of food and drink, or with regard to #Lev. 23:2; Rom. 14:5 a festival or #[Mark 2:28]; See Num. 28:11a new moon or a Sabbath. 17#Heb. 8:5; 10:1 These are a shadow of the things to come, but #[ver. 2]the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let no one #1 Cor. 9:24 disqualify you, #ver. 23 insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, #[Ezek. 13:7; 1 Tim. 1:7] going on in detail about visions,#2:18 Or about the things he has seen #[Eph. 4:17] puffed up without reason by #[Rom. 8:7]his sensuous mind, 19and #See Eph. 4:15, 16 not #Rev. 2:13; 3:11holding 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.
20If with Christ #See Rom. 6:2 you died to the #ver. 8 elemental spirits of the world, #[Gal. 4:9]why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21#ver. 16; 1 Tim. 4:3“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22(#1 Cor. 6:13 referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to #Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:9; [Titus 1:14]human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in #ver. 18 promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are #[1 Tim. 4:8]of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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