Colossians 2

2For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling^e for you, for those in Laodicea,^f and for all who have not seen me in person. ²I want their hearts to be encouraged^g and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery^h—Christ.^{Bi 3}In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom^j and knowledge.^k

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,^l rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.

⁶So then, just as you have received^m Christ Jesus as Lord,ⁿ continue to walk in him, ⁷being rooted and built up in him^o and established in the faith, just as you were taught,^p and overflowing with gratitude.

⁸Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition,^q based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.^{r 9}For the entire fullness^s of God’s nature dwells bodily^C in Christ, ¹⁰and you have been filled by him, who is the head^t 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,^u in the circumcision of Christ,^{v 12}when you were buried with him^w in baptism, in which you were also raised with him^x through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.^{y 13}And 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.^{z 15}He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.^Aaa

¹⁶Therefore, don’t let anyone judge^ab you in regard to food and drink^ac or in the matter of a festival or a new moon^ad or a Sabbath day.^{B 17}These are a shadow^ae of what was to come;^af the substance is^C Christ.^{ag 18}Let no one condemn^D you^ah by delighting in ascetic practices^ai and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated^aj by empty notions of their unspiritual^E mind. ¹⁹They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body,^ak nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.

²⁰If you died with Christ^al 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^am by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.^Fan