Colossians 2
“Yet Am I with You in the Spirit” (2:1–5)
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not personally seen my face. 2 My goal is that their hearts may be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have the whole wealth of a full understanding resulting from knowing the mystery of God, namely Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one may deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5 For even if I am absent from you in in the flesh, I am present with you in the spirit and rejoice to see your orderliness and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
“Rooted and Built up in Him” (2:6–7)
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him— 7 being rooted and built up in him, establishing yourselves in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
“Beware Lest Any Man Spoil You” (2:8–15)
8 See to it that no one leads you away captive through the empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human tradition and elemental spirits of the universe and not according to Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in a bodily form, 10 and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done with human hands, by putting off the fleshly body in the circumcision of Christ. 12 You were buried with him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the act of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him, having forgiven all our trespasses. 14 He erased what was against us: a document of indebtedness with decrees opposed to us. He took it away when he nailed it to the cross. 15 And when he disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, having triumphed over them by the cross.
“Let No Man Beguile You” (2:16–23)
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you concerning food and drink, or in the matter of a festival, new moon, or Sabbath days. 17 These are a shadow of things to come—the body of Christ. 18 Let no one pass judgment on you; such a person delights in false humility and the worship of angels (which he has seen at his initiation). He is puffed up with vain notions by his fleshly mind 19 and does not hold fast to the Head, from whom the whole body—nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments—grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If you died with Christ from the control of the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though you live in the world, submit to the decrees: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these stipulations perish with use and are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations lead—even though they have a reputation for wisdom in the areas of self-willed piety, humility, and unsparing treatment of the body (but do not have any value)—to the indulgence of the flesh.
