Colossenses 2

¹I want you to know how hard I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for everyone who has never met me in person. ²My aim is that their hearts may be encouraged as they are joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches of understanding held with full confidence, so that they know God’s mystery, which is Christ himself. ³In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden.^{a 4}I tell you this so that no one will lead you astray with arguments that only sound convincing. ⁵I may be far away in body, but in spirit I am there with you. I am glad as I see your orderly life and the solid strength of your faith in Christ.

Made full in Christ

⁶You have received Christ Jesus as Lord. So let your whole life be lived in him, ⁷with roots sunk deep in him, built up in him, made strong in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanks to God.

⁸Watch out, so that no one carries you off like captives by means of philosophy that is empty deceit. It follows human tradition and the elemental forces of the world, not Christ.^{b 9}For all the fullness of God’s own being dwells in him bodily, ¹⁰and in him you have been made full. He is the head over every ruler and authority. ¹¹In him you were also circumcised, with a circumcision no hand performed: the old life that the flesh ruled was stripped off you, in the circumcision that Christ gives. ¹²You were buried with him in baptism, and in baptism you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.^{cd 13}You were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, but God made you alive together with him. He forgave us all our trespasses. ¹⁴He wiped out the bond of debt, with its decrees, that was written against us and stood opposed to us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.^{e 15}He disarmed the rulers and authorities and exposed them to public disgrace, leading them as captives in his victory procession by the cross.^f

Rules that are only a shadow

¹⁶So no one should sit in judgment on you over food and drink, or over keeping a festival, a new moon or the sabbath. ¹⁷These things are a shadow of what was coming; the substance is Christ.^{g 18}Do not let anyone rob you of the prize: someone who delights in self-humbling and the worship of angels, who takes his stand on the visions he has seen and is puffed up for nothing by a mind set on the flesh. ¹⁹Such a person has lost hold of the head, Christ. From him the whole body, supplied and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth God gives.^hij

²⁰Since you died with Christ and were set free from the elemental forces of the world, why do you live as though you still belonged to the world? Why submit to rules like ²¹“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”? ²²All these things are meant to be used up and to perish. Such rules come from human commands and teachings. ²³Rules like these have the look of wisdom, with their worship that people choose for themselves, their self-humbling and their severe treatment of the body. Yet they are worth nothing for holding back the indulgence of the flesh.^k