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¹ For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling^(C1) for you, for those in Laodicea,^(C2) and for all who have not seen me in person. ² I want their hearts to be encouraged^(C1) and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery^(C2)—Christ.^{(F1)(C3) 3} In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom^(C1) and knowledge.^(C2)

Christ versus the Colossian Heresy

⁴ I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. ⁵ For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit,^(C1) rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.

⁶ So then, just as you have received^(C1) Christ Jesus as Lord,^(C2) continue to live in him, ⁷ being rooted and built up in him^(C1) and established in the faith, just as you were taught,^(C2) and overflowing with gratitude.

⁸ Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition,^(C1) based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.^{(C2) 9} For the entire fullness^(C1) of God’s nature dwells bodily^(F1) in Christ, ¹⁰ and you have been filled by him, who is the head^(C1) over every ruler and authority. ¹¹ You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh,^(C1) in the circumcision of Christ,^{(C2) 12} when you were buried with him^(C1) in baptism, in which you were also raised with him^(C2) through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.^{(C3) 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. ¹⁴ He 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.^{(C1) 15} He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.^(F1)(C1)

¹⁶ Therefore, don’t let anyone judge^(C1) you in regard to food and drink^(C2) or in the matter of a festival or a new moon^(C3) or a Sabbath day.^{(F1) 17} These are a shadow^(C1) of what was to come;^(C2) the substance is^(F1) Christ.^{(C3) 18} Let no one condemn^(F1) you^(C1) by delighting in ascetic practices^(C2) and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated^(C3) by empty notions of their unspiritual^(F2) mind. ¹⁹ He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body,^(C1) nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.

²⁰ If you died with Christ^(C1) 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”? ²² All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. ²³ Although these have a reputation for wisdom^(C1) by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.^(F1)(C2)