Study Desk

I want you to know how hard I am contending^(a) for you and for those at Laodicea,^(b) and for all who have not met me personally.

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart^(c) and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery^(d) of God, namely, Christ,

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.^(e)

I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.^(f)

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit^(g) and delight to see how disciplined^(h) you are and how firm⁽ⁱ⁾ your faith in Christ^(j) is.

Spiritual Fullness in Christ

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,^(k) continue to live your lives in him,

rooted^(l) and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught,^(m) and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,⁽ⁿ⁾ which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world^(o) rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness^(p) of the Deity lives in bodily form,

and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head^(q) over every power and authority.^(r)

In him you were also circumcised^(s) with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b](t) was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ,

having been buried with him in baptism,^(u) in which you were also raised with him^(v) through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.^(w)

When you were dead in your sins^(x) and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[d] alive^(y) with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,^(z)

having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,^(aa) which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.^(ab)

And having disarmed the powers and authorities,^(ac) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them^(ad) by the cross.^[e]

Therefore do not let anyone judge you^(ae) by what you eat or drink,^(af) or with regard to a religious festival,^(ag) a New Moon celebration^(ah) or a Sabbath day.^(ai)

These are a shadow of the things that were to come;^(aj) the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(ak) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(al) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.

They have lost connection with the head,^(am) from whom the whole body,^(an) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(ao)

Since you died with Christ^(ap) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(aq) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^(ar)

"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?

These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(as) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^(at)

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(au) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.