1 F or I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who '> like yourselves] have never seen my face and known me personally.

¶ For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

2 t hat their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, Christ (the Anointed One).

that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in charity and in all the riches of the fulfilled understanding to know the mystery of the God and Father and of the Christ;

3 I n Him all the treasures of wisdom ( comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.

in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I say this in order that no one may mislead and delude you by plausible and persuasive and attractive arguments and beguiling speech.

¶ And this I say lest anyone should beguile you with enticing words.

5 F or though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ '> leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].

For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

6 A s you have therefore received Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.

Therefore in the manner in which ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him,

7 H ave the roots firmly and deeply planted, being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8 S ee to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding Christ (the Messiah).

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

9 F or in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form.

For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,

10 A nd you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life. And He is the Head of all rule and authority.

and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.

11 I n Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a circumcision Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of the Christ;

12 ' > you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him '> to a new life] through faith in the working of God '> as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.

buried together with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.

13 A nd you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), brought to life together with, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

¶ And you, being dead in sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

14 H aving cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to cross.

blotting out the bill of the decrees that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,

15 d isarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it.

and having spoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16 T herefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.

¶ Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of the new moon or of the sabbath days,

17 S uch are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.

which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of the Christ.

18 L et no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,

Let no one govern you according to their own will under pretext of humility and religion of angels, intruding into those things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind,

19 A nd not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, fed and united by its joints and bonds, grows in the increase of God.

20 I f then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?

For if ye are dead with the Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living unto the world, do ye decree rites,

21 D o not handle, Do not taste, Do not even touch,

touch not; taste not; handle not?

22 R eferring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.

Which all perish with the using, because they are the commandments and doctrines of men,

23 S uch have indeed the outward appearance for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature).

which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, but they have absolutely no value against the appetites of the flesh.