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 wish you to know how great a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and 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 may be comforted, being united in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the full knowledge of the secret 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 all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge hid,

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, that no one may beguile you in 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 if even in the flesh I am absent -- yet in the spirit I am with you, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in regard to 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.

as, then, ye did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk ye,

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.

being rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as ye were taught -- abounding in it in 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).

See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,

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

because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness 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 in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority,

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 were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in 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.

being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of 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 the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh -- He made alive together with him, having forgiven you all the 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.

having blotted out the handwriting in the ordinances that is against us, that was contrary to us, and he hath taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the 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.

having stripped the principalities and the authorities, he made a shew of them openly -- having triumphed 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, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths,

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 the coming things, and the body 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 beguile you of your prize, delighting in humble-mindedness and worship of the messengers, intruding into the things he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,

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 the head, from which all the body -- through the joints and bands gathering supply, and being knit together -- may increase with 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?

If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?

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

-- thou mayest not touch, nor taste, nor handle --

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

which are all for destruction with the using, after the commands and teachings 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 are, indeed, having a matter of wisdom in will-worship, and humble-mindedness, and neglecting of body -- not in any honour, unto a satisfying of the flesh.