1 F or I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,

2 t hat their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,

3 i n whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.

5 F or even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

6 T herefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

7 h aving been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

8 S ee to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

9 F or in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

10 a nd in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;

11 a nd in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;

12 h aving been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

13 W hen you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

14 h aving canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

15 W hen He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

16 T herefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—

17 t hings which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

18 L et no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

19 a nd not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

20 I f you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

21 “ Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”

22 ( which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

23 T hese are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.