1 I want you to know how hard I have worked for you and for the Christians in the city of Laodicea and for those who have never seen me.

For 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.

2 M ay their hearts be given comfort. May they be brought close together in Christian love. May they be rich in understanding and know God’s secret. It is Christ Himself.

that 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).

3 I n Christ are hidden all the riches of wisdom and understanding.

In 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.

4 I tell you this so no one will try to change your mind with big sounding talk.

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

5 E ven if I am far away from you in body, I am with you in spirit. I am happy to learn how well you are getting along. It is good to hear that your faith is so strong in Christ.

For 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].

6 A s you have put your trust in Christ Jesus the Lord to save you from the punishment of sin, now let Him lead you in every step.

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

7 H ave your roots planted deep in Christ. Grow in Him. Get your strength from Him. Let Him make you strong in the faith as you have been taught. Your life should be full of thanks to Him. Wisdom of the World Is Empty

Have 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.

8 B e careful that no one changes your mind and faith by much learning and big sounding ideas. Those things are what men dream up. They are always trying to make new religions. These leave out Christ.

See 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).

9 F or Christ is not only God-like, He is God in human flesh.

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

10 W hen you have Christ, you are complete. He is the head over all leaders and powers.

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

11 W hen you became a Christian, you were set free from the sinful things of the world. This was not done by human hands. You were set free from the sins of your old self by what was done in Christ’s body.

In 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).

12 W hen you were baptized, you were buried as Christ was buried. When you were raised up in baptism, you were raised as Christ was raised. You were raised to a new life by putting your trust in God. It was God Who raised Jesus from the dead.

'> 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.

13 W hen you were dead in your sins, you were not set free from the sinful things of the world. But God forgave your sins and gave you new life through Christ.

And 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,

14 W e had broken the Law many ways. Those sins were held against us by the Law. That Law had writings which said we were sinners. But now He has destroyed that writing by nailing it to the cross.

Having 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.

15 G od took away the power of the leaders of this world and the powers of darkness. He showed them to the world. The battle was won over them through Christ. Watch for Those Who Want to Keep the Law

disarmed 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.

16 D o not let anyone tell you what you should or should not eat or drink. They have no right to say if it is right or wrong to eat certain foods or if you are to go to religious suppers. They have no right to say what you are to do at the time of the new moon or on the Day of Rest.

Therefore 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.

17 T hese things are a picture of what is coming. The important thing is Christ Himself.

Such 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.

18 D o not let anyone rob you of your crown. They will try to get you to bow down in worship of angels. They think this shows you are not proud. They say they were told to do this in a dream. These people are proud because of their sinful minds.

Let 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,

19 S uch people are not a part of Christ. Christ is the Head. We Christians make up His body. We are joined together as a body is held together. Our strength to grow comes from Christ.

And 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.

20 Y ou have died with Christ and become dead to those old ways. Then why do you follow the old ways of worship? Why do you obey man-made rules?

If 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?

21 T hese rules say, “You must not put your hand on this.” “Do not put this into your mouth.” “You must not put your finger on that.”

Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not even touch,

22 A ll these things come to an end when they are used. You are following only man-made rules.

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

23 I t looks as if it is wise to follow these rules in an act of worship, because they are hard on the body. It looks as if they are done without pride, but they are worth nothing. They do not take away a man’s desire to sin.

Such 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).