2 1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have never met me in person, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, knit together in love, and come into all the riches of full assurance and understanding — into the knowledge of the mystery of our Father, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one may deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderly life and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Rooted and Built up in Him
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. a a v8 The elemental spirits of the world: the spiritual powers and basic principles that hold people captive apart from Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in him you have been made complete, who is the head over all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by the stripping away of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, b b v11 Circumcision made without hands: a spiritual transformation of the heart, not a physical rite. 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of our Father, who raised him from the dead. 13 You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, but our Father made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our sins, 14 having canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and publicly shamed them, triumphing over them in him.
16 Therefore let no one judge you in matters of food and drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come, but the reality belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on false humility and the worship of angels, dwelling on visions he has seen, puffed up for no reason by his unspiritual mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows with growth that comes from our Father.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch"? 22 These all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such rules have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-made religion, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no power to restrain the indulgence of the flesh.