2 For I would that ye knew how great is my conflict for you and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
2 that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may acknowledge the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ,
3 in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words;
5 for though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.
9 For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power,
11 and 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 Christ.
12 Ye are buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye also are risen with Him through the faith wrought by the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross;
15 and having despoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect to a holy day or the new moon or the Sabbath days,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
18 Let no man beguile you of your reward by feigned humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding to the Head, from whom all the body, having nourishment ministered and knit together by joints and bands, increaseth with the increase from God.
20 Therefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to its ordinances
21 (“Touch not, taste not, handle not,”
22 which all are to perish with the using), according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things have indeed a show of wisdom in willworship and humility and neglecting of the body, but are not in any honor against the satisfying of the flesh.
