| 1 | For I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you [how severe an inward struggle I am engaged in for you] and for those [believers] at Laodicea, and for all who [
[a]like yourselves] have never seen my face
and
known me personally. |
| 2 | [For my concern is] that their hearts may be
[b]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
[c]more intimately acquainted with
and
may know more definitely
and
accurately
and
thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One). |
| 3 | In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (
[d]comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge
and
enlightenment are stored up
and
lie hidden. |
| 4 | I say this in order that no one may mislead
and
delude you by plausible
and
persuasive
and
attractive arguments
and
beguiling speech. |
| 5 | For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness
and
the solid front
and
steadfastness of your faith in Christ [that
[e]leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness]. |
| 6 | As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with
and
conformity to Him. |
| 7 | Have the roots [of your being] firmly
and
deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], 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 | 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 [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah). |
| 9 | For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]. |
| 10 | And you
[f]are in Him, made full
and
having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power]. |
| 11 | In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts). |
| 12 | [Thus
[g]you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [
[h]to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [
[i]as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead. |
| 13 | And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, |
| 14 | 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 [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside
and
cleared
[j]completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. |
| 15 | [God] 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 [the cross]. |
| 16 | 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 | Such [things] 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 | 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 claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions
and
inflated by his unspiritual thoughts
and
fleshly conceit, |
| 19 | 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 | 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? [Why do you submit to rules
and
regulations?—such as] |
| 21 | Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them], |
| 22 | Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines. |
| 23 | Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] 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). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.] |
Cross references:
-
Colossians 2:22 : Isa. 29:13.
|