Colossians 2
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face.
2 I want their hearts to be encouraged, united in love, and to gain all the riches of full assurance and understanding, leading to the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.
3 In him 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 from you in body, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live in him.
7 Be rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.
8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, based on human tradition and the elements of the world, and not on Christ.
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
10 And you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, in the stripping away of the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.
12 You were buried with him in baptism, and in him you were also raised through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive with him, forgiving us all our trespasses.
14 He wiped out the record of debt against us, with its demands, which stood opposed to us. He removed it from our midst by nailing it to the cross.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities, exposed them publicly, and triumphed over them at the cross.
16 Therefore, let no one judge you about food or drink, or concerning a festival, a new moon, or Sabbaths.
17 These are a shadow of what was to come, but the reality belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on humility and the worship of angels, dwelling on things they have seen, and puffed up without reason by their carnal mind.
19 They do not hold fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and joined together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that comes from God.
20 If you died with Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though you still lived in the world, do you submit to rules?
21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.”
22 All these things perish with use; they are based on human commands and teachings.
23 These rules do have an appearance of wisdom, with self-made worship, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value in restraining the indulgence of the flesh.
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