Colossians 2

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, [a] 2 so that their hearts may be comforted, joined together in love and into all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, into a full knowledge of the secret of God, of Christ, [b] 3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, hidden away. 4 I say this so that no one may reason you out of it with persuasive speech. [c] 5 For even if I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

6 So then, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and made firm in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing in thanksgiving. 8 See that no one will be the one who carries you off as plunder, through the philosophy and empty deceit that follows the tradition of men, that follows the elements of the world and not Christ; [d] † 9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily, [f] 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, [g] 12 buried together with him in the immersion, in which you were also raised together with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. [h] 13 And you, being dead in the transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, having freely forgiven us all the transgressions, [i] 14 having wiped out the handwritten note that stood against us with its decrees, which was set against us; and he has taken it out of the middle, nailing it to the cross. [j] 15 Having stripped off the rulers and the authorities, he made a public show of them in boldness, leading them in triumph in it. [k]

16 So let no one judge you in eating or in drinking, or in the matter of a feast or a new moon or Sabbaths, [l] 17 which are a shadow of the things that are coming; but the body is Christ’s. [m] 18 Let no one rule against you, delighting in lowliness of mind and the religion of the messengers, going in on what he has seen, puffed up to no purpose by the mind of his flesh, [n] 19 and not holding fast the head, from whom the whole body — supplied and joined together through the joints and ligaments — grows with the growth of God.

20 If you died with Christ away from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you submit to decrees — 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” [p] 22 (which are all for decay in the using) — according to the commands and doctrines of men? [q] 23 These are matters that have a word of wisdom in self-made religion and lowliness of mind and severity to the body — not in any honor, toward the filling of the flesh. [r]