1I want you to know in how great a struggle I am engaged for you and for Christ’s people at Laodicea, and for all who have not yet seen me;
2in the hope that they, being bound to one another by love, and keeping in view the full blessedness of a firm conviction, may be encouraged to strive for a perfect knowledge of God’s hidden truth,
3even Christ himself, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden.
4I say this to prevent anyone from deceiving you by plausible arguments.
5It is true that I am not with you in person, but I am with you in spirit, and am glad to see the good order and the unbroken front resulting from your faith in Christ.
6Since, therefore, you have received Jesus, the Christ, as your Lord, live your lives in union with him –
7rooted in him, building up your characters through union with him, growing stronger through your faith, as you were taught, overflowing with faith and thanksgiving.
8Take care that there is not someone who will carry you away by his “philosophy” – a hollow sham! – following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.
9For in Christ the Godhead in all its fulness dwells incarnate;
10and, by your union with him, you also are filled with it. He is the head of all archangels and powers of heaven.
11By your union with him you received a circumcision that was not performed by human hands, when you threw off the tyranny of the earthly body, and received the circumcision of the Christ.
12For in baptism you were buried with Christ; and in baptism you were also raised to life with him, through your faith in the omnipotence of God, who raised him from the dead.
13And to you, who once were dead, by reason of your sins and your uncircumcised nature – to you God gave life in giving life to Christ! He pardoned all our sins!
14He canceled the bond which stood against us – the bond that consisted of ordinances – and which was directly hostile to us! He has taken it out of our way by nailing it to the cross!
15He rid himself of all the powers of evil, and held them up to open contempt, when he celebrated his triumph over them on the cross!
16Do not, then, allow anyone to take you to task on questions of eating or drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly or weekly festivals.
17These things are only the shadow of what is to come; the substance is in the Christ.
18Do not let anyone defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called “humility” and angel-worship. Such a person busies themselves with their visions, and without reason are rendered conceited by their merely human intellect.
19They fail to maintain union with the head, to whom it is due that the whole body, nourished and knit together by the contact and connexion of every part, grows with a divine growth.
20Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as if you still belonged to the world,
21to such ordinances as “Do not handle, or taste, or touch”?
22For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.
23Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called “humility,” and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.