我希望你們知道,為了你們和老底嘉人,以及許多從未和我見過面的人,我是怎樣努力奮鬥的, 為要使你們眾人心受鼓勵,聯結在愛裡,有豐富篤定的真知灼見,可以認識上帝的奧祕。這奧祕就是基督, 一切智慧和知識都蘊藏在祂裡面。 我講這番話是為了防止有人用花言巧語迷惑你們。 現在,我人雖不在你們那裡,心卻和你們在一起,看到你們生活井然有序,對基督堅信不移,我很喜樂。

生活以基督為中心

你們既然接受了基督耶穌為主,就當繼續遵從祂, 按照你們所受的教導在祂裡面扎根成長,信心堅固,滿懷感恩。

你們要謹慎,免得有人用空洞虛假的哲學把你們擄去。這些哲學不是出於基督,而是出於人的傳統和世俗的玄學。 因為上帝完全的神性有形有體地蘊藏在基督裡, 10 你們在基督裡得到了豐盛的生命。祂是一切執政者和掌權者的元首。

11 你們也在基督裡受了非人手所行的割禮,是基督為除掉你們的罪惡本性而行的割禮。 12 你們接受洗禮時已經與基督一同埋葬了,並藉著相信上帝使基督從死裡復活的大能,與基督一同復活了。 13 你們從前死在過犯和未被割除的罪惡本性中,但現在上帝卻使你們與基督一同活了過來。上帝赦免了我們一切的過犯, 14 撤銷了指控我們違背律法的罪狀,將它和基督一同釘在了十字架上, 15 打敗了一切在靈界執政、掌權的邪惡勢力,用基督在十字架上的勝利公開羞辱牠們。

16 所以,不可讓人在飲食、節期、朔日[a]或安息日的事上批評你們。 17 這些都不過是將來之事的影子,那真實的本體是基督。 18 有些人喜歡故作謙虛,敬拜天使,沉迷於所看見的幻象,你們不要因他們而失去得獎賞的資格。他們隨從墮落的思想無故自高自大, 19 沒有與身體的頭——基督聯結。全身是靠關節和筋絡維繫,從基督得到供應,按上帝的旨意漸漸成長。

20 你們既然和基督一同死了,擺脫了世俗的玄學,為什麼仍像活在世俗中, 21 服從「不可拿、不可嚐、不可摸」之類的規條呢? 22 這些規條不過是人的戒律和說教,經不起實踐的考驗, 23 看似充滿智慧,其實只不過是自創的宗教、自表謙卑、苦待己身,對於克制邪情私慾毫無用處。

Footnotes

  1. 2·16 朔日」即每月初一。

For I want you to know how hard I work for you, for those in Laodicea, and for the rest of those who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged, that they may be joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches derived from being assured of understanding and fully knowing God’s secret truth, which is — the Messiah! It is in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

I say this so that no one will fool you with plausible but specious arguments. For although I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see the disciplined and resolute firmness of your trust in the Messiah. Therefore, just as you received the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, keep living your life united with him. Remain deeply rooted in him; continue being built up in him and confirmed in your trust, the way you were taught, so that you overflow in thanksgiving.

Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah. For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. 10 And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority.

11 Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah, 12 you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God’s faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins, that is, because of your “foreskin,” your old nature. But God made you alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins. 14 He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake. 15 Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.

16 So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Hodesh or Shabbat. 17 These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.

18 Don’t let anyone deny you the prize by insisting that you engage in self-mortification or angel-worship. Such people are always going on about some vision they have had, and they vainly puff themselves up by their worldly outlook. 19 They fail to hold to the Head, from whom the whole Body, receiving supply and being held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God makes it grow. 20 If, along with the Messiah, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, then why, as if you still belonged to the world, are you letting yourselves be bothered by its rules? — 21 “Don’t touch this!” “Don’t eat that!” “Don’t handle the other!” 22 Such prohibitions are concerned with things meant to perish by being used [not by being avoided!], and they are based on man-made rules and teachings.[a] 23 They do indeed have the outward appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed religious observances, false humility and asceticism; but they have no value at all in restraining people from indulging their old nature.

Footnotes

  1. Colossians 2:22 Isaiah 29:13

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.

[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).

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.

I say this in order that no one may mislead and delude you by plausible and persuasive and attractive arguments and beguiling speech.

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].

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.

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.

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).

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.(A)

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.]

Footnotes

  1. Colossians 2:1 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
  2. Colossians 2:2 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
  3. Colossians 2:2 Richard Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament.
  4. Colossians 2:3 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
  5. Colossians 2:5 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
  6. Colossians 2:10 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
  7. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies: “The aorist tense puts the burial as contemporaneous with the circumcision.”
  8. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
  9. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
  10. Colossians 2:14 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.