Colossians 2:13-23

Christian Standard Bible

¹³ And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. ¹⁴ He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.^{(A) 15} He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.^[a](B)

¹⁶ Therefore, don’t let anyone judge^(C) you in regard to food and drink^(D) or in the matter of a festival or a new moon^(E) or a Sabbath day.^{[b] 17} These are a shadow^(F) of what was to come;^(G) the substance is^[c] Christ.^{(H) 18} Let no one condemn^[d] you^(I) by delighting in ascetic practices^(J) and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated^(K) by empty notions of their unspiritual^[e] mind. ¹⁹ They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body,^(L) nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.

²⁰ If you died with Christ^(M) to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: ²¹ “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? ²² All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. ²³ Although these have a reputation for wisdom^(N) by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.^[f](O)