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18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels,[a] saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:18 Or or worshiping with angels.

18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility(A) and the worship of angels disqualify you.(B) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head,(C) from whom the whole body,(D) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.(E)

20 Since you died with Christ(F) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,(G) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:(H) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish(I) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.(J) 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility(K) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

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