Beware of deceivers

⁸ Watch out that nobody uses philosophy and hollow trickery to take you captive! These are in line with human tradition, and with the “elements of the world”—not with the Messiah. ⁹ In him, you see, all the full measure of divinity has taken up bodily residence. ¹⁰ What’s more, you are fulfilled in him, since he’s the head of all rule and authority.

¹¹ In him, indeed, you were circumcised with a special, new type of circumcision. It isn’t something that human hands can do. It is the Messiah’s version of circumcision, and it happens when you put off the “body of flesh”: ¹² when you’re buried with him in baptism, and indeed also raised with him, through faith in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

The law and the cross

¹³ In the same way, though you were dead in legal offenses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Jesus, forgiving us all our offenses. ¹⁴ He blotted out the handwriting that was against us, opposing us with its legal demands. He took it right out of the way, by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He stripped the rulers and authorities of their armor, and displayed them contemptuously to public view, celebrating his triumph over them in him.

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in a question of food or drink, or in the matter of festivals, new moons or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These things are a shadow cast by the coming reality—and the body that casts the shadow belongs to the Messiah! ¹⁸ Don’t let anyone rule you out of order by trying to force you into a kind of fake humility, or into worshiping angels. Such people will go on and on about visions they’ve had; they get puffed up without good reason by merely human thinking, ¹⁹ and they don’t keep hold of the Head. It’s from him that the whole body grows with the growth God gives it, as it’s nourished and held together by its various ligaments and joints.

Dying and rising with Christ

²⁰ If you died with the Messiah, coming out from the rule of the “worldly elements,” what’s the point of laying down laws as though your life was still merely worldly? ²¹ “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!” ²² Rules like that all have to do with things that disappear as you use them. They are the sort of regulations and teachings that mere humans invent. ²³ They may give an appearance of wisdom, since they promote a do-it-yourself religion, a kind of humility, and severe treatment of the body. But they are of no use when it comes to dealing with physical self-indulgence.