²⁹ For this I toil and strive with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.^(A)

2 For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you and for those in Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. ² I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ,^{[a](B) 3} in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.^{(C) 4} I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. ⁵ For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your orderly conduct and the firmness of your faith in Christ.^(D)

¹⁶ Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or^[a] drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.^{(A) 17} These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,^[b] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,^{[c] 19} and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.^(B)

Warnings against False Teachers

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental principles^[a] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,^{(A) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.^{(B) 23} These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.^[b]