2 For I want you to know how great a struggle^(A) I have for you, for those in Laodicea,^(B) and for all who have not seen me in person. ² I want their hearts to be encouraged^(C) and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery^(D)—Christ.^{[a](E) 3} All the treasures of wisdom^(F) and knowledge^(G) are hidden in Him.

Christ versus the Colossian Heresy

⁴ I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments. ⁵ For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit,^(H) rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.

⁶ Therefore, as you have received^(I) Christ Jesus the Lord,^(J) walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him^(K) and established in the faith, just as you were taught,^(L) overflowing with gratitude.

⁸ Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition,^(M) based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.^{(N) 9} For the entire fullness^(O) of God’s nature^[b] dwells bodily^[c] in Christ, ¹⁰ and you have been filled by Him, who is the head^(P) over every ruler and authority. ¹¹ You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh,^(Q) in the circumcision of the Messiah.^{[d](R) 12} Having been buried with Him^(S) in baptism, you were also raised with Him^(T) through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.^{(U) 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 out of the way by nailing it to the cross.^{(V) 15} He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.^[e](W)

¹⁶ Therefore, don’t let anyone judge^(X) you in regard to food and drink^(Y) or in the matter of a festival or a new moon^(Z) or a Sabbath day.^{[f] 17} These are a shadow^(AA) of what was to come;^(AB) the substance is^[g] the Messiah.^{(AC) 18} Let no one disqualify you,^[h](AD) insisting on ascetic practices^(AE) and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated^(AF) without cause by his unspiritual^[i] mind. ¹⁹ He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body,^(AG) nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.

²⁰ If you died with the Messiah^(AH) to the elemental forces 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 destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men. ²³ Although these have a reputation of wisdom^(AI) by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.^[j](AJ)