¹³ Therefore the Lord said:

^4 (A)nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

¹⁴ not giving heed to Jewish fables and ^(A)commandments of men who turn from the truth.

¹⁸ Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has ^[a]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to ^(A)the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, ^(B)grows with the increase that is from God.

^20 [b]Therefore, if you ^(C)died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, ^(D)why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ^21 (E)“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” ²² which all concern things which perish with the using—^(F)according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

A Good Servant of Jesus Christ

⁶ If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, ^(A)nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. ⁷ But ^(B)reject profane and old wives’ fables, and ^(C)exercise yourself toward godliness.

⁹ Do not be carried ^[a]about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is ^[a]dead?

Fasting that Pleases God