Book of Common Prayer

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.

Judging others and true obedience

³⁹ Jesus told them this riddle. “What do you get when one blind man guides another? Both of them falling in a ditch! ⁴⁰ Students can’t do better than the teacher; when the course is done, they’ll all be just like the teacher.

⁴¹ “Why look at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye, when you haven’t noticed the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Dear brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t see the plank in your own? You’re a fraud! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

⁴³ “You see, no good tree bears bad fruit; nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ Every tree is known by its fruit. You don’t pick figs from thorns; nor do you get grapes from a briar-bush. ⁴⁵ The good person brings good things out of the good treasure of the heart; the evil person brings evil things out of evil. What comes out of the mouth is what’s overflowing in the heart.

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I say? ⁴⁷ I’ll show you what people are like when they come to me, and hear my words, and do them. ⁴⁸ They are like a wise man building a house: he dug, he went down deep, and he laid a foundation on rock. When a flood came, the river burst its banks all over the house, but it couldn’t shake it because it was well built. ⁴⁹ But when people hear but don’t obey—that’s like a man who built a house on the ground, without a foundation. When the river burst over it, it fell down at once. The ruin of that house was devastating.”