Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling^[a] on 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 sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Warnings against False Teachers

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe,^[d] why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, 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. 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.^[e]