Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ So, then, just as you received Messiah Jesus the Lord, you must continue your journey in him. ⁷ You must put down healthy roots in him, being built up brick by brick in him, and established strongly in the faith, just as you were taught, with overflowing thankfulness.

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.