ISV - Colossians - 2

2:1  For I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have never seen me face to face.Lit. my face in the flesh

2:2  Because they are united in love, I prayThe Gk. lacks I pray that their hearts may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of the full knowledge of Christ, who is the secret of God.

2:3  In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

2:4  I say this so that no one will mislead you with nice-sounding rhetoric.

2:5  For although I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how stable you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

2:6  Fullness of LifeSo then, just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live in him.

2:7  For you have been rooted in him and are being built up and strengthened in the faith, just as you were taught, while you overflow with thanksgiving.

2:8  See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world,Or the elemental spirits of the universe and not according to Christ.

2:9  For in him the whole fullness of God lives in bodily form.

2:10  And you have been brought to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

2:11  In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without humanThe Gk. lacks human hands by stripping off the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ.

2:12  When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

2:13  Even when you were dead because of your offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, GodLit. he made you alive with him when he forgave us all of our offenses,

2:14  having erased the charges that were brought against us with their decrees that were hostile to us. He took those charges away when he nailed them to the cross.

2:15  And when he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.Lit. in it

2:16  Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath day.

2:17  These are a shadow of the things to come, but the realityOr substance belongs to Christ.

2:18  Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by boasting about what he has seen.Other mss. read what he has not seen Such a person is puffed up without cause by his carnal mind.

2:19  He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, which is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that comes from God.

2:20  The New Life in ChristIf you have died with Christ to the basic principles of the world,Or the elemental spirits of the universe why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world?

2:21  “Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!”

2:22  All of these things will be destroyed through use because they are based on human commands and teachings.

2:23  These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence.