Colossians 2Book 51 of 66 · 23 verses · MBT primary, NKJV fallback where MBT pending

  1. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in person —
  2. that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and reaching all the riches of full assurance of understanding — to the full knowledge of God's mystery: Christ,
  3. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
  4. I say this so that no one may deceive you with persuasive arguments.
  5. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit — rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
  6. Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him —
  7. rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught — overflowing in thanksgiving.
  8. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
  9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the deity bodily,
  10. and you are made full in Him — who is the head of every ruler and authority.
  11. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands — by the putting off of the body of the flesh — by the circumcision of Christ.
  12. Buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
  13. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh — God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
  14. having canceled the certificate of debt with its decrees that stood against us — and which was hostile to us. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
  15. Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them — triumphing over them in the cross.
  16. Therefore, let no one judge you in food and drink, or with regard to a feast, a new moon, or a Sabbath day —
  17. things which are a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
  18. Let no one disqualify you, taking pleasure in self-abasement and the worship of angels — going on in detail about visions he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
  19. and not holding fast to the Head — from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God.
  20. If you died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why — as if you were still living in the world — do you submit yourselves to its decrees:
  21. "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch"?
  22. (All these things refer to what perishes with use, in accord with the commandments and teachings of men.)
  23. These things have indeed an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed worship, false humility, and severity to the body — but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.