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2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you,1 and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not met me face to face.2 2:2 My goal is that3 their hearts, having been knit together4 in love, may be encouraged, and that5 they may have all the riches of full assurance in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments6 that sound reasonable.7 2:5 For though8 I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see9 the order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Warnings Against the Adoption of False Philosophies

2:6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,10 continue to live your lives11 in him, 2:7 rooted12 and built up in him and firm13 in your14 faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you15 through an empty, deceitful philosophy16 that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits17 of the world, and not according to Christ. 2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives18 in bodily form 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 2:11 In him you also were circumcised—not, however,19 with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal20 of the fleshy body,21 that is,22 through the circumcision done by Christ. 2:12 Having been united with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your23 faith in the power24 of God who raised him from the dead. 2:13 And even though you were dead in your25 transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nonetheless26 made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 2:14 He has destroyed27 what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness28 expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross, 2:15 and disarming29 the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.30

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days 2:17 that are only31 the shadow of the things to come, but the reality32 is Christ.33 2:18 Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths34 about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind.35 2:19 He has not held fast36 to the head from whom the whole body, supported37 and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.38

2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits39 of the world, why as though you lived in the world do you submit to them? 2:21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” 2:22 These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are40 on human commands and teachings.41 2:23 They have the appearance of wisdom42 with their self-imposed worship and false humility,43 by an44 unsparing treatment of the body, but they are thoroughly useless when it comes to restraining the indulgences of the flesh.45

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