| 2:1 | For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you,* and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face.* |
| 2:2 | My goal is that* their hearts, having been knit together* in love, may be encouraged, and that* they may have all the riches that assurance brings 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 arguments* that sound reasonable.* |
| 2:5 | For though* I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see* your morale* and the firmness of your faith in Christ. |
| 2:6 | Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,* continue to live your lives* in him, |
| 2:7 | rooted* and built up in him and firm* in your* faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. |
| 2:8 | Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you* through an empty, deceitful philosophy* that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits* of the world, and not according to Christ. |
| 2:9 | For in him all the fullness of deity lives* 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,* with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal* of the fleshly body,* that is,* through the circumcision done by Christ. |
| 2:12 | Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your* faith in the power* of God who raised him from the dead. |
| 2:13 | And even though you were dead in your* transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless* made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. |
| 2:14 | He has destroyed* what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness* expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. |
| 2:15 | Disarming* the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.* |
| 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 | these are only* the shadow of the things to come, but the reality* is Christ!* |
| 2:18 | Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths* about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind.* |
| 2:19 | He has not held fast* to the head from whom the whole body, supported* and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.* |
| 2:20 | If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits* of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world? |
| 2:21 | “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” |
| 2:22 | These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are* on human commands and teachings.* |
| 2:23 | Even though they have the appearance of wisdom* with their self-imposed worship and false humility* achieved by an* unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence.* |
Colossians 2 - NET Bible [draft]
