| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 1For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, | 1For 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. |
| 2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, | 2My 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, |
| 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. | 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. |
| 4Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. | 4I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. |
| 5For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. | 5For 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. |
| 6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, | 6Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, |
| 7rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. | 7rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. |
| 8Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. | 8Be 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. |
| 9For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; | 9For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, |
| 10and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. | 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. |
| 11In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, | 11In 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. |
| 12buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. | 12Having 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. |
| 13And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, | 13And 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. |
| 14having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. | 14He 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. |
| 15Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. | 15Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. |
| 16So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, | 16Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days-- |
| 17which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. | 17these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! |
| 18Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, | 18Let 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. |
| 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. | 19He 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. |
| 20Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— | 20If 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? |
| 21“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” | 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" |
| 22which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? | 22These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings. |
| 23These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. | 23Even 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. |
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