Colossians 2 NLT ISV Parallel

◄ Colossians 2 ►

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1I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally.

1For 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.

2I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.

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

3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

3In him are stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.

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

5For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ

5For although I am physically absent, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how stable you are and how firm your faith in the Messiah is.

6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.

6So then, just as you have received the Messiah Jesus the Lord, continue to live dependent on him.

7Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

7For you have been rooted in him and are being built up and strengthened in the faith, just as you were taught, while you continue to be thankful.

8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

8See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to the Messiah,

9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

9because all the essence of deity inhabits him in bodily form.

10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

10And you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

11In union with him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human hands by stripping off the corrupt nature by the circumcision performed by the Messiah.

12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

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

13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

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

14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

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

15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

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

16So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.

16Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days.

17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.

17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Messiah.

18Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,

18Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by rejoicing about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up for no reason by his carnal mind.

19and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

19He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, which is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God enables it.

20You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,

20If you have died with the Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world?

21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?

21"Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!"

22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.

22All of these things will be destroyed as they are used, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

23These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

23These 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.

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