| New Living Translation | New American Standard Bible 1995 |
| 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 great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my 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. | 2that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, |
| 3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. | 3in whom are hidden 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 delude you with persuasive argument. |
| 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 even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. |
| 6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. | 6Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in 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. | 7having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. |
| 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 takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. |
| 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. | 9For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, |
| 10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. | 10and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule 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. | 11and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; |
| 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. | 12having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working 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. | 13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, |
| 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. | 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it 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. | 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. |
| 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 no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- |
| 17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. | 17things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. |
| 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 keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly 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. | 19and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. |
| 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 Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, |
| 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? | 21"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" |
| 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. | 22(which all refer to things destined to perish with use)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? |
| 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 are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org |
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