| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 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 for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met 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. | 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 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 deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. |
| 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 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. |
| 6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. | 6Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives 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. | 7rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. |
| 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. | 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 Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. | 9For in him all the fullness of deity lives 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 in him, who is the head over 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 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. |
| 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, you also have been raised with him through your 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. | 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. |
| 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing 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. |
| 15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. | 15Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by 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 do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, 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 only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is 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 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 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 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. |
| 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 elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world? |
| 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. | 22These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are 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. | 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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