Continue to Walk in Christ
Colossians 2I want y’all know how greatly I struggle for y’all, for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Now I say this so that no one may delude y’all with persuasiveness of speech. For though I am absent in the body, I am present with y’all in spirit, rejoicing and seeing y’all’s disciple and the steadfastness of y’all’s faith in Christ.
Therefore as y’all received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as y’all were taught, and abounding in thanksgiving.
Warnings About Distractions
Y’all see to it that no one takes y’all captive through philosophy and vain deceit, according to human tradition and the elemental spirits of the world rather than after Christ. For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, and in him y’all are made complete. He is the head of all principality and power. In him y’all were also circumcised with a circumcision not done with human hands, by the removal of the body of flesh through the circumcision by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which y’all were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Freedom Through the Cross
When y’all were dead in y’all’s transgressions and in the uncircumcision of y’all’s flesh, he made y’all alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, wiping out the certificate of debt against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a public display of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.
Therefore let no one judge y’all by what you eat or drink, or concerning a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is Christ. Y’all must not let anyone who delights in self-abasement and angel worship defraud y’all. They go into detail about the things they have seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. That person does not hold firmly to the head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with growth from God.
If y’all died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do y’all subject yourselves* to ordinances like: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch!” These rules refer to things destined to perish with use, and are based on human precepts and doctrines. These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body, but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.