Col 2 | ABEn | STEP | For I want you to know how much struggle I have for you, and the ones in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in flesh;

Colossians 2

CHAPTER 2 Let No One Mislead You

1 For I want you to know how much struggle I have for you, and the ones in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in flesh; 2 that [²should be comforted ¹their hearts], being instructed in love, and in all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, in full knowledge of the mystery of the God and father and of the Christ; 3 in which are all the treasures of the wisdom and of the knowledge concealed. 4 And this I say, that not anyone should mislead you in plausible arguments. 5 For if even in the flesh I am absent, yet in the spirit [²with ³you ¹I am], rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness, the one [²in ³Christ ¹of your belief]. 6 As then you took to yourself the Christ -- Jesus the Lord; [²in ³him ¹walk]! 7 being rooted and built up in him, and being firmed up in the belief, as you were taught, abounding in it with thankfulness. 8 Take heed lest [²anyone ⁴you ¹there shall be ³robbing] through the fondness of intellectual pursuits and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ!

The Deity of Christ

9 For in him dwells all the fullness of the deity bodily. 10 And you are [²in ³him ¹being fulfilled], who is the head of all sovereignty and authority; 11 in whom also you were circumcised by a circumcision not made by hands, in the stripping of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ; 12 having been buried together with him in the immersion, in which also you were risen up together through the belief of the energy of God -- the one having raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in the transgressions, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, granting forgiveness to us for all the transgressions; 14 having wiped away the [⁴against ⁵us ¹handwriting ²by the ³decrees], which was contrary to us; and he has lifted it from out of the midst, having fastened it with a nail to the cross; 15 having divested the sovereignties and the authorities, he made an example in an open manner triumphing over them by it. 16 [²not ³then ⁴anyone ⁶you ¹Let ⁵judge] in food or in drink, or in the rank of a holiday feast, or new moon, or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of the things about to be -- but the body of the Christ! 18 [²no one ⁴you ¹Let ³deprive] of due reward, wanting by deprivation and following a religion of angels, [²things which ³he has not ⁴seen ¹entering into], vainly being inflated by the mind of his flesh, 19 and not holding onto the head, from out of which all the body through the ligaments and sinews being supplied and being instructed, grow by the growth of God. 20 If then you died with the Christ from the elements of the world, why as living in the world do you subject yourselves to decrees? 21 that is, You should not lightly touch, nor should you taste, nor should you touch, 22 (which things are all for corruption in abuse,) according to the precepts and instructions of men, 23 which is communication then having wisdom in man made religion, and deprivation, and austerity of the body, not in any value to fullness of the flesh.