Colossians 2:8–23

  1. Beware lest anyone carry you off as spoil
        through philosophy and empty deceit,
        according to the tradition of men,
        according to the elementary principles of the world,
        and not according to Christ.
  2. For in him dwells all the fullness of Deity in bodily form;
  3. and you have been made full in him,
        who is the head of all rule and authority.
  1. In him you were also circumcised
        with a circumcision made without hands,
        in stripping off the body of the flesh,
    in the circumcision of Christ,
     
  2. buried together with him in baptism,
    in whom you were also raised together with him
        through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
  3. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
    he made alive together with him,
     
    forgiving us all trespasses,
  4.     wiping out the record of debt against us with its decrees,
        that which was hostile to us, even this he has set aside,
    nailing it to the cross.
     
  5. Having stripped rulers and authorities,
    he made a public display of them, triumphing over them in it.
  1. Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink,
        or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,
  2. which are a shadow of things to come, but the reality [body] is of Christ.
  3. Let no one disqualify you [from the prize],
        insisting on [false] humility and worship of angels,
        taking his stand on [visions] he has seen,
        puffed up without reason by his fleshly mind,
  4. and not holding fast to the head,
        from whom all the body, nourished and knit together through the joints and ligaments,
        grows with a growth that is from God.
     
  5. If you died together with Christ
        from elementary principles of the world,
    why, as if living in the world,
        do you submit to regulations, 21”handle not, taste not, touch not,”
  6.     (which all concern things destined to perish with use)
        according to the commandments and teachings of men?
  7. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom
        in self-imposed religion, [false] humility, and severity to the body,
        but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

(Andrew Fountain 2022-09-20)