¹For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you and for those at Laodicea , and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh ;

²that their hearts may be comforted , they 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 ,

³in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

⁴Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.

⁵For though I am absent in the flesh , yet I am with you in the spirit , rejoicing and seeing your order , and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ .

⁶As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord , walk in him ,

⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith , even as you were taught , abounding in it in thanksgiving .

⁸Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men , after the elemental spirits of the world , and not after Christ .

⁹For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily ,

¹⁰and in him you are made full , who is the head of all principality and power .

¹¹In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh , in the circumcision of Christ ,

¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God , who raised him from the dead .

¹³You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh . He made you alive together with him , having forgiven us all our trespasses ,

¹⁴wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us . He has taken it out of the way , nailing it to the cross .

¹⁵Having stripped the principalities and the powers , he made a show of them openly , triumphing over them in it .

¹⁶Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking , or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day ,

¹⁷which are a shadow of the things to come ; but the body is Christ ’s.

¹⁸Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen , vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind ,

¹⁹and not holding firmly to the Head , from whom all the body , being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments , grows with God ’s growth.

²⁰If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world , why , as though living in the world , do you subject yourselves to ordinances ,

²¹“Don’t handle , nor taste , nor touch ”

²²(all of which perish with use ), according to the precepts and doctrines of men ?

²³These 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 .