Colossians 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 60-62
Location
Colossae, a city in the Lycus Valley of the Roman province of Asia (modern-day western Turkey)
Audience
Primarily Gentile Christians in Colossae, a church Paul had not personally visited but knew through Epaphras, its likely founder
Situation
Paul writes from prison to counter false teachings threatening the Colossian church. Chapter 2 specifically addresses deceptive philosophies that were undermining the sufficiency of Christ.
Key Background
The Colossian church faced a syncretistic heresy blending Jewish legalism (circumcision, food laws, festival observance), Greek philosophical concepts, and early mystical ideas including angel worship and ascetic practices. Paul emphasizes that Christ alone is sufficient for salvation and spiritual maturity, countering these teachings that suggested believers needed additional spiritual experiences, secret knowledge, or strict rule-keeping beyond faith in Christ.
I want you to know how hard I'm for you, and for those in and for everyone who hasn't met me face to face.
I'm fighting so that their hearts would be strengthened, in love, and so they'd have all the rich confidence that comes from truly understanding — specifically, understanding God's The himself.
In him, all the of and are stored up.
I'm telling you this so that no one you with
Even though I'm not physically there with you, I'm with you in and it makes me so glad to see how you are and how your in The One is.
So since you've Jesus, The One, as your keep living your lives rooted in him —
deep in him, up in him, and growing stronger in your trust, just as you were taught — overflowing with
Watch out — don't let anyone you through and empty deception that's based on human tradition and the of this world rather than on The One.
Because in The One, the entire of lives in a real,
And you have been in him — he is the over every and
In him, you were also given a that wasn't done by human hands — it was the stripping away of the the that comes from The One.
When you were you were buried with him, and in that submersion you were also up with him through your in the power of God, who him from the dead.
You were because of your and because your corrupt nature was unchanged — but God made you alive together with The One, all our
He erased the of against us — that whole list of we couldn't keep. He took it out of the way by nailing it to the
He the and of their power and made a public spectacle of them, leading them as captives in his through the execution stake.
So don't let anyone you for what you eat or drink, or for not observing a a or a day.
These things were just a of what was coming — the is The One himself.
Don't let anyone you by insisting on and the of going on about visions they've had, puffed up by their for no good reason.
They've lost their connection to the from whom the whole body — supported and held together by its and — grows the way God designed it to grow.
If you with The One to the of this world, why do you keep to its as though you still belonged to it?
handle this! taste that! even touch it!"
These rules are all about things that are up and the moment you use them — they're just and
These rules might look wise — with their their and their of the — but they have no real power to stop anyone from giving in to their