New Testament · Letters

Colossians chapter 2

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 : himself.In him, all the of and are stored up.I’m telling you this so that no one 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, in him, and growing stronger in your trust, just as you were taught — overflowing with .Watch out — don’t let anyone 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 .In him, you were also given a that wasn’t done by human hands — it was the stripping away of the , the circumcision that comes from The One.When you were , you were buried with him, and in that submersion you were also with him through your in the power of God, who raised 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 failures.He erased the against us — that whole list of we couldn’t keep. He took it out of the way by nailing it to the .He the 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 , 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 — grows the way God designed it to grow.If you The One to the of this world, why do you keep as though you still belonged to it?“ this! Don’t that! Don’t even it!”These rules are all about things that are the moment you use them — they’re just .These rules might look wise — with their , their , and their — but they have no real power to stop anyone from giving in to their .