¹ I want you to know in how great a struggle I am engaged for you and for Christ’s People at Laodicea, and for all who have not yet seen me;

² in the hope that they, being bound to one another by love, and keeping in view the full blessedness of a firm conviction, may be encouraged to strive for a perfect knowledge of God’s hidden Truth,

³ even Christ himself, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden.

⁴ I say this to prevent any one from deceiving you by plausible arguments.

⁵ It is true that I am not with you in person, but I am with you in spirit, and am glad to see the good order and the unbroken front resulting from your faith in Christ.

⁶ Since, therefore, you have received Jesus, the Christ, as your Lord, live your lives in union with him —

⁷ rooted in him, building up your characters through union with him, growing stronger through your faith, as you were taught, overflowing with faith and thanksgiving.

⁸ Take care there is not some one who will carry you away by his ‘philosophy’ — a hollow sham! — following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.

⁹ For in Christ the Godhead in all its fulness dwells incarnate;

¹⁰ and, by your union with him, you also are filled with it. He is the Head of all Archangels and Powers of Heaven.

¹¹ By your union with him you received a circumcision that was not performed by human hands, when you threw off the tyranny of the earthly body, and received the circumcision of the Christ.

¹² For in baptism you were buried with Christ; and in baptism you were also raised to Life with him, through your faith in the omnipotence of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ And to you, who once were ‘dead,’ by reason of your sins and your uncircumcised nature — to you God gave Life in giving life to Christ! He pardoned all our sins!

¹⁴ He canceled the bond which stood against us — the bond that consisted of ordinances — and which was directly hostile to us! He has taken it out of our way by nailing it to the cross!

¹⁵ He rid himself of all the Powers of Evil, and held them up to open contempt, when he celebrated his triumph over them on the cross!

¹⁶ Do not, then, allow any one to take you to task on questions of eating or drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly or weekly festivals.

¹⁷ These things are only the shadow of what is to come; the substance is in the Christ.

¹⁸ Do not let any one defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called ‘humility’ and angel-worship. Such a man busies himself with his visions, and without reason is rendered conceited by his merely human intellect.

¹⁹ He fails to maintain union with the Head, to whom it is due that the whole body, nourished and knit together by the contact and connexion of every part, grows with a divine growth.

²⁰ Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as though your life were still that of the world,

²¹ to such ordinances as ‘Do not handle, or taste, or touch’?

²² For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.

²³ Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called ‘humility,’ and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.