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¹ For I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have never seen me face to face.[fn][xr] ² Because they are united in love, I pray[fn] that their hearts may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of the full knowledge of Christ, who is the secret of God.[xr] ³ In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.[xr]

⁴ I say this so that no one will mislead you with nice-sounding rhetoric.[xr] ⁵ For although I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how stable you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.[xr] ⁶ So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live in him.[xr] ⁷ For you have been rooted in him and are being built up and strengthened in the faith, just as you were taught, while you overflow with thanksgiving.[xr] ⁸ See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world,[fn] and not according to Christ.[xr] ⁹ For in him the whole fullness of God lives in bodily form.[xr] ¹⁰ And you have been brought to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.[xr] ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human[fn] hands by stripping off the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ.[xr] ¹² When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.[xr]

¹³ Even when you were dead because of your offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God[fn] made you alive with him when he forgave us all of our offenses,[xr] ¹⁴ having erased the charges that were brought against us with their decrees that were hostile to us. He took those charges away when he nailed them to the cross.[xr] ¹⁵ And when he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.[fn][xr]

¹⁶ Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath day.[xr] ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality[fn] belongs to Christ.[xr] ¹⁸ Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by boasting about what he has seen.[fn] Such a person is puffed up without cause by his carnal mind.[xr] ¹⁹ He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, which is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that comes from God.[xr] ²⁰ If you have died with Christ to the basic principles of the world,[fn] why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world?[xr] ²¹ "Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!"[xr] ²² All of these things will be destroyed through use because they are based on human commands and teachings.[xr] ²³ These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence.[xr]