Not Philosophy but Christ
1 For I want you to know what a greatconflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, andforas many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, andattainingto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I saylest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
5 Forthough I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to seeyourgoodorder and thesteadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according tothe tradition of men, according to thebasic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 Forin Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is thehead of all principality and power.
Not Legalism but Christ
11 In Him you were alsocircumcised with the circumcision made without hands, byputting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised withHimthroughfaith in the working of God,who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmedprincipalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no onejudge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight infalsehumility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast tothe Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments,grows with the increasethatisfrom God.
20 Therefore, if youdied with Christ from the basic principles of the world,why, asthoughliving in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—
21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion,falsehumility, and neglect of the body,butareof no value against the indulgence of the flesh.