Colossians 2

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face ,

²that their hearts may be encouraged , being knit together in love , to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery , which is Christ ,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge .

⁴I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments .

⁵For though I am absent in body , yet I am with you in spirit , rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ .

⁶Therefore , as you received Christ Jesus the Lord , so walk in him ,

⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith , as you were taught , abounding in thanksgiving .

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit , according to human tradition , according to the elemental spirits of the world , and not according to Christ .

⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily ,

¹⁰and you have been filled in him , who is the head of all rule and authority .

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands , by putting off the body of the flesh , by the circumcision of Christ ,

¹²having been buried with him in baptism , in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God , who raised him from the dead .

¹³And you , who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh , God made alive together with him , having forgiven us all our trespasses ,

¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands . This he set aside , nailing it to the cross .

¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame , by triumphing over them in him .

¹⁶Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink , or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath .

¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come , but the substance belongs to Christ .

¹⁸Let no one disqualify you , insisting on asceticism and worship of angels , going on in detail about visions , puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind ,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the Head , from whom the whole body , nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments , grows with a growth that is from God .

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world , why , as if you were still alive in the world , do you submit to regulations —

²¹Do not handle , Do not taste , Do not touch

²²( referring to things that all perish as they are used )—according to human precepts and teachings ?

²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body , but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh .