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Colossians  


2 : 1 For I want you to knowhow great astruggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
2 : 2 thattheir hearts may be encouraged, beingknit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge ofGod's mystery, which is Christ,
2 : 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
2 : 4 I say this in orderthat no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
2 : 5 Forthough I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see yourgood order andthe firmness of your faith in Christ.
2 : 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
2 : 7 rooted andbuilt up in him andestablished in the faith, justas you were taught, aboundingin thanksgiving.
2 : 8 See to it that no one takes you captive byphilosophy andempty deceit, according tohuman tradition, according to theelemental spiritsof the world, and not according to Christ.
2 : 9 Forin him the whole fullness of deity dwellsbodily,
2 : 10 andyou have been filled in him, who isthe head of all rule and authority.
2 : 11 In him alsoyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, byputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
2 : 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in whichyou were also raised with him through faith inthe powerful working of God,who raised him from the dead.
2 : 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, Godmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
2 : 14 bycancelingthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
2 : 15 He disarmed the rulers and authoritiesandput them to open shame, bytriumphing over them in him.
2 : 16 Therefore let no onepass judgment on youin questions of food and drink, or with regard toa festival ora new moon or a Sabbath.
2 : 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, butthe substance belongs to Christ.
2 : 18 Let no onedisqualify you,insisting on asceticism and worship of angels,going on in detail about visions,puffed up without reason byhis sensuous mind,
2 : 19 andnotholding 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.
2 : 20 If with Christyou died to theelemental spirits of the world,why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations&emdash;
2 : 21 Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch
2 : 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)&emdash;according tohuman precepts and teachings?
2 : 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom inpromoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they areof no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.