02:01 .. for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea .. ......... and for all those who have not personally seen my face 02:02 .. that their hearts may be encouraged .. having been knit together in love .. and attaining to all the wealth that comes ......... from the full assurance of understanding .. resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery .. that is .. Christ Himself 02:03 .. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge 02:04 .. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument 02:05 .. for even though I am absent in body .. nevertheless I am with you in spirit .. rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ 02:06 .. therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord .. so walk in him 02:07 .. having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith .. just as you were instructed .. .........and overflowing with gratitude
02:08 .. see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception .. according to the tradition of men .. ......... according to the elementary principles of the world .. rather than according to Christ 02:09 .. for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form 02:10 .. and in him you have been made complete .. and he is the head over all rule and authority
02:11 .. and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands .. ......... in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ 02:12 .. having been buried with him in baptism .. in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God .. ......... who raised him from the dead 02:13 .. when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh .. he made you alive together with him .. ......... having forgiven us all our transgressions 02:14 .. having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us .. which was hostile to us .. and he has taken it out of the way .. ......... having nailed it to the cross 02:15 .. when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities .. he made a public display of them .. having triumphed over them through him
02:16 .. therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day 02:17 .. things which are a mere shadow of what is to come .. but the substance belongs to Christ 02:18 .. let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels .. ......... taking his stand on visions he has seen .. inflated without cause by his fleshly mind 02:19 .. and not holding fast to the head .. from whom the entire body .. being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments .. ......... grows with a growth which is from God 02:20 .. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world .. why .. as if you were living in the world .. ......... do you submit yourself to decrees .. such as 02:21 .. ho not handle .. do not taste .. do not touch 02:22 .. (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) .. in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men 02:23 .. these are matters which have .. to be sure .. the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body .. ......... but are of no value against fleshly indulgence
Believers who understand the perfections of Christ and have a well settled judgment of the great truths of the Gospel .. will be preserved from all the ensnaring insinuations of those who would corrupt the Gospel principles .. all true Christians have a salvation complete in him and need not pin their faith on the opinions of philosophers nor bear the yoke of ceremonial law .. Christ alone is the hope of glory and in him we are complete . . . . v 3 & 9 Christ is the wisdom of God .. and is of God made wisdom to the humble .. the treasures of wisdom are not hidden from us in Christ .. but for us .. supposed supplies of spiritual wisdom from any other source are a delusion .. the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ .. not figuratively .. but literally .. for he is both God and man .. the manifestation of the Father to us