1 Indeed, I want you to know just how intense a race it is that I am running for the sake of you and those in Laodicea, and for all others who have never met me personally, 2 so that their hearts, having been instructed in love, may be strengthened and encouraged, and so that they may be stirred to full conviction about the reliability of what they have come to understand, to a complete certainty about the truth of God’s mystery, the Messiah, 3 in union with whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 This I am saying so that no one will be able to deceive you through false arguments, no matter how plausible they may sound. 5 For even though I am not there in person, I am with you in spirit,+ joyfully watching out for your proper order and the steadfastness of your faith in the Messiah.

6 In light of these things, just as you received Messiah Jesus as Lord, so in union with him you are to continue to live your lives, 7 firmly rooted as you still are and being continually built up in union with him and established more and more in faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with thanksgiving. 8 Make sure that absolutely no one plunders your minds through deceitful philosophy based on the traditions of mere men, which is so void of power, and comes from the lesser powers assigned over creation and not from the Messiah. 9 For in him all the fullness of the divine nature dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in union with him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 In union with him you were circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands, when you took off, like old clothes, your former nature void of the Spirit, when you received the circumcision performed by the Messiah, 12 having been placed in the tomb with him, as it were, in baptism, in which you were also “raised” with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 This includes you. Although you were dead in your sins and in the vile practices of the Gentiles, he gave you new life with the Messiah, having forgiven us all our sins. 14 Having blotted out the written record of debts consisting of ordinances that was against us, which was hostile to us, this he has also taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Disrobing himself, the Messiah made a public example of the rulers and the authorities, having triumphed over them at the cross.

16 In light of these things, don’t let anyone condemn you with respect to what you eat or drink, or in regard to a special festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These things are a foreshadow of the things to come; the reality, however, is of the Messiah. 18 Let absolutely no one pronounce you unfit to receive the prize, delighting in self-abasement and worship of the angels, going into great detail about things he has seen, inflated with pride by his corrupt and sinful mind for no reason at all, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, by its joints and ligaments supported and held together, grows with a growth that comes from God. 20 If you died with the Messiah and have been set free from those lesser powers assigned to creation, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you allow yourselves to be put under rules and regulations— 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!” 22 (referring to things that are all meant to perish as soon as they are eaten and drunk)—based on the precepts and teachings of mere men? 23 Although things of this sort have the appearance of wisdom, in self-imposed religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, they are of no real value in keeping someone from satisfying the evil desires of the mortal nature.