| ….For I want you to know how greatly I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not met me in person. I do this so that they might be strengthened in heart and instructed in love. That way they can have the riches of a full assurance of understanding which results in the full knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ himself, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are kept. I say this so that no one might deceive you with persuasive speech. For although I am not physically with you, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your discipline and steadfast faith in Christ. | 1-5 |
| ….Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so now continue to walk in him, having been firmly rooted and built up in him, established in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by means of empty, deceptive philosophy, which is according to the tradition of men and according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him, the entire fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And you are made full in him, who is the head over every ruler and power. In him you were also circumcised- not with a circumcision done by hands, but in the cutting off of your fleshly body through the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in him also you were raised with him through your faith in the powerful work of God who raised him from the dead. And you, even though you were dead in your transgressions and in your uncircumcised flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven all of our trespasses by destroying the record of our debts that was held against us, because of the decrees which were opposed to us. He has completely removed our record of debt by nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the rulers and powers of their authority at the cross, he put them to open shame by leading them as captives in a triumphant parade. | 6-15 |
| ….Therefore, do not let anyone pass judgment on you in terms of what you eat and drink, or in respect to a special feast, or a new moon festival, or Sabbaths, which are merely a shadow of things to come, but the true substance belongs to Christ. Let no one who delights in false asceticism and the worship of angels condemn you; who talks incessantly about things he has seen, having an over-inflated ego (yet without reason to have such an ego), by his fleshly mind. They are not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, being nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows by the growth from God. | 16-19 |
| ….Since you have died with Christ from the elementary spirits of the world, why do you subject yourselves to regulations as if you were living in the world? “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” These things, which are all destined to perish with use, are according to the commandments and teachings of men. Although they have the appearance of wisdom in freely-chosen worship and asceticism brought about by a severe treatment to the body, they have no actual worth in satisfying the desires of the flesh. | 20-23 |
| Resources Used: |
| Colossians-Philemon, WBC, by Peter O’Brien Colossians and Philemon, TNTC, by N.T. Wright BDAG A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament by Max Zerwick NET Bible notes |
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