Colossians Chapter 2

Urging Continued Faithfulness

⁶ So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, keep on living in him. ⁷ Be rooted and built up in him, firm in faith, like you were taught. ⁸ Make sure nobody takes you captive with empty philosophy that deceives, after human traditions, according to the world’s underlying assumptions rather than after Christ. ⁹ He fully constitutes deity bodily. ¹⁰ In him you have everything you need; he’s the head of all rule and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also ‘circumcised’ without hands. It’s not a circumcision that removes flesh from the body; it’s Christ’s ‘circumcision.’ ¹² You were buried with him in baptism, and raised with him by faith in God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ You were ‘dead’ in sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, but he ‘made you alive’ with him and pardoned your sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the certificate of debt made up of regulations that worked against us, took it out of the way, and nailed it to his cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed rulers and authorities and displayed them openly for what they were by overcoming them in the cross and resurrection.

Col 2:6-15

Concerns Irrelevant for Christians

            ¹⁶ So don’t let anybody judge you about food, drink, or participating in festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. ¹⁷ They’re just shadows of realities to come; but the body belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ And don’t let anybody cheat you by promoting pious self-denial and angel worship—taking a stand on insights they claim to have, proud for no reason in their nature-dominated thinking— ¹⁹ instead of holding onto the Head. From him the whole body, held up and held together by ligaments and tendons, grows in a way that God brings about.                                                         

²⁰ If with Christ you’ve died to the world’s underlying assumptions, why subject yourselves to rules and regulations as if you’re living in the world— ²¹ things like, “Don’t use, don’t taste, don’t touch”? ²² Such human rules and regulations deal with things that wear out from use. ²³ They look wise with their self-imposed piety, self-denial, and severity to the body; but they don’t help manage the physical body.        

Col 2:16-23