1 ¶ For I want you to know how hard I struggle on your behalf, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have never met me face to face;

2 That your hearts might be comforted, as you are bound together by love, that you might have the full assurance of understanding, and know the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

3 In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 ¶ I say this so that no one will deceive you with fine sounding words.

5 For even though I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit, and rejoice to see your unity, and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

6 Therefore as you have received the Lord Jesus, continue to live in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, established in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest any man take you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, after the tradition of men, after the basic principles of this world, and not after Christ.

9 For all the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily.

10 And you are complete in him, who is the head of all government and authority:

11 In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12 Buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who has raised him from the dead.

13 ¶ And he has made you, who were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, alive together with him, having forgiven all of your sins;

14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

15 And having stripped rulers and authorities of dominion, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

16 ¶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat, or drink, or in regard to a holyday, or the new moon, or the Sabbath day:

17 Which were a shadow of the things that were to come; for the reality is found in Christ.

18 Let no man swindle you out of your reward through a false humility and the worship of angels, intruding into things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

19 And not holding fast to the Head, from whom the entire body, supported and held together by ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to increase.

20 Therefore if you died with Christ to the elemental things of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules,

21 Do not touch; do not taste; do not handle;

22 (All of which refer to things that perish with use;) in accord with the commandments and doctrines of men?

23 Such things do have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body; but are of no value in removing the desires of the flesh.