| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, | 1I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. |
| 2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, | 2I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. |
| 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. | 3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. |
| 4I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. | 4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. |
| 5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. | 5For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ |
| 6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, | 6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. |
| 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. | 7Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. |
| 8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. | 8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. |
| 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, | 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. |
| 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. | 10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. |
| 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, | 11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. |
| 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. | 12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. |
| 13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, | 13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. |
| 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. | 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. |
| 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. | 15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. |
| 16Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. | 16So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. |
| 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. | 17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. |
| 18Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, | 18Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, |
| 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. | 19and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. |
| 20If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— | 20You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, |
| 21“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” | 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? |
| 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? | 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. |
| 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. | 23These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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