Colossians 2 NIV NLT Parallel

◄ Colossians 2 ►

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New Living Translation

1I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.

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.

2My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, 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 tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.

5For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

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

6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives 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, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

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 through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on 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 Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

10and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by 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 your faith in the 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.

13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

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.

14having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

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 that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.

18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual 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,

19They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

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.

20Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:

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!”?

22These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.

22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.

23Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

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.

New International Version (NIV)

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