Colossians 2

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 I want you to know, then, what a struggle I am having on your behalf and on behalf of those in Laodicea,and on behalf of so many others who have never seen me face to face.	1 For I would have you know, what manner of care I have for you and for them that are at Laodicea, and whosoever have not seen my face in the flesh:
2 It is all to bind them together in love and to encourage their resolution until they are rich in the assuranceof their complete understanding and have knowledge of the mystery of God	2 That their hearts may be comforted, being instructed in charity, and unto all riches of fulness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus:
3 in which al the jewels of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.	3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I say this to make sure that no one deceives you with specious arguments.	4 Now this I say, that no man may deceive you by loftiness of words.
5 I may be absent in body, but in spirit I am there among you, delighted to find how wel -ordered you areand to see how firm your faith in Christ is.	5 For though I be absent in body, yet in spirit I am with you; rejoicing, and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith which is in Christ.
6 So then, as you received Jesus as Lord and Christ, now live your lives in him,	6 As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in him;
7 be rooted in him and built up on him, held firm by the faith you have been taught, and overflowing withthanksgiving.	7 Rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as also you have learned, abounding in him in thanksgiving.
8 Make sure that no one captivates you with the empty lure of a 'philosophy' of the kind that human beingshand on, based on the principles of this world and not on Christ.	8 Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ:
9 In him, in bodily form, lives divinity in al its ful ness,	9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally;
10 and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every sovereignty and rulingforce.	10 And you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power:
11 In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision performed, not by human hand, but by thecomplete stripping of your natural self. This is circumcision according to Christ.	11 In whom also you are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand, in despoiling of the body of the flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ:
12 You have been buried with him by your baptism; by which, too, you have been raised up with himthrough your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead.	12 Buried with him in baptism, in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him up from the dead.
13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life withhim, he has forgiven us every one of our sins.	13 And you, when you were dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh; he hath quickened together with him, forgiving you all offences:
14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it bynailing it to the cross;	14 Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross:
15 and he has stripped the sovereignties and the ruling forces, and paraded them in public, behind him inhis triumphal procession.	15 And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself.
16 Then never let anyone criticise you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals,New Moons or Sabbaths.	16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths,
17 These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ.	17 Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
18 Do not be cheated of your prize by anyone who chooses to grovel to angels and worship them, pinningevery hope on visions received, vainly puffed up by a human way of thinking;	18 Let no man seduce you, willing in humility, and religion of angels, walking in the things which he hath not seen, in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh,
19 such a person has no connection to the Head, by which the whole body, given al that it needs andheld together by its joints and sinews, grows with the growth given by God.	19 And not holding the head, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth unto the increase of God.
20 If you have really died with Christ to the principles of this world, why do you stil let rules dictate to you,as though you were still living in the world?	20 If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as though living in the world?
21 -'Do not pick up this, do not eat that, do not touch the other,'	21 Touch not, taste not, handle not:
22 and al about things which perish even while they are being used -- according to merely humancommandments and doctrines!	22 Which all are unto destruction by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men.
23 In these rules you can indeed find what seems to be good sense -- the cultivation of the wil , and ahumility which takes no account of the body; but in fact they have no value against self-indulgence.	23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in superstition and humility, and not sparing the body; not in any honour to the filling of the flesh.