Colossians 2

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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 want you to know the kind of solicitude that I have for you, and for those who are at Laodicea, as well as for those who 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 May their hearts be consoled and instructed in charity, with all the riches of a plenitude of understanding, with 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 For in him are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I say this to make sure that no one deceives you with specious arguments.	4 Now I say this, so that no one may deceive you with grandiose 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 may be absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit. And I rejoice as I gaze upon your order and its foundation, which is in Christ, your faith.
6 So then, as you received Jesus as Lord and Christ, now live your lives in him,	6 Therefore, just as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, walk 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 Be rooted and continually built up in Christ. And be confirmed in the faith, just as you have also learned it, increasing in him with acts of 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 See to it that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty falsehoods, as found in the traditions of men, in accord with the influences of the world, and not in accord with Christ.
9 In him, in bodily form, lives divinity in al its ful ness,	9 For in him, all the fullness of the Divine Nature dwells bodily.
10 and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every sovereignty and rulingforce.	10 And in him, you have been filled; for he 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 him also, you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, not by the despoiling of the body of flesh, but by 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 You have been buried with him in baptism. In him also, you have risen again through faith, by the work of God, who 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 when you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he enlivened you, together with him, forgiving you of all transgressions,
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 and wiping away the handwriting of the decree which was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken this away from your midst, affixing 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 so, despoiling principalities and powers, he has led them away confidently and openly, 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 Therefore, let no one judge you as concerns food or drink, or a particular feast day, or feast days of new moons, or of Sabbaths.
17 These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ.	17 For these are a shadow of the future, 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 one seduce you, preferring base things and a religion of Angels, walking according to what he has not seen, being vainly inflated by the sensations 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 up the head, with which the whole body, by its underlying joints and ligaments, is joined together and grows with an increase that is 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 So then, if you have died with Christ to the influences of this world, why do you still make decisions as if you were living in the world?
21 -'Do not pick up this, do not eat that, do not touch the other,'	21 Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle these things,
22 and al about things which perish even while they are being used -- according to merely humancommandments and doctrines!	22 which all lead to destruction by their very use, in accord with 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 Such ideas have at least an intention to attain to wisdom, but through superstition and debasement, not sparing the body, and they are without any honor in satiating the flesh.