The Koine Bible

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh,

so that their hearts may be encouraged, having been united in love and reaching all the wealth of the full knowledge of understanding, to the recognition of the mystery of God, the Messiah,

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I say this so that no one deceives you through plausible arguments.

For even if I am absent in the flesh, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Therefore, just as you received the Messiah Jesus the Lord, walk in him,

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

For in him all the fullness of the deity dwells bodily,

And you are complete in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority,

In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

Having wiped out the record of debt against us, which was opposed to us by its regulations, he took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Having stripped off the principalities and the authorities, he exposed them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Therefore, let no one judge you regarding food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,

which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body of the Messiah.

Let no one disqualify you, desiring humility and the worship of angels, which he has seen, being puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind,

and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supplied and joined together through the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth of God.

If you died with Christ from the elemental principles of the world, why do you live as if you are subject to regulations while living in the world?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,

which are all destined to perish through use, according to human commandments and teachings?

which have a reputation of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value in restraining sensual indulgence.