| Christian Standard Bible | NET Bible |
| 1For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. | 1For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. |
| 2I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery--Christ. | 2My goal is that their hearts, having been knit together in love, may be encouraged, and that they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, |
| 3In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. | 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. |
| 4I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. | 4I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. |
| 5For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ. | 5For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. |
| 6So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, | 6Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, |
| 7being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude. | 7rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. |
| 8Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. | 8Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. |
| 9For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, | 9For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, |
| 10and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. | 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. |
| 11You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, | 11In him you also were circumcised--not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. |
| 12when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. | 12Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. |
| 13And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. | 13And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. |
| 14He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. | 14He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. |
| 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him. | 15Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. |
| 16Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. | 16Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days-- |
| 17These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. | 17these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! |
| 18Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. | 18Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. |
| 19He doesn't hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God. | 19He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. |
| 20If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: | 20If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world? |
| 21"Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch"? | 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" |
| 22All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. | 22These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings. |
| 23Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence. | 23Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and false humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body--a wisdom with no true value--they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. |
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