| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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 |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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, |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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