Read Amplified Bible, 2015 Colossians 2 Bible Online

Colossians 2 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Colossians 2

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those [believers] at[1] Laodicea, and for all who [like yourselves] have never seen me face to face.

²[For my hope is] that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in [unselfish][2] love, so that they may have all the riches that come from the full assurance of understanding [the joy of salvation], resulting in a true [and more intimate] knowledge of the[3] mystery of God, that is, Christ,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [regarding the word and purposes of God].

⁴I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive [but thoroughly deceptive] arguments.

⁵For even though I am absent [from you] in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit,[4] delighted to see your good discipline [as you stand shoulder to shoulder and form a solid front] and to see the stability of your faith in Christ [your steadfast reliance on Him and your unwavering confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].

⁶Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in [union with] Him [reflecting His character in the things you do and say—living lives that lead others away from sin],

⁷having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established[5] in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception [pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the[6] elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ.

⁹For in Him all the fullness of Deity (the Godhead) dwells in bodily form [completely expressing the divine essence of God].

¹⁰And in Him you have been made complete [achieving spiritual stature through Christ], and He is the head over all rule and authority [of every angelic and earthly power].

¹¹In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature],

¹²having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead.

¹³When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins,

¹⁴having canceled out the[7] certificate of debt consisting of[8] legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through[9] the cross.

¹⁶Therefore let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or in regard to [the observance of] a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.

¹⁷Such things are only a shadow of what is to come and they have only symbolic value; but the substance [the reality of what is foreshadowed] belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Let no one defraud you of your prize [your freedom in Christ and your salvation] by insisting on mock humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about visions [he claims] he has seen [to justify his authority], puffed up [in conceit] by his unspiritual mind,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the head [of the body, Jesus Christ], from whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth [that can come only] from God.

²⁰If you have died with Christ to the[10] elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit to rules and regulations, such as,

²¹"Do not handle [this], do not taste [that], do not [even] touch!"?

²²(these things all perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

²³These practices indeed have the appearance [that popularly passes as that] of wisdom in self-made religion and mock humility and severe treatment of the body (asceticism), but are of no value against sinful indulgence [because they do not honor God].