Chapter 2

For I wish you to know what great concern I have for you and for the Laodiceans and for all who have not seen me in the flesh;

that their hearts may be comforted, and they themselves well equipped in charity and in all the riches of complete understanding, so as to know the mystery of God the Father of Christ Jesus,

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

Now I say this so that no one may deceive you by persuasive words.

For though I am absent in body, yet in spirit I am with you, rejoicing at the sight of your orderly array and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

Therefore, as you have received Jesus Christ our Lord, so walk in him;

be rooted in him built up on him, and strengthened in the faith, as you also have learnt, rendering thanks abundantly. Speculative Errors

See to it that no one deceives you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to human traditions, according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ.

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

and in him who is the head of every Principality and Power you have received of that fullness.

In him, too, you have been circumcised with a circumcision not wrought by hand, but through putting off the body of the flesh, a circumcision which is of Christ.

For you were buried together with him in Baptism, and in him also rose again through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

And you, when you were dead by reason of your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought to life along with him, forgiving you all your sins,

cancelling the decree against us, which was hostile to us. Indeed, he has taken it completely away, nailing it to the cross.

Disarming the Principalities and Powers, he displayed them openly, leading them away in triumph by force of it. Erroneous Practices

Let no one, then, call you to account for what you eat or drink or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Let no one cheat you who takes pleasure in self-abasement and worship of the angels, and enters vainly into what he has not seen, puffed up by his mere human mind.

Such a one is not united to the head, from whom the whole body, supplied and built up by joints and ligaments, attains a growth that is of God.

If you have died with Christ to the elements of the world, why, as if still living in the world, do you lay down the rules:

"Do not touch; nor taste; nor handle! "---

things that must all perish in their very use? In this you follow "the precepts and doctrines of men, "

which, to be sure, have a show of wisdom in superstition and self-abasement and hard treatment of the body, but are not to be held in esteem, and lead to the full gratification of the flesh.