Outline
Introduction (1:1-14)The Supremacy of Christ (1:15-23)Paul's Labor for the Church (1:24;2:7)- Freedom from Human Regulations through Life with Christ (2:8-23)
Rules for Holy Living (3:1;4:6)Final Greetings and Benediction (4:7-18)
Colossians 2 NLT
8 Don’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 For in Christ lives all the fullness
of God in a human body.
10 So you also are complete through your
union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 When 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 For 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 You 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 He canceled the record of the charges
against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
15 In this way, he disarmed the
spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over
them on the cross.
16 So 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 For these rules are only shadows of
the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
18 Don’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 and 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.
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 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t
touch!”?
22 Such rules are mere human teachings
about things that deteriorate as we use them.
23 These 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.
