1I want you to know how hard I'm working for you, and for those at Laodicea—in fact for all those who haven't met me personally—

2so that you may be encouraged. May you be bound together in love, experiencing the great benefit of being completely sure in your understanding, for this is what the true knowledge of God brings. May you know the revealed mystery of God, which is Christ!

3In him you can discover all the rich wisdom and knowledge of God.

4I'm telling you this so that no one will fool you by spinning you a tale. ⁴

5Even though I'm not physically there with you, I'm with you in spirit. I'm so happy to see the way you stick together and how firm you are in your trust in Christ.

6Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, go on following him,

7grounded in him and built up by him. May your trust in him continue to grow strong, following what you were taught, full of gratitude to God.

8Watch out that nobody enslaves you through their philosophy and worthless delusions, following human traditions and concepts of this world, and not following Christ.

9For the fullness of God's divine nature lives in Christ in bodily form,

10and you have been made full ⁵in him. He is supreme over every ruler and authority.

11You were “circumcised” in him but not by human hands. You have been set free from sinful human nature by the “circumcision” Christ performed. ⁶

12You were buried with him in baptism, and you were raised with him through your trust in what God did by raising him from the dead.

13And even though you were dead because of your sins and being physically “uncircumcised,” he brought you to life together with him. He has forgiven us all our sins.

14He wiped out the record of our debts according to the Law that was written down against us; he took away this barrier ⁷by nailing it to the cross.

15He stripped away the power of spiritual rulers and authorities, ⁸and having publicly revealed what they were truly like, he led them captive behind him in victory.

16So don't let anyone criticize you for what you eat or what you drink, or regarding which religious festival, new moon ritual, or ceremonial sabbaths you choose to observe. ⁹

17These are just a shadow of what was to come, for the physical reality is Christ.

18Don't let anyone cheat you out of your prize by insisting you have to beat yourself, ¹⁰or worship angels. They think they are better than anyone else because of visions they say they've had, and become ridiculously conceited in their sinful minds.

19Such people are not connected to the head that directs the body, nourished and joined together through the body's sinews and muscles. As the body is united together it grows the way God wants it to grow.

20If you died with Christ to the religious demands that this world insists upon, ¹¹why would you make yourself subject to such demands as if you were still part of this world?

21Things like: don't handle that, don't taste that, don't touch that!

22These commands refer to things that don't last since they're used up, ¹²and they're based on man-made requirements and teachings.

23Such rules may make some kind of sense to those who practice self-centered piety, who are so proud of being humble, and who “mortify the body;” but in reality they don't help at all in dealing with sinful desires.