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I want you to know how hard I am working for you. I'm concerned for those who are in Laodicea. I'm also concerned for everyone who has not met me in person. 2 My goal is that their hearts may be encouraged and strengthened. I want them to be joined together in love. Then their understanding will be rich and complete. They will know the mystery of God. That mystery is Christ. 3 All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. 4 But I don't want anyone to fool you with words that only sound good. 5 So even though I am away from you in body, I am with you in spirit. And I am glad to see that you are controlling yourselves. I am happy that your faith in Christ is so strong. 1:24–2:5 When he was on earth, Jesus sacrificed himself for others because he loved them. This brought him terrible suffering. But his suffering led to glory when God raised him from the dead. Paul followed Jesus' example of serving others out of love. He served them by sharing the truth about Jesus. Paul shared all of God's word. Paul preached to Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is Lord of everything. He was put in prison for preaching this. He was suffering because he had followed Jesus' example faithfully. In this way, his suffering was part of Jesus' suffering. Suffering didn't stop Paul from working hard as an apostle. Jesus gave him strength to keep working. Even from prison he worked hard to help believers grow strong in the faith. He didn't want them to be fooled by teachings that sounded good but weren't true. He wanted believers to fully understand that Jesus Christ lives inside of them. This truth is what Paul called the mystery of Christ.
6 You received Christ Jesus as Lord. So keep on living your lives in him. 7 Have your roots in him. Build yourselves up in him. Grow strong in what you believe, just as you were taught. Be more thankful than ever before.
8 Make sure no one controls you. They will try to control you by using false reasoning that has no meaning. Their ideas depend on human teachings. They also depend on the basic spiritual powers of this world. They don't depend on Christ.
9 God's whole nature is living in Christ in human form. 10 Because you belong to Christ, you have been made complete. He is the ruler over every power and authority. 11 When you received Christ, your circumcision was not done by human hands. Instead, your circumcision was done by Christ. He put away the person you used to be. At that time, sin's power ruled over you. 12 When you were baptised, you were buried together with Christ. And you were raised to life together with him when you were baptised. You were raised to life by believing in God's work. God himself raised Jesus from the dead.
13 At one time you were dead in your sins. Your desires controlled by sin were not circumcised. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. 14 He wiped out what the law said that we owed. The law stood against us. It judged us. But he has taken it away and nailed it to the cross. 15 He took away the weapons of the powers and authorities. He made a public show of them. He won the battle over them by dying on the cross.
16 So don't let anyone judge you because of what you eat or drink. Don't let anyone judge you about holy days. I'm talking about special feasts and New Moons and Sabbath days. 17 They are only a shadow of the things to come. But what is real is found in Christ. 18 Some people enjoy pretending they aren't proud. They worship angels. But don't let people like that judge you. These people tell you every little thing about what they have seen. They are proud of their useless ideas. That's because their minds are not guided by the Holy Spirit. 19 They aren't connected anymore to the head, who is Christ. But the whole body grows from the head. The muscles and tendons hold the body together. And God causes it to grow.
20 Some people still follow the basic spiritual powers of the world. But you died with Christ as far as these powers are concerned. So why do you act as if you still belong to the world? Here are the rules you follow. 21 ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ 22 Rules like these are about things that will pass away soon. They are based on merely human rules and teachings. 23 It is true that these rules seem wise. Because of them, people give themselves over to their own kind of worship. They pretend they are humble. They treat their bodies very badly. But rules like these don't help. They don't stop people from chasing after sinful pleasures.
2:6–23 The Colossians believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet many of them had also started to believe teachings that weren't true. They were being taught that they needed to follow Jewish laws. As a result they thought they should be circumcised and obey laws about Jewish feasts. They believed that they should have vision s and worship angels. They also believed that they should be strict about what they could eat and touch. Paul made it very clear that the people teaching these things were pretenders. They wanted to control the Colossians. Paul also made it clear that the Colossians didn't need to do those things. They already had everything they needed and were complete. This was because they belonged to Jesus. Jesus' followers are joined closely to him through baptism. Baptism is a picture of being buried with Jesus and raised to life with him. Going down into the water during baptism is a way to act out dying. Then believers come up out of the water. This is a way to act out being raised from the dead. Believers have new life with Christ. So they mustn't be controlled by anyone or anything else. They must say no to anything that teaches that Jesus isn't Lord.