Colossians 2

All 23 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1I want you to know what great struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person.
2. 2This is so that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love and brought to all the riches of full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, of the Father, and of Christ.
3. 3In Christ, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4. 4I'm telling you this so that no one deceives you with clever-sounding arguments.
5. 5For even though I am absent in body, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6. 6So since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.
7. 7Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness.
8. 8Watch out that no one takes you captive through hollow philosophy and empty deception — ideas based on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
9. 9For in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form.
10. 10And in him you have been made complete. He is the head over every ruler and authority.
11. 11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ.
12. 12You were buried with him in baptism, and in that same baptism you were also raised with him through the faith of God's operation, who raised him from the dead.
13. 13You were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, but God made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses.
14. 14He erased the written ordinances that were against us, which opposed us, and took them away, nailing them to the cross.
15. 15He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them through the cross.
16. 16So don't let anyone judge you over what you eat or drink, or about observing a festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day.
17. 17These things were only a shadow of what was coming. The reality itself belongs to Christ.
18. 18Do not let anyone cheat you out of your reward by self-imposed humility and the worship of angels. Such a person pries into things he has not seen, puffed up without reason by his fleshly mind,
19. 19and not holding the Head, from which all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase of God.
20. 20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit to its rules?
21. 21Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22. 22All these things are destined to disappear as they're used up. They're nothing but human rules and teachings.
23. 23These things do have an appearance of wisdom in self-made worship, humility, and neglect of the body, but not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.