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The Blue Letter Bible

Colossians 2 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:1 - I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:2 - I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:3 - In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:4 - I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:5 - For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:6 - And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:7 - Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:8 - Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers[fn] of this world, rather than from Christ.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:9 - For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:10 - So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:11 - 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.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:12 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:13 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:14 - He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:15 - In this way, he disarmed[fn] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:16 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:17 - For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:18 - Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels,[fn] saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:19 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:20 - You 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,
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:21 - “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:22 - Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.
Unchecked Copy BoxCol 2:23 - 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.
NLT Footnotes
Or the spiritual principles; also in 2:20.
Or in him dwells all the completeness of the Godhead bodily.
Greek the cutting away of the body of the flesh.
Or he stripped off.
Or or worshiping with angels.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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Colossians Chapter 2 — Additional Translations: