1 I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces "of this world rather than on Christ.9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh "was put off when you were circumcised by "Christ,12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you "alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. [^5]16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

1 Volo enim vos scire qualem sollicitudinem habeam pro vobis, et pro iis qui sunt Laodici, et quicumque non viderunt faciem meam in carne : 2 ut consolentur corda ipsorum, instructi in caritate, et in omnes divitias plenitudinis intellectus, in agnitionem mysterii Dei Patris et Christi Jesu : 3 in quo sunt omnes thesauri sapienti et scienti absconditi.4 Hoc autem dico, ut nemo vos decipiat in sublimitate sermonum. 5 Nam etsi corpore absens sum, sed spiritu vobiscum sum : gaudens, et videns ordinem vestrum, et firmamentum ejus, qu in Christo est, fidei vestr. 6 Sicut ergo accepistis Jesum Christum Dominum, in ipso ambulate, 7 radicati, et superdificati in ipso, et confirmati fide, sicut et didicistis, abundantes in illo in gratiarum actione. 8 Videte ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam, et inanem fallaciam secundum traditionem hominum, secundum elementa mundi, et non secundum Christum : 9 quia in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter : 10 et estis in illo repleti, qui est caput omnis principatus et potestatis : 11 in quo et circumcisi estis circumcisione non manu facta in expoliatione corporis carnis, sed in circumcisione Christi : 12 consepulti ei in baptismo, in quo et resurrexistis per fidem operationis Dei, qui suscitavit illum a mortuis. 13 Et vos cum mortui essetis in delictis, et prputio carnis vestr, convivificavit cum illo, donans vobis omnia delicta : 14 delens quod adversus nos erat chirographum decreti, quod erat contrarium nobis, et ipsum tulit de medio, affigens illud cruci : 15 et expolians principatus, et potestates traduxit confidenter, palam triumphans illos in semetipso.16 Nemo ergo vos judicet in cibo, aut in potu, aut in parte diei festi, aut neomeni, aut sabbatorum : 17 qu sunt umbra futurorum : corpus autem Christi. 18 Nemo vos seducat, volens in humilitate, et religione angelorum, qu non vidit ambulans, frustra inflatus sensu carnis su, 19 et non tenens caput, ex quo totum corpus per nexus, et conjunctiones subministratum, et constructum crescit in augmentum Dei. 20 Si ergo mortui estis cum Christo ab elementis hujus mundi : quid adhuc tamquam viventes in mundo decernitis ? 21 Ne tetigeritis, neque gustaveritis, neque contrectaveritis : 22 qu sunt omnia in interitum ipso usu, secundum prcepta et doctrinas hominum : 23 qu sunt rationem quidem habentia sapienti in superstitione, et humilitate, et non ad parcendum corpori, non in honore aliquo ad saturitatem carnis.