(1) For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and also on behalf of the Laodiceans, and for the many who have not even seen my face in the flesh, (2) in order that their hearts may be comforted, having been united in love, in all the riches of the assurance of understanding, in discernment of the mystery of God—Messiah—(3) in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (4) I say this in order that no one should deceive you by persuasive speech. (5) For though I am absent in body, I am with you in Spirit, rejoicing and seeing your discipline and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. (6) As you, therefore, received Messiah Jesus, the Lord, so conduct your life in Him, (7) having been rooted and built upon a firm foundation in Him, being confirmed in The Faith, just as you were taught, exceeding in gratitude. (8) See to it that no one plunders you through philosophy and vain deception according to the instruction of men, according to the Elemental Spirits of the world and not according to Messiah, (9) since all the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Him. (10) You are being completed in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority, (11) in whom we have received a circumcision, not a circumcision made by hand, casting off the fleshly body, [but] by the circumcision of Messiah, (12) having been buried with him in baptism, in whom you also have been raised through the faithfulness of God’s work of raising him from the dead. (13) And being dead in sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, forgiving all your sin, (14) wiping away the certificate listing the decrees which were held against us, He removed it, nailing it to the cross. (15) Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He boldly held them up as an example, making a spectacle of them by the cross. (16) Let no one, therefore, judge you concerning food or drink, a feast, a new moon festival or Sabbath, (17) These things which are coming are a silhouette [of a body], but the body itself is Messiah (18) Let no one who desires, in lowliness, the ritual worship of the angels condemn you. The one who waxes on about what he experienced is, in vain, being puffed up by his fleshly mind, (19) and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, being supported and united through the ligaments and sinews, grows with an increase that is from God. (20) If you all died with Messiah to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to its regulations as those living in the world? (21) Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch (22) (everything which decays when used up)—according to the precepts and teachings of men? (23) Whatever it is, a word indeed having wisdom in false-worship and humility, severity body, not among honor, someone toward indulgence of the flesh.