Colossians 2:1-3, 5, 7, 9-10, 12, 15-20, 22

I want you to know how hard I work for you, those in Laodicea, and others who have never seen me. I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love so that they may be rich in their understanding. This leads to their knowing fully God’s secret, that is, Christ himself. In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are safely kept.

Though I am absent from you in my body, my heart is with you, and I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.

Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always be thankful.

All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth), and you have a full and true life in Christ, who is ruler over all rulers and powers.

When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God’s power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead.

God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless. So do not let anyone make rules for you about eating and drinking or about a religious feast, a New Moon Festival, or a Sabbath day. These things were like a shadow of what was to come. But what is true and real has come and is found in Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you by making you humiliate yourself and worship angels. Such people enter into visions, which fill them with foolish pride because of their human way of thinking. They do not hold tightly to Christ, the head. It is from him that all the parts of the body are cared for and held together. So it grows in the way God wants it to grow. Since you died with Christ and were made free from the ruling spirits of the world, why do you act as if you still belong to this world by following rules like these

These rules refer to earthly things that are gone as soon as they are used. They are only human commands and teachings.