Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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1 Let me tell you how hard I have
worked for you and for the people
in Laodicea and for all others
who do not know me personally.
2 I
do this in order that they may be
filled with courage and may be
drawn together in love, and so have
the full wealth of assurance which
true understanding brings. In this
-- --
way they will know God's secret,
which is Christ himself. note
3 He is the
key that opens all the hidden treasures
of God's wisdom and knowledge.
4 I tell you, then, do not let anyone
deceive you with false arguments,
no matter how good they seem to be.
5 For even though I am absent in
body, yet I am with you in spirit, and
I am glad as I see the resolute firmness
with which you stand together
in your faith in Christ.
Fullness of Life in Christ
6 Since you have accepted Christ
Jesus as Lord, live in union with
him.
7 Keep your roots deep in him,
build your lives on him, and become
stronger in your faith, as you were
taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.
8 See to it, then, that no one enslaves
you by means of the worthless
deceit of human wisdom, which
comes from the teachings handed
down by men and from the ruling
spirits of the universe, and not from
Christ.
9 For the full content of divine
nature lives in Christ, in his humanity,
10 and you have been given
full life in union with him. He is supreme
over every spiritual ruler and
authority.
11 In union with Christ you were
circumcised, not with the circumcision
that is made by men, but with
the circumcision made by Christ,
which consists of being freed from
the power of this sinful self.
12 For
when you were baptized, you were
buried with Christ, and in baptism
you were also raised with Christ
through your faith in the active
power of God, who raised him from
death. note
13 You were at one time spiritually
dead because of your sins and
because you were Gentiles without
the Law. But God has now brought
you to life with Christ. God forgave
us all our sins; note
14 he canceled the unfavorable
record of our debts with
its binding rules and did away with
it completely by nailing it to the
cross. note
15 And on that cross Christ
freed himself from the power of the
spiritual rulers and authorities; note he
made a public spectacle of them by
leading them as captives in his victory
procession.
16 So let no one make rules about
what you eat or drink or about holy
days or the New Moon Festival or
the Sabbath. note
17 All such things are
only a shadow of things in the future;
the reality is Christ.
18 Do not
allow yourselves to be condemned
by anyone who claims to be superior
because of special visions and who
insists on false humility and the worship
of angels. For no reason at all,
such a person is all puffed up by his
human way of thinking
19 and has
stopped holding on to Christ, who is
the head of the body. Under Christ's
control the whole body is nourished
and held together by its joints and
ligaments, and it grows as God
wants it to grow. note
Dying and Living with Christ
20 You have died with Christ and
are set free from the ruling spirits of
the universe. Why, then, do you live
as though you belonged to this
world? Why do you obey such rules
as
21 “Don't handle this,” “Don't
taste that,” “Don't touch the other”?
22 All these refer to things which become
useless once they are used;
they are only man-made rules and
teachings.
23 Of course such rules appear
to be based on wisdom in their
forced worship of angels, and false
humility, and severe treatment of
the body; but they have no real value
in controlling physical passions.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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