Colossians 2:1–12

¹ For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face, ² that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric. ⁵ For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ. ⁶ Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. ¹⁰ And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. ¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. ¹² And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.