Colossians 2

Indeed, I want you to know how much I am striving on your behalf, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

so that their hearts will be encouraged, being knit together in love, and with a view to having all the riches of the full assurance that comes from understanding, and with a view to having the knowledge of the sacred secret of God—Christ—

in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

I say this so that no one misleads you with arguments that sound reasonable.

For although I am absent in the flesh, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your good order and the steadfastness of your trust in Christ.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,

having been firmly rooted and now are being built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ,

for in him dwells, in a bodily manner, all the fullness of what God is,

and you have been given that fullness in union with him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ,

having been buried together with him in baptism, in union with whom you were also raised together with him through trust in the working of God, who raised him from among the dead.

And you, when you were dead due to your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

having wiped clean the certificate of indebtedness that was against us, which was hostile to us by means of the regulations, and he has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross.

Having stripped the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, leading them as captives in a triumphal procession in connection with him.

Therefore, let no one judge you with respect to food and drink, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ.

Let no one disqualify you from the prize by delighting in false humility and the worshiping of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind,

and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, being supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to regulations as if you were still living in the world?

“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”

All these regulations refer to things that are destroyed with use, based as they are on human commandments and doctrines.

Although regulations of this kind have a reputation for wisdom due to their self-imposed rituals, and false humility, and harsh treatment of the body, they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.