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Christ versus the Colossian Heresy
I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable.
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For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.
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So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him,
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being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
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Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
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For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
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and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
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You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
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when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
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He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
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These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.
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Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind.
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They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.
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If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations:
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All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines.
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Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
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The Life of the New Man
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
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For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
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Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient,
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But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.
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and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
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In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
