13. You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make you alive, when he forgave all our sins.
14. God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.
15. There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory.
16. Don't let anyone tell you what you must eat or drink. Don't let them say that you must celebrate the New Moon festival, the Sabbath, or any other festival.
17. These things are only a shadow of what was to come. But Christ is real!
18. Don't be cheated by people who make a show of acting humble and who worship angels. They boast about seeing visions. But it is all nonsense, because their minds are filled with selfish desires.
19. They are no longer part of Christ, who is the head of the whole body. Christ gives the body its strength, and he uses its joints and muscles to hold it together, as it grows by the power of God.
20. You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don't have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as,
21. “Don't handle this. Don't taste that. Don't touch this.”?
22. After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up?
23. Obeying these rules may seem to be the clever thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don't really have any power over our desires.