1. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person.
2. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery — Christ.
3. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.
4. I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.
5. 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.
6. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,
7. rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with gratitude.
8. Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.
9. For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
10. and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11. You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah.