5. I am not there with you, but my heart is with you. I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.
6. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him.
7. Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught. And always be thankful.
8. Be sure that no one leads you away with false ideas and words that mean nothing. Those ideas come from men. They are the worthless ideas of this world. They are not from Christ.
9. All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth).
10. And in him you have a full and true life. He is ruler over all rulers and powers.
11. In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision. That circumcision was not done by hands. I mean, you were made free from the power of your sinful self. That is the kind of circumcision Christ does.
12. When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ and you were raised up with Christ because of your faith in God’s power. That power was shown when he raised Christ from death.
13. You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God made you alive with Christ. And God forgave all our sins.
14. We owed a debt because we broke God’s laws. That debt listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us that debt. He took away that debt and nailed it to the cross.
15. God defeated the spiritual rulers and powers. With the cross God won the victory and defeated them. He showed the world that they were powerless.
16. So do not let anyone make rules for you about eating and drinking or about a religious feast, a New Moon Festival, or a Sabbath day.