1. I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who haven’t known me personally.
2. My goal is that their hearts would be encouraged and united together in love so that they might have all the riches of assurance that come with understanding, so that they might have the knowledge of the secret plan of God, namely Christ.
3. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him.
4. I’m telling you this so that no one deceives you with convincing arguments,
5. because even though I am absent physically, I’m with you in spirit. I’m happy to see the discipline and stability of your faith in Christ.
6. So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him.
7. Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.
8. See to it that nobody enslaves you with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to human traditions and the way the world thinks and acts rather than Christ.
9. All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body.
10. And you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.
11. You were also circumcised by him. This wasn’t performed by human hands—the whole body was removed through this circumcision by Christ.
12. You were buried with him through baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13. When you were dead because of the things you had done wrong and because your body wasn’t circumcised, God made you alive with Christ and forgave all the things you had done wrong.