MSB COL Chapter 2

Absent in Body, Present in Spirit

(Revelation 3:14–22)

2 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and [for] those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face 2 that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with [the] full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,[fn] 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric. 5 For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, [and] I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.

Alive with Christ

(Ephesians 2:1–10)

6 Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus [as] Lord, continue to walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, [and] overflowing in it[fn] with thankfulness.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition [and] the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. 9 For in [Christ] all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. 10 And you have been made complete in [Christ], who is the head over every ruler and authority.

11 In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of [your] sinful nature with the circumcision [performed] by Christ[fn] [and] not by human hands. 12 And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with [Him] through [your] faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

13 [When] you were dead in [your] trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with [Christ]. He forgave us all [our] trespasses, 14 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away nailing it to the cross! 15 [And] having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle [of them] triumphing over them by [the cross].

16 Therefore {let} no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body [ that casts it ] belongs to Christ.[fn] 18 [Do not let anyone] who delights in [false] humility and [the] worship of angels disqualify [you] with speculation about what he has not seen.[fn] [Such a person] is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind. 19 He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by [its] joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

20 If[fn] you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to [the] world, do you submit to [its] regulations: 21 “{Do} not handle, {do} not taste, {do} not touch!”? 22 [These] will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such [restrictions] indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with [their] self-prescribed worship, [their false] humility, and [their] harsh treatment of [the] body; [but] they are of no value against [the] indulgence of the flesh.