6 So in the same way that you all received the messiah, Yeshua the master, keep living in him. 7 You’ve already been rooted in him and then built up and confirmed in the faith just as all of you were taught, and been very thankful.

8 Be careful in case anyone captures your minds with fancy ideas or theories without proof that come from human traditions or from worldly thinking, and not from Messiah. 9 Every component of the greatness of God lives in his human body, 10 and you also have been completed and are in him. He is the head of all rule and authority.

11 It wasn’t just human hands that circumcised you by cutting off part of the body, but Messiah circumcised you all by cutting you away from your sinful acts. 12 [ref]You all were buried with him when you were immersed in water, and you came back to life with him when you came up from the water, through faith in God’s working which gave him life after death. 13 [ref]You all were dead in your disobedience and because your bodies were ‘uncircumcised’. Then he made us alive together with him after he forgave us for all our disobedience. 14 [ref]He erased the writing that listed the charges against us and so it was removed—nailed to the execution post. 15 He had disarmed the rulers and authorities and publicly exposed them, because he had won the victory over them on the post.[fn]

16 [ref]Don’t let anyone judge you all about what you eat or drink, or about observing feasts or holidays or days of rest. 17 They’re just shadows of what’s coming, but the body causing the shadow is that of the messiah. 18 Don’t let anyone be disqualifying you all with their apparent humility and worshipping the messengers, telling you what they’ve seen and being arrogant and vain about their earthly minds. 19 [ref]They’re not listening to the head which controls all the joints and ligaments of the body and holds it all together as God causes it to grow.