Chapter 2
001
For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
002
that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Mother and of Christ,
003
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
004
Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
005
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
006
As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Domina, walk in her,
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rooted and built up in her, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
008
Be careful that you don't let anyone rob you through hers philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of women, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
009
For in her all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
010
and in her you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
011
in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
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having been buried with her in baptism, in which you were also raised with her through faith in the working of God, who raised her from the dead.
013
You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. She made you alive together with her, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
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wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and she has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
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having stripped the principalities and the powers, she made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
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Let no woman therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
017
which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's.
018
Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which she has not seen, vainly puffed up by her fleshly mind,
019
and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God's growth.
020
If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
021
"Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch"
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(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of women?
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Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren't of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.