(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Walk in the Lord
- For I want you to *know how great a struggle I have on behalf of you, and the men in Laodicea, and as many as haven’t seen my face in the flesh,
- so their hearts might be encouraged, having been knit together in ^love, even into all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding, to full knowledge of the mystery of God: the Anointed,
- in whom all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hidden.
- I say this so that no one uses false reasoning to mislead1“uses false reasoning to mislead” is one word in Greek, with that exact meaning. you by persuasive speech.
- For even if I’m absent in the flesh, yet I’m with you in spirit; rejoicing and seeing your order2“order” This Greek word is a military terms which refers to soldiers in a disciplined and orderly military formation. and the steadfastness of your faith in the Anointed.
- Therefore, just as you received the Anointed Lord Jesus, walk in Him:
- being firmly *rooted in Him, and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith just as you were taught, and overflowing in thanksgiving.
- Watch out, lest there will be someone carrying you off like spoils of war through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men or according to the principles of the world and not according to the Anointed,
- because all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily in Him.
- And you are *completed in Him who is the head of every ruler and authority,
- in whom also you were circumcised in a circumcision done without hands by the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of the Anointed,
- having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the work of God, the One who raised Him from the dead.
- And you – being dead in your missteps3“missteps”. The Greek word used here doesn’t quite mean “sin”. It’s the word “παράπτωμα” (paraptóma) and carries the connotation of a “slip-up” with the strong implication – but not certainty – that it was unintentional. and the uncircumcision of your flesh – He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven all our missteps,
- having blotted out the handwriting in the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And He has removed it from our midst, having nailed it to the cross.
- And having completely disarmed the rulers and the authorities, He made a public show of them, having triumphed over4“having triumphed over” is one word in Greek. It properly refers a victor parading around to celebrate their victory, and displaying the defeated enemy as part of the procession. them by the cross.
- Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you by your food and by your drink, or by your participation in a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbaths,
- which are a shadow of what’s about to happen; but the substance is of the Anointed.
- Let no one defraud you of your reward with a wrong judgement,5“defraud… …of your reward with a wrong judgement” Is one word in Greek. It properly refers to an incorrect judgement call made by an umpire, referee, or arbiter which disqualifies someone, and hence robs them of their rightful prize or reward. delighting in false humility and the worship of angels, detailing what he has claimed to see; being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
- and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body – being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments – grows in the growth from God.
- If you died with the Anointed to the elementary principles of the world, why do you submit yourselves to regulations as if living in the world:
- “don’t handle” and “don’t taste” and “don’t touch”
- (which are all things that perish with use) according to the precepts and teachings of men?
- These things are indeed having a reputation of wisdom in self-made religion, and false humility, and severe treatment of the body, but have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
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