Make allowance for each other’s faults, 
and forgive anyone who offends you. 
Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, 
you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, 
kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,  
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,  slave, or free. 
Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Put on your new nature, and be renewed 
as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.   Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. 
Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, 
and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, 
worshiping the things of this world.

And when Christ, who is your life, 
is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, 
set your sights on the realities of heaven, 
where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. 
So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 
“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 
Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 
These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, 
and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

Don’t let anyone condemn you 
by insisting on pious self-denial 
or the worship of angels, 
saying they have had visions about these things. 
Their sinful minds have made them proud, 
and they are not connected to Christ, 
the head of the body. 
For he holds the whole body together 
with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, 

or for not celebrating certain holy days 

or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 

For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. 

And Christ himself is that reality.

He canceled the record of the charges against us 
and took it away by nailing it to the cross.  
In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. 
He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

You were dead because of your sins 
and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. 
Then God made you alive with Christ, 
for he forgave all our sins.

For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. 
And with him you were raised to new life 
because you trusted the mighty power of God, 
who raised Christ from the dead.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” 
but not by a physical procedure. 
Christ performed a spiritual circumcision 
the cutting away of your sinful nature.

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.  
So you also are complete through your union with Christ, 
who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies 
and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking 
and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, 
you must continue to follow him. 
Let your roots grow down into him, 
and let your lives be built on him. 
Then your faith will grow strong in the truth 
you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

So we tell others about Christ, 
warning everyone and teaching everyone 
with all the wisdom God has given us. 
We want to present them to God, 
perfect in their relationship to Christ. 
That’s why I work and struggle so hard, 
depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

For God wanted them to know that the riches 
and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. 
And this is the secret:  Christ lives in you. 
This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

But you must continue to believe this truth 
and stand firmly in it. 
Don’t drift away from the assurance 
you received when you heard the Good News.

He has brought you into his own presence, 
and you are holy and blameless 
as you stand before him without a single fault.

You who were once far away from God. 
You were his enemies, separated from him 
by your evil thoughts and actions. 
Yet now he has reconciled you to himself 
through the death of Christ in his physical body.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created 
and is supreme over all creation, 
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.

For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness 
and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,  
who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.