¹³ When you were dead in your sins^(A) and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[a] alive^(B) with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,^{(C) 14} having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,^(D) which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.^{(E) 15} And having disarmed the powers and authorities,^(F) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them^(G) by the cross.^[b]

Freedom From Human Rules

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you^(H) by what you eat or drink,^(I) or with regard to a religious festival,^(J) a New Moon celebration^(K) or a Sabbath day.^{(L) 17} These are a shadow of the things that were to come;^(M) the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(N) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(O) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head,^(P) from whom the whole body,^(Q) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(R)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(S) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(T) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(U) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(V) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^{(W) 23} Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(X) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.