If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you like it loves its own people. But I have chosen you out of the world. So you don’t belong to the world. That is why the world hates you.
Colossians 2:20 - Easy To Read Version You died with Christ and were made free from the worthless rules of the world. So why do you act like you still belong to this world? I mean, why do you follow rules like these: Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, Amplified Bible - Classic Edition If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?–such as] American Standard Version (1901) If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Common English Bible If you died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts, why do you submit to rules and regulations as though you were living in the world? Catholic Public Domain Version So then, if you have died with Christ to the influences of this world, why do you still make decisions as if you were living in the world? Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as though living in the world? |
If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you like it loves its own people. But I have chosen you out of the world. So you don’t belong to the world. That is why the world hates you.
We do live in the world. But we don’t fight in the same way that the world fights.
It is the same for us. We were once like children. We were slaves to the useless rules of this world.
I hope I will never boast about things like that. The cross (death) of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for boasting. Through Jesus’ death on the cross the world is dead {\cf2\super [80]} to me; and I am dead to the world.
The Jewish law had many commands and rules. But Christ ended that law. Christ’s purpose was to make the two groups of people (Jews and non-Jews) become one new people in him. By doing this Christ would make peace.
We owed a debt because we broke God’s laws. That debt listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. God took away that debt and nailed it to the cross.
So don’t let any person make rules for you about eating and drinking or about Jewish customs (festivals, New Moon celebrations, {\cf2\super [12]} or Sabbath days {\cf2\super [13]}).
Be sure that no person leads you away with false ideas and words that mean nothing. Those ideas come from people, not Christ. Those ideas are the worthless ideas of people in the world.
Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God.
Don’t let all kinds of strange teachings lead you into the wrong way. Your hearts should be strengthened by God’s grace (kindness), not by obeying rules about foods. Obeying those rules doesn’t help people.
So you people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a part {\cf2\super [18]} of the world, then he makes himself God’s enemy.
These are the people who divide you. These people do only what their sinful selves want. They don’t have the Spirit. {\cf2\super [9]}