If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
Parallel translations
- WEB If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
- KJV 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,
- NKJV Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—
- NASB If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
- NLT 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,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Since they died with Christ to the world's elementary principles, why submit to its rules? Union with Christ frees them from such bondage.
Overview
Believers 'died with Christ from the elements of the world,' breaking with its religious systems of merit and regulation. Paul therefore asks why they live 'as though living in the world,' bound by 'ordinances.' Their death and new life in Christ make a return to rule-keeping inconsistent with the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Col 2:8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
- Col 2:14having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Gal 4:3So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.
- Col 2:16Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
- Rom 7:4–6Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Heb 13:9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
- 1 Jn 5:19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
- Gal 4:9–12But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Gal 2:19–20For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- 1 Pet 4:1–3Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
- 2 Cor 10:3For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
- Jas 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- John 17:14–16I have given them Your word and the world has hated them; for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
- John 15:19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
- Eph 2:15by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace
- Gal 6:14But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
- Rom 6:2–11Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
- Col 3:3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
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