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,
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,
- BSB 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:
- 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 2:8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
- Col 2:14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
- Gal 4:3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
- Col 2:16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
- Rom 7:4–6Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
- Heb 13:9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
- 1 Jn 5:19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
- Gal 4:9–12But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
- Gal 2:19–20For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
- 1 Pet 4:1–3Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
- 2 Cor 10:3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
- Jas 4:4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
- John 17:14–16I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
- John 15:19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
- Eph 2:15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
- Gal 6:14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
- Rom 6:2–11God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
- Col 3:3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
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