An addition to the BHT, where “Paul” writes about the mystery of God found in Christ, and the resulting relationship to philosophy, tradition, teachers, and law. (The photo above is of Papyrus 46 (c. 175–225), one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts, showing the Greek text of the opening lines of Colossians 2.)

1 I want you to know just how much I have struggled for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all those who have not met me in person.

2 My purpose is that your hearts may be Comforted by being united as One in Love, and that you may have the richness that comes from a full understanding and experiential knowledge of the mystery of God, which is in Christ.

3 Because it is within Christ consciousness where all the hidden treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge are found.

4 I tell this to you so that no one may deceive you with persuasive and seductive words.

5 Although I’m not there with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit, and I rejoice in seeing your great condition and loyalty to faith in Christ.

6 Since you have realized in yourselves Christ the Lord, continue to live and walk in Christ,

7 being wholly grounded in your Christ nature, building your lives up from that ground of Christ. Then you’ll be made firm and sure in your faith, as you’ve been taught, and you’ll be filled to overflowing with gratitude.

8 Be mindfully aware and observant that no one leads you away from this truth with fallacious and deceitful philosophy, which is according to human traditions and the principles of the world, and are not in harmony with Christ.

9 Because in Christ consciousness the complete fullness of Deity is found living in the human body,

10 and you are completely full and perfect as One in Christ, and this is supreme over all rulers and authorities.

11 In Christ you are “circumcised,” but this is not done physically with hands. Rather, you put off the “natural man” and errors of the separate ego “self,” which is spiritually “cut away” from you by Christ consciousness.

12 Your ego “dies” and you are buried with Christ as you are immersed in this consciousness, and you are also resurrected with Christ through the energies of God which awakens Christ from this death.

13 You are spiritually dead in your errors because the ego “self” has not yet been “cut away” from consciousness, but God brings you back to Life in Christ, and you realize you are forgiven of all your errors.

14 These errors are completely wiped away. All that guilt we felt in breaking the law, which condemns our minds, is taken completely away and is nailed to the cross.

15 Christ consciousness divests yourself fully from rulers and authorities, showing them openly for what they are, giving you victory over them.

16 For that reason, don’t let others judge you in what you eat, or in what you drink, or what religious festivals you attend, or what rituals you observe, or what you do on the Sabbath day.

17 These were all merely shadows, metaphors, symbols of things to come; but the reality that casts those shadows, the actuality that those symbols point towards, is realized in Christ consciousness.

18 Don’t let anyone cheat you of the victory, through making a show of false humility and worshipping angels or other messengers. They often go into exquisite details, telling about all that they’ve claimed to see in vision, but these things are all embellished by the egoic mind.

19 They are not holding tightly to the supreme Head, Christ consciousness, from which the whole Body, with its joints and ligaments, are nourished and held together as One, and it grows as God grows.

20 Consequently, if you “die” with Christ, and are thus freed from the principles of the world, why would you, as if you were still living in that world, submit yourself to those rules and regulations

21 which say “Don’t touch this!” “Don’t taste that!” “Don’t handle this other thing!”?

22 All these rules will ultimately fail. They are based on the precepts and learning of humanity.

23 Indeed, they may have a resemblance to real wisdom, in man-made religious worship, false humility, and being harsh towards the body, but they do not help in putting off the egoic mind.