Q&A

1. a. Who did Paul have a great conflict for? 2:1
   b. What did Paul want to happen to their hearts? 2:2
   c. What did he want them to attain to? 2:2
   d. What is hidden in the Father and Christ? 2:3
   • ¹ For I want you to know
     what a great conflict I have for you
     and those in Laodicea,
     and for as many as have not seen
     my face in the flesh,
   • ² that their hearts may be encouraged,
     being knit together in love,
     and attaining
     to all riches
     of the full assurance of understanding,
     to the knowledge
     of the mystery of God,
     both of the Father and of Christ,
   • ³ in whom are hidden
     all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
2. a. Why did Paul say this? 2:4
   b. How would some try to deceive them? 2:4
   c. In what way was Paul with them? 2:5
   d. What was he rejoicing to see? 2:5
   e. As they have received Jesus, how were they to walk? 2:6
   f. Who were they to rooted and built up in? 2:7
   g. How were they to abound? 2:7
   
   • ⁴ Now this I say
     lest anyone should deceive
     you with persuasive words.
   • ⁵ For though I am absent in the flesh,
     yet I am with you in spirit,
     rejoicing to see your good order
     and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
   • ⁶ As you therefore have received Christ
     Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
   • ⁷ rooted and built up in Him
     and established in the faith,
     as you have been taught,
     abounding in it with thanksgiving.
3. a. Why must you beware? 2:8
   b. How will they try to cheat you? 2:8
   c. What is their empty deceit according to? 2:8
   d. What are these things based on? 2:8
   e. Who are these things not according to? 2:8
   
   • ⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you
     through philosophy and empty deceit,
     according to
     the tradition of men,
     according to
     the basic principles
     of the world,
     and not according to Christ.
4. a. In whom does the fullness of the Godhead dwell? 2:9
   b. In whom are you complete? 2:10
   c. Who is He the head of? 2:10
   
   • ⁹ For in Him (Jesus)
     dwells all the fullness
     of the Godhead bodily;
   • ¹⁰ and you
     are complete in Him,
     who is the head
     of all principality and power.
5. a. In whom were you circumcised? 2:11
   b. How were you circumcised? 2:11
   c. How were we buried with Jesus? 2:12
   d. How were we raised with Him? 2:12
   
   • ¹¹ In Him you were also
     circumcised (cut off)
     with the circumcision
     made without hands,
     by
     putting off
     the body
     of the sins of the flesh,
     by
     the circumcision of Christ,
   • ¹² buried with Him
     in baptism,
     in which you also were
     raised with Him
     through faith
     in the working of God,
     who raised Him from the dead.
6. a. How were you dead? 2:13
   b. Who has made you alive? 2:13
   c. How many trespasses have you been forgiven of? 2:13
   d. What did He nail to the cross? 2:14
   e. What did He do to the principalities and powers? 2:15
   • ¹³ And you, being dead in your trespasses
     and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
     He has made alive together with Him,
     having forgiven you all trespasses,
   • ¹⁴ having wiped out
     the handwriting of requirements (the Law of Moses)
     that was against us,
     which was contrary to us.
     And He has taken it out of the way,
     having nailed it to the cross.
   • ¹⁵ Having disarmed
     principalities and powers,
     He made a public spectacle of them,
     triumphing over them in it.
7. a. In what five things are you not to let people judge you? 2:16
   b. Of what are those five things a shadow? 2:17
   c. Who is the substance (the reality)? 2:17
   
   • ¹⁶ So let no one judge you
     in food or
     in drink, or regarding
     a festival or
     a new moon or
     sabbaths,
   • ¹⁷ which are
     a shadow of things to come,
     but
     the substance is of Christ.
8. a. What are we not to let anyone cheat us out of? 2:18
   b. What will they take delight in? 2:18
   c. What do they intrude into? 2:18
   d. How are they puffed up? 2:18
   e. What are they not holding fast to? 2:19
   f. From whom is all the body nourished and knit together? 2:19
   g. Who causes the body to grow? 2:19
   
   • ¹⁸ Let no one cheat you
     of your reward,
     taking delight in false humility
     and worship of angels,
     intruding into those things
     which he has not seen,
     vainly puffed
     up by his fleshly mind,
   • ¹⁹ and not holding fast
     to the Head,
     from whom all the body,
     nourished and knit together
     by joints and ligaments,
     grows with the increase
     that is from God.
9. a. If you died with Christ, what should you not subject yourselves to? 2:21
   b. Why do these things perish? 2:22
   c. What are these regulations according to? 2:22
   
   • ²⁰ 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—
   • ²¹ “Do not touch,
     do not taste,
     do not handle,”
   • ²² which all concern things which
     perish with the using—
     according to
     the commandments and
     doctrines of men?
10. a. What things have an appearance of wisdom? 2:23
    b. Against what do they have no value?  2:23
    • ²³ These things indeed
      have an appearance
      of wisdom
      in
      self-imposed religion,
      false humility, and
      neglect of the body,
      but are of no value
      against
      the indulgence of the flesh.