Colossians 2:20

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world?

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Gal 4:3 : 3 So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world.
  • Col 2:8 : 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
  • Col 2:14 : 14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
  • Col 2:16 : 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days–
  • Gal 4:9-9 : 9 But now that you have come to know God(or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless basic forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You are observing religious days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain. 12 I beg you, brothers and sisters, become like me, because I have become like you. You have done me no wrong!
  • Gal 6:14 : 14 But 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.
  • Eph 2:15 : 15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace,
  • John 15:19 : 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
  • John 17:14-16 : 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world.
  • Rom 7:4-6 : 4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.
  • 2 Cor 10:3 : 3 For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards,
  • Gal 2:19-20 : 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
  • Col 3:3 : 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  • Heb 13:9 : 9 Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them.
  • Jas 4:4 : 4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
  • 1 Pet 4:1-3 : 1 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.
  • 1 John 5:19 : 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
  • Rom 6:2-9 : 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Col 2:21-23
    3 verses
    78%

    21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”

    22 These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings.

    23 Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body– a wisdom with no true value– they in reality result in fleshly indulgence.

  • 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

  • Col 2:11-14
    4 verses
    75%

    11 In him you also were circumcised– not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ.

    12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

    13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions.

    14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

  • Rom 6:2-8
    7 verses
    75%

    2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

    3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

    4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

    5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

    6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

    7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

    8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

  • Gal 2:19-21
    3 verses
    74%

    19 For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God.

    20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

    21 I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

  • 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

  • Rom 6:10-12
    3 verses
    74%

    10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

    11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

    12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,

  • Rom 7:4-6
    3 verses
    73%

    4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.

    5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

    6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

  • Rom 8:9-10
    2 verses
    73%

    9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.

    10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.

  • Rom 8:12-13
    2 verses
    73%

    12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh

    13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

  • 1 Freedom of the Believer For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.

  • 19 He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

  • Col 2:16-17
    2 verses
    73%

    16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days–

    17 these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!

  • 20 But you did not learn about Christ like this,

  • 1 New Life Individually And although you were dead in your offenses and sins,

  • 10 They served only for matters of food and drink and various ritual washings; they are external regulations imposed until the new order came.

  • 6 Warnings Against the Adoption of False Philosophies Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

  • 4 You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

  • 3 So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world.

  • 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires.

  • 24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

  • Gal 4:9-10
    2 verses
    70%

    9 But now that you have come to know God(or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless basic forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

    10 You are observing religious days and months and seasons and years.

  • 17 But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin? Absolutely not!

  • 17 Live in Holiness So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

  • 1 Exhortations to Seek the Things Above Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

  • 2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

  • 9 Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them.

  • 21 So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.

  • 7 You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.