Paragraph 2:20–23

Theme: Paul warned the Colossians that they should not obey once more all those regulations that were based only on human ideas. They had abandoned that old way of living.

2:20a

If you have died with Christ: This is similar to 2:12a. Paul did not mean that the Colossian believers literally died when Christ died. It was their old sinful nature that died with Christ.

In Romans 6:1–11 Paul wrote about this in more detail. If you use footnotes or cross-references, you may want to include references here to Romans 6:1–11 and Galatians 5:19–20.

If: The Greek begins with a word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as If. However, Paul was not questioning or wondering if the Colossians believers had died with Christ or not. He knew that it was true. “Since” is another way to translate this word in English. You should use a word in your language that expresses that something is certain/true.

have died with Christ to: Paul said that the Colossian believers had died with Christ to these rules. This means that they had been freed from these laws, and now the laws no longer had any control over them.

to the spiritual forces of the world: This phrase spiritual forces of the world is the same as in 2:8d. It has the same meaning here as in 2:8d—“the elementary principles and rules of life.” See the note on 2:8d for the alternative interpretation.

2:20b

why…do you submit to its regulations: This is Paul’s main point in this paragraph (2:20–23). He was telling the Colossian believers that they did not need to submit to the rules that the false teachers were teaching them. Paul used a rhetorical question here to emphasize that the Colossians did not need to submit to these rules. If you do not use rhetorical questions in this way in your language, it may be better to translate this rhetorical question as a command, such as:

Do not obey…
-or-
“You do not need to obey…

as though you still belonged to the world: This means to behave “as if the world were still controlling the way you behave” (rather than in the way someone who belongs to God should behave). Here is another way to translate this:

It’s as though you were still under the world’s influence (God’s Word)

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