Bible Strands
Colossians 2:20
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:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul to the Colossian church, confronting believers who are submitting to ascetic regulations (likely a blend of Jewish and Greek practices) despite having already died with Christ.
The words — ἀπεθάνετε (apethanete), aorist active indicative: "you have died" — a completed, definitive act, not a process or a possibility. The preposition ἀπὸ (apo), "away from," marks the death as separation from the elemental powers, not subjection to them.
The thread — Galatians 4:3 places believers as "enslaved under the basic principles of the world" before faith; Colossians 2:14 declares the debt under those decrees canceled and nailed to the cross.
Why it lands — The verse exposes a contradiction: a completed death to the world's powers is incompatible with continued obedience to its rules. It demands the reader stop living as if the death never happened.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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,
Cross-references
- Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
- Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.
- Colossians 2:14 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
- Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
- 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
- 2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
- Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- Galatians 4:9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?