12  Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13  bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

8  But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9  Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10  and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11  where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

5  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6  Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7  in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

1  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

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? 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.

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.

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

15  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

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 that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

11  In Him you were also circumcised 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. 13  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him

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. 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.

24  I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25  of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26  the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28  Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Verse 19 declares “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.” Remember, the goal of the apostle Paul in this first chapter is to display the supremacy of Christ in order that the Colossians would cling to Christ as their sufficiency. You and I will always be tempted to look away from Christ to something else. But in Christ, all fullness dwells. There is no reason to look anywhere else! Christ has all fullness, therefore He has all you need. Later on in Colossians Paul refers to Christ as in whom “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Here in verse 19 Paul is not referring so much to Christ’s deity, but to the fullness of grace and blessing that are in Christ. John 1:16 says, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” John had declared that Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” In Christ dwells the fullness of righteousness, merit, wisdom and power.