'Principles' in the Bible

My son, if you stop listening to instruction, you will stray from the principles of knowledge.

It was the same way with us. While we were children, we were slaves to the basic principles of the world.

But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to the Messiah,

If you have died with the Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world?