so that the lives you live may be worthy of your Master and wholly pleasing to him, and you may be fruitful in all kinds of good deeds, and may grow into fuller knowledge of God.

for it was through him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, angelic thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities??ll things were created through him and for him.

For all the divine fulness chose to dwell in him,

and through him to reconcile to God all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through his blood shed on the cross.

And it has brought you, who were once estranged from him, hostile in attitude and engaged in doing wrong (though now he has reconciled you

In it, by divine appointment, I became a worker, that I might preach among you the message of God in its fulness??26 that secret, hidden from the ages and generations, but now disclosed to those who are consecrated to him,

And in spreading the news of him, we warn everyone and teach everyone all our wisdom, in order to bring everyone to Christian perfection.

So just as you once accepted the Christ, Jesus, as your Lord, you must live in vital union with him.

You must be rooted and built up in him and made strong in faith, just as you were taught to be, overflowing with it in your gratitude.

For it is in him that all the fulness of God's nature lives embodied,

and in union with him you too are filled with it. He is the head of all your principalities and dominions.

Through your relation to him you have received not a physical circumcision, but a circumcision effected by Christ, in stripping you of your material nature,

when in your baptism you were buried with him, and raised to life with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

He disarmed the principalities and dominions and displayed them openly, triumphing over them through him.

When Christ, who is our true life, shall make his appearance, then you also will appear glorified with him.

and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully.

And whatever you have to say or do, do it all as followers of the Lord Jesus, and offer your thanksgiving to God the Father through him.

for you know that it is from him that you are to receive that inheritance which is to be your reward. Think of Christ as the master you are working for.

I am sending him to you for the express purpose of letting you know my circumstances, and of cheering your hearts.

And with him I send my dear, faithful brother Onesimus, who is one of your own number. They will tell you all about matters here.

Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does Barnabas' cousin Mark. (About him you have had instructions; if he comes to see you, make him welcome.)