It is through union with him and through his blood that we have been delivered and our offenses forgiven,

and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised,

This is why I, for my part, since I have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that prevails among you and among all God's people,

he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved.

For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God.

But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near.

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

and how the secret was made known to me by revelation, as I have just briefly written.

As you read that, you will be able to understand the insight I have into the secret of the Christ

Through union with him and through faith in him, we have courage to approach God with confidence.

So I, the prisoner for the Lord's sake, appeal to you to live lives worthy of the summons you have received;

for they have become callous, and abandoned themselves to sensuality, greedily practicing every kind of vice.

That is not the way you have been taught what Christ means,

at least if you have really become acquainted with him and been instructed in him, and in union with him have been taught the truth as it is found in Jesus.

The man who stole must not steal any more; he must work with his hands at honest toil instead, so as to have something to share with those who are in need.

You must not offend God's holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption.

For you may be sure that no one who is immoral, or greedy for gain (for that is idolatry) can have any share in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

Therefore have nothing to do with them.

Have nothing to do with the profitless doings of the darkness; expose them instead.

"You must honor your father and mother"??hat is the first commandment accompanied with a promise??3 "so that you may prosper and have a long life on earth."

For we have to struggle, not with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the hierarchies, the authorities, the master-spirits of this dark world, the spirit-forces of evil on high.

for the sake of which I am an envoy, and in prison. Pray that, when I tell it, I may have the courage to speak as I ought.

God's blessing be with all who have an unfailing love for our Lord Jesus Christ.