Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy,

he is the very one who told me of the love awakened in you by the Spirit.

so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord to His full satisfaction, by perennially bearing fruit in every good enterprise and by a steady growth in fuller knowledge of God;

then you will be perfectly empowered by His glorious might for every sort of joyous endurance and forbearance,

and you will always be thanking the Father who has qualified you to share the lot of His people in the realm of light.

by whom we possess the ransom from captivity, which means the forgiveness of our sins.

So you, who were once estranged from Him, and hostile in disposition as shown by your wrongdoings, He has now reconciled

by His death in His human body, so as to present you consecrated, faultless, and blameless in His presence,

if indeed you continue well grounded and firm in faith and never shift from the hope inspired by the good news you heard, which has been preached all over the world, and of which I, Paul, have been made a minister.

I am now glad to be suffering for you, and in my own person I am filling in what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for His body, that is, the church.

For this I am toiling and struggling by His active energy which is mightily working in me.

that their hearts may be encouraged, by having been knit together in love and by having atoned to the full assurance of understanding, so that they may finally reach the fullest knowledge of the open secret, Christ Himself,

I am saying this to keep anyone from misleading you by persuasive arguments.

Take care that nobody captures you by the idle fancies of his so-called philosophy, following human tradition and the world's crude notions instead of Christ.

And through your union with Him you once received, not a hand-performed circumcision but one performed by Christ, in stripping you of your lower nature,

canceled the note that stood against us, with its requirements, and has put it out of our way by nailing it to the cross.

He thus stripped the principalities and dominions of power and made a public display of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, you too will appear to be glorified in fellowship with Him.

And whatever you say or do, let it all be done with reference to the Lord Jesus, and through Him continue to give thanks to God the Father.

for you know that it is from the Lord that you are going to get your pay in the form of an inheritance; so keep on serving Christ the Lord.

For the man who wrongs another will be paid back the wrong he has done; and there are no exceptions.

Masters, you must practice doing the right and square things by your slaves, for you know that you have a Master in heaven.

You must persevere in prayer and by this means stay wide awake when you give thanks.

Always let your conversation be seasoned with salt, that is, with winsomeness, so that you may know how to make a fitting answer to everyone.

he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here.

Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you; and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas; if he comes to see you, give him a hearty welcome.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.

Our dearly loved Luke, the physician, and Demas, wish to be remembered to you.

This farewell greeting is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am still a prisoner. Spiritual blessing be with you.