Bearing fruit and growing, as it does, through all the world, just as it did among you, from the very day that you heard of God's loving-kindness, and understood what that loving-kindness really is.

And he is the Head of the Church, which is his Body. The First-born from the dead, he is to the Church the Source of its Life, that he, in all things, may stand first.

For in baptism you were buried with Christ; and in baptism you were also raised to Life with him, through your faith in the omnipotence of God, who raised him from the dead.

And to you, who once were 'dead,' by reason of your sins and your uncircumcised nature--to you God gave Life in giving life to Christ! He pardoned all our sins!

Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as though your life were still that of the world,