We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly praying for you as we do,

on account of the hope treasured up for you in Heaven. Of this hope you have already heard in the Message of the truth of the Good News.

For it has reached you, and remains with you, just as it has also spread through the whole world, yielding fruit there and increasing, as it has done among you from the day when first you heard it and came really to know the grace of God,

For this reason we also, from the day we first received these tidings, have never ceased to pray for you and to entreat that you may be filled with a clear knowledge of His will accompanied by thorough wisdom and discernment in spiritual things;

Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and long-suffering;

For in Him was created the universe of things in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers--all were created, and exist through and for Him.

For it was the Father's gracious will that the whole of the divine perfections should dwell in Him.

Now I can find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions on behalf of His Body, the Church.

I have been appointed to serve the Church in the position of responsibility entrusted to me by God for your benefit, so that I may fully deliver God's Message--

to whom it was His will to make known how vast a wealth of glory for the Gentile world is implied in this truth--the truth that 'Christ is in you, the hope of glory.'

For I would have you know in how severe a struggle I am engaged on behalf of you and the brethren in Laodicea and of all who have not known me personally,

For although, as you say, I am absent from you in body, yet in spirit I am present with you and am delighted to witness your good discipline and the solid front presented by your faith in Christ.

For it is in Christ that the fulness of God's nature dwells embodied, and in Him you are made complete,

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Therefore put to death your earthward inclinations--fornication, impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire, and all greed, for that is a form of idolatry.

Do not speak falsehoods to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its doings,

In that new creation there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free man, but Christ is everything and is in all of us.

Children be obedient to your parents in everything; for that is right for Christians.

Slaves, be obedient in everything to your earthly masters; not in acts of eye service, as aiming only to please men, but with simplicity of purpose, because you fear the Lord.

Whatever you are doing, let your hearts be in your work, as a thing done for the Lord and not for men.

For you know that it is from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. Christ is the Master whose bondservants you are.

And pray at the same time for us also, that God may open for us a door for preaching, for us to tell the truth concerning Christ for the sake of which I am even a prisoner.

And for this very purpose I send him to you that you may know how we are faring; and that he may cheer your hearts.

Jesus, called Justus, also sends greeting. These three are Hebrew converts. They alone among such have worked loyally with me for the Kingdom of God--they are men who have been a comfort to me.

For I can bear witness to the deep interest he takes in you and in the brethren at Laodicea and in those at Hierapolis.