We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you,

because of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, which ye heard of before in the word of the truth of the good news,

as ye also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful ministrant of the Christ,

Because of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

Giving thanks to the Father who did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the light,

because in him were the all things created, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible, whether thrones, whether lordships, whether principalities, whether authorities; all things through him, and for him, have been created,

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,

of which I -- I did become a ministrant according to the dispensation of God, that was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God,

for which also I labour, striving according to his working that is working in me in power.

For I wish you to know how great a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

for if even in the flesh I am absent -- yet in the spirit I am with you, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in regard to Christ;

which are all for destruction with the using, after the commands and teachings of men,

for ye did die, and your life hath been hid with the Christ in God;

the children! obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord;

having known that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance -- for the Lord Christ ye serve;

praying at the same time also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the secret of the Christ, because of which also I have been bound,

whom I did send unto you for this very thing, that he might know the things concerning you, and might comfort your hearts,

and Jesus who is called Justus, who are of the circumcision: these only are fellow-workers for the reign of God who did become a comfort to me.

Salute you doth Epaphras, who is of you, a servant of Christ, always striving for you in the prayers, that ye may stand perfect and made full in all the will of God,

for I do testify to him, that he hath much zeal for you, and those in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis.