which has come to you. Indeed, just as in the whole world the gospel is constantly bearing fruit and spreading [by God’s power], just as it has been doing among you ever since the day you first heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth [becoming thoroughly and deeply acquainted with it].

and he also has told us of your love [well-grounded and nurtured] in the [Holy] Spirit.

giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (God’s people) in the Light.

For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

All has been created through him and for him. He was before all things, and all things unite in him;

For it pleased the Father for all the fullness [of deity—the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son),

And you, being formerly alienated and hostile in mind, in works, in things evil. But now he has reconciled

yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

[and He will do this] if you continue in the faith, well-grounded and steadfast, and not shifting away from the [confident] hope [that is a result] of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which [gospel] I, Paul, was made a minister.

I am suffering now on your behalf, but I rejoice in that; I would make up the full sum of all that Christ has to suffer in my person on behalf of the church, his Body;

of which I have been established a minister, according to the charge which God has given me to preach his gospel faithfully among you. ---

the mystery that was hidden from the ages and from the generations, but has now been made known to his sanctified.

to whom God has chosen to make known how glorious are the riches of this open secret among the heathen, namely, Christ in you the hope of your glorification.

For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form,

Buried with him in baptism, in which also you are risen with him through the faith of the working of God, who has raised him from the dead.

And you also, at one time dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sensual nature, he has made alive together with himself. For he forgave us all our transgressions,

having erased the handwriting against us in the regulations that were hostile to us, and he has taken it up from the midst, having nailed it to the cross.

Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Let no one defraud you of your prize [your freedom in Christ and your salvation] by insisting on mock humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about visions [he claims] he has seen [to justify his authority], puffed up [in conceit] by his unspiritual mind,

And not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God.

For ye died, and your life has been hidden with the Christ in God.

And have put on the new man, which has become new in knowledge after the image of his maker;

So, as God’s own chosen people, who are holy [set apart, sanctified for His purpose] and well-beloved [by God Himself], put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience [which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper];

bearing graciously with one another, and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive.

For the wrongdoer will have punishment for the wrong he has done, without respect for any man's position.

Tychicus will tell you everything that has happened to me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.

and with him is Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will let you know everything about the situation here [in Rome].

For I testify for him that he has worked strenuously for you and for the believers in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis.

When this letter has been read among you, see that it is read in the church of the Laodiceans; and also that you in turn read my letter [that is coming to you] from Laodicea.

And tell Archippas to take heed to the ministry which he has received in the Lord, that he may fulfill it.