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].

who has also manifested to us your love in the Spirit.

giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light,

who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love:

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, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it 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;

for I am a minister of the church by the divine commission which has been granted me in your interests, to make a full presentation of God's message ??26 of that open secret which, though concealed from ages and generations of old, has now been disclosed to the saints of God.

the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints;

to whom God has chosen to make known among the heathen how glorious this mystery of Christ in you, the promise of glorification, really is.

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, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences;

having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, 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 fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,

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 you have died, and your life has been safely guarded by the Messiah in God.

and having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him;

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];

forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any should have a complaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye.

For he that does a wrong shall receive the wrong he has done, and there is no respect of persons.

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.

And when the letter has been read among you, cause that it be read also in the assembly of Laodiceans, and that ye also read that from Laodicea.

And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.