he is the very one who told me of the love awakened in you by the Spirit.

Yes, He is the exact likeness of the unseen God, His first-born Son who existed before any created thing,

So He existed before all things, and through Him all things are held together.

Yes, He is the Head of the church as His body. For He is the beginning, the first-born among the dead, so that He alone should stand first in everything.

and that through Him He might reconcile to Himself all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through the blood He shed On His cross.

So you, who were once estranged from Him, and hostile in disposition as shown by your wrongdoings, He has now reconciled

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.

and through union with Him you too are filled with it. He is the Head of all principalities and dominions.

Yes, although you were dead through your shortcomings and were physically uncircumcised, God made you live again through fellowship with Christ. He graciously forgave us all our shortcomings,

He thus stripped the principalities and dominions of power and made a public display of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Stop letting anyone, in gratuitous humility and worship of angels, defraud you as an umpire, for such a one is taking his stand on the mere visions he has seen, and is groundlessly conceited over his sensuous mind.

For the man who wrongs another will be paid back the wrong he has done; and there are no exceptions.

Always let your conversation be seasoned with salt, that is, with winsomeness, so that you may know how to make a fitting answer to everyone.

he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here.

Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you; and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas; if he comes to see you, give him a hearty welcome.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.

For I can testify how great his toiling for you is and for the brothers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.