for what we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all God's people,

and it is he who has told me of the love the Spirit has awakened in you.

so that the lives you live may be worthy of your Master and wholly pleasing to him, and you may be fruitful in all kinds of good deeds, and may grow into fuller knowledge of God.

that your hearts may be cheered. I want you to be united by love, and to have all the benefit of assured knowledge in coming to know Christ??3 that divine mystery in which all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found.

So just as you once accepted the Christ, Jesus, as your Lord, you must live in vital union with him.

when in your baptism you were buried with him, and raised to life with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Yes, you who were dead through your misdeeds and physically uncircumcised, God raised to life with Christ. He forgave us all our misdeeds,

If, then, you have been raised to life with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are where Christ is, above, seated at God's right hand.

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

When Christ, who is our true life, shall make his appearance, then you also will appear glorified with him.

And you once practiced them as others do, when you lived that old earthly life.

And over all these put on love, which completes them and fastens them all together.

Let the message of Christ live in your hearts in all its wealth of wisdom. Teach it to one another and train one another in it with thankfulness, with psalms, hymns, and sacred songs, and sing to God with all your hearts.

You who are husbands must love your wives and not be harsh to them.