and it is he who has told me of your love for me in the spirit.

that you may walk worthy of the Lord in every kind of pleasing; that you may be fruitful in every kind of good work, and may increase in the knowledge of God;

that you may be strengthened in every kind of strength by the might of his glory for every kind of patience and fortitude with good cheer.

I ask that you may give thanks to the Father who has made us fit to receive our share of the heritage of the saints in the light.

He is the head of his Body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, in order that in all things he may become preeminent.

he has now in his human body reconciled to God by his death, in order that he may bring you into his presence, holy and unblemished and irreproachable.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings on your behalf; and I am filling up in my own body what is yet lacking of the sufferings of Christ in behalf of the church, his Body.

It is of this I was made a minister, according to the stewardship entrusted to me by God for you, fully to declare God's message;

Him I am ever proclaiming, warning every one and teaching every one, in all wisdom; that I may bring every man into his presence, full grown in Christ.

For that end I am ever toiling, wrestling with all that energy of his which is mightily at work within me.

For I would have you know how great a contest I am waging for you and the brethren in Laodicea, and for all who have never seen my face.

May their hearts be comforted! May they be knit together in love! May they gain in all its riches the full assurance of their understanding! May they come to a perfect knowledge of the secret truth of God, which is Christ himself.

Therefore do not permit any one to sit in judgment on you in regard to what you may eat or drink, or in regard to feast-days or new moons or sabbaths.

But now you also must renounce them all. Anger, passion, and ill-will must be put away; slander, too, and foul talk, so that they may never soil your lips.

Keep on praying for me, too, that God may open for me a door of utterance to speak the secret truth of Christ, for which I am a prisoner.

Pray that I may unfold it as I ought to speak.

Tychicus, my beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow slave in the Lord, will make known to you all that concerns me.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, salutes you, and Marcus, the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, make him welcome), and Jesus surnamed Justas.

These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, belonging to the circumcision, who have been any comfort to me.

Epaphras, one of yourselves, salutes you, a slave of Christ who is always agonizing for you in his prayers, that you may stand firm, mature, and fully assured in all the will of God.

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

I, Paul, add this farewell in my own handwriting. Do not forget these chains of mine. Grace be with you.