Whenever we pray, we never fail to thank God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, about you,

For this reason we also, from the day we first received these tidings, have never ceased to pray for you and to entreat that you may be filled with a clear knowledge of His will accompanied by thorough wisdom and discernment in spiritual things;

And He is the head of the [spiritual] body, the church. He is [its] source, the firstborn One from the dead [i.e., the first one to return to life, never to die again], so that He could rank first [in importance] over all things.

through dying in his human body) in holiness, and free from reproach or blame, into God's presence??23 if at least you continue firm and steadfast in the exercise of faith, and never shift from the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been preached all over the world, and for which I, Paul, became a worker.

If only you remain true to your Faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the Good News to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those [believers] at Laodicea, and for all who [like yourselves] have never seen me face to face.

Let no man make you shoot at a wrong mark, which after his own imagination walketh in the humbleness and holiness of angels, things which he never saw: causeless, puffed up with his fleshly mind,

But now you must rid yourselves of every kind of sin--angry and passionate outbreaks, ill-will, evil speaking, foul-mouthed abuse--so that these may never soil your lips.

Never lie to one another. Get rid of your old self and its habits,

Husbands, love your wives, and never treat them harshly.

Fathers, never irritate your children, lest they should become disheartened.

Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].