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;

Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and long-suffering;

To this end, like an earnest wrestler, I exert all my strength in reliance upon the power of Him who is mightily at work within me.

and you also were once addicted to them, while you were living under their power.

And pray at the same time for us also, that God may open for us a door for preaching, for us to tell the truth concerning Christ for the sake of which I am even a prisoner.

For I can bear witness to the deep interest he takes in you and in the brethren at Laodicea and in those at Hierapolis.