Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy,

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

which reached you, and since it is bearing fruit and growing among you, just as it is all over the world, from the day you first heard of God's favor and in reality came to know it,

so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord to His full satisfaction, by perennially bearing fruit in every good enterprise and by a steady growth in fuller knowledge of God;

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.

It is so because it was the divine choice that all the divine fullness should dwell in Him,

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

by His death in His human body, so as to present you consecrated, faultless, and blameless in His presence,

I am now glad to be suffering for you, and in my own person I am filling in what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for His body, that is, the church.

the open secret, covered up from the people of former ages and generations, but now uncovered to God's people,

that their hearts may be encouraged, by having been knit together in love and by having atoned to the full assurance of understanding, so that they may finally reach the fullest knowledge of the open secret, Christ Himself,

So, just as you once accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue living in vital union with Him,

Take care that nobody captures you by the idle fancies of his so-called philosophy, following human tradition and the world's crude notions instead of Christ.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as,

So if you have been raised to life in fellowship with Christ, keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

So once for all put to death your lower, earthly nature with respect to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is real idolatry.

It is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming.

and have put on the new self which is in the process of being made new in the likeness of its Creator, so that you may attain a perfect knowledge of Him.

So as God's own chosen people, consecrated and dearly loved, you must once for all clothe yourselves with tenderheartedness, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; you must keep on

forbearing one another and freely forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; just as the Lord has freely forgiven you, so must you also do.

And whatever you say or do, let it all be done with reference to the Lord Jesus, and through Him continue to give thanks to God the Father.

Fathers, stop exasperating your children, so as to keep them from losing heart.

for you know that it is from the Lord that you are going to get your pay in the form of an inheritance; so keep on serving Christ the Lord.

At the same time keep on praying for me too, that God may open the door of opportunity for the message, so that I may tell the open secret about Christ, for the sake of which I am held a prisoner,

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.

My dearly loved Tychicus, a faithful minister and my fellow-servant in the Lord's work, will tell you all about me.

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.

So does Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only converts from Judaism that are fellow-workers with me here for the kingdom of God, who have proved a real comfort to me.

When this letter has been read to you, have it read to the church at Laodicea too, and see to it that you too read the one that is coming from Laodicea.

And tell Archippus, "See to it that you continue until you fill full your ministry which you received in the Lord's work."