because we have heard about your faith in the Messiah Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints,

that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and spreading all over the world, so it has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.

For this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God's will with respect to all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

so that you might live in a manner worthy of the Lord and be fully pleasing to him as you bear fruit while doing all kinds of good things and growing in the full knowledge of God.

You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might patiently endure everything with joy

He is also the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might have first place in everything.

he has now reconciled by the death of his physical body, so that he may present you holy, blameless, and without fault before him.

However, you must remain firmly established and steadfast in the faith, without being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

I became its servant as God commissioned me to work for you, so that I may complete my ministry of the word of God.

It is he whom we proclaim as we admonish and wisely teach everyone, so that we may present everyone mature in the Messiah.

I work hard and struggle to do this, using the energy that he powerfully provides in me.

Because they are united in love, I pray that their hearts may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of the full knowledge of the Messiah, who is the mystery of God.

I say this so that no one will mislead you with nice-sounding rhetoric.

See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to the Messiah,

having erased the charges that were brought against us, along with their obligations that were hostile to us. He took those charges away when he nailed them to the cross.

"Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!"

Therefore, if you have been raised with the Messiah, keep focusing on the things that are above, where the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God.

Keep your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

It is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.

You know that it is from the Lord that you will receive the inheritance as a reward. It is the Lord Messiah whom you are serving!

Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

At the same time also pray for us that God would open before us a door for the word so that we may tell the secret about the Messiah, for which I have been imprisoned.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Tychicus will tell you everything that has happened to me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.

I am sending him to you for this very reason, so that you may know how we are doing and that he may encourage your hearts.

He is coming with Onesimus, that faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of the Messiah Jesus, sends you his greetings. He is always wrestling in his prayers for you, so that you may stand mature, completely convinced of the entire will of God.

For I can testify on his behalf that he has a deep concern for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, especially to Nympha and the church that is in her house.

Tell Archippus, "See that you complete the ministry you have received from the Lord."

This greeting is written with my own signature "Paul." Remember that I remain imprisoned. May grace be with you! Amen.