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.

And this he will do if, indeed, you continue in the faith, firmly founded and stedfast, and never moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, and which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, that gospel of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

that secret truth, which, although hidden from ages and generations of old, has now been made manifest to his saints.

To them God willed to make known among the Gentiles how glorious are the riches of that secret truth, which is "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

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 it is in Christ that all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,

when you were buried with him in baptism. In baptism also you were raised with him, through your faith in the energy of that God who raised him from the dead.

blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that stood against us and was hostile to us, and took it out of our way, nailing it to his cross.

If you died with Christ to the world's rudimentary notions, why, as if you still lived in the world, do you submit yourselves to dogmatisms found on teachings and doctrines of men??21 such as "Do not handle this," "You must not taste that," "Do not touch this"??22 all things which are intended to perish in the using?

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.

and put on that new self which is continually made over according to the likeness of its Creator, into full understanding.

In it that new creation there is no "Greek and Jew," "circumcised and uncircumcised," "barbarian," "Scythian," "slave," "free man," but Christ is all, and in us all.

You know that from the Lord you will receive reward of the inheritance, for you are the Lord Christ's slaves.

Masters, deal justly and fairly with your slaves, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

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.

They will inform you of all that goes on here.

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 when this letter has been read to you, see that it is read also in the church of Laodiceans, and that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

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