because of your hope of what is laid up for you in heaven. Long ago you heard of this hope through the message of the good news

This is why, ever since I heard of it, I have never ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full wisdom and spiritual insight, with a clear knowledge of His will,

for it was through Him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.

So He existed before all things, and through Him all things are held together.

and that through Him He might reconcile to Himself all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through the blood He shed On His cross.

We are proclaiming Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with ample wisdom, in order to present to God everyone mature through union with Christ.

with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude.

and through union with Him you too are filled with it. He is the Head of all principalities and dominions.

And through your union with Him you once received, not a hand-performed circumcision but one performed by Christ, in stripping you of your lower nature,

for you were buried with Him in baptism and raised to life with Him through your faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead.

Yes, although you were dead through your shortcomings and were physically uncircumcised, God made you live again through fellowship with Christ. He graciously forgave us all our shortcomings,

Such a person is not continuing in connection with the Head, from which the whole body, when supplied and united through its joints and sinews, grows with a growth that God produces.

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,

for you have died, and your life is now hidden in God through your fellowship with Christ.

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.