(an intermediary implies more than one party, but God is one).

Then the Law is contrary to God's Promises? Never! Had there been any law which had the power of producing life, righteousness would really have been due to law,

you are all sons of God by your faith in Christ Jesus

but when the time had fully expired, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

to ransom those who were under the Law, that we might get our sonship.

It is because you are sons that God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying 'Abba! Father!'

So you are servant no longer but son, and as son you are also heir, all owing to God.

In those days, when you were ignorant of God, you were in servitude to gods who are really no gods at all;

but now that you know God ??or rather, are known by God ??how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them?

and though my flesh was a trial to you, you did not scoff at me nor spurn me, you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus. You congratulated yourselves.

Here, listen to Paul! I tell you, if you get circumcised, Christ will be no use to you.

O that those who are upsetting you would get themselves castrated!

envy, [murder], drinking bouts, revelry, and the like; I tell you beforehand as I have told you already, that people who indulge in such practices will never inherit the Realm of God.

But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity,

Make no mistake ??God is not to be mocked ??a man will reap just what he sows;

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and in particular to the household of the faith.

Why, even the circumcision party do not observe the Law themselves! They merely want you to get circumcised, so as to boast over your flesh!

On all who will be guided by this rule, may peace and mercy rest, even upon the Israel of God.

PAUL, by the will of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the saints who are faithful in Jesus Christ:

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly sphere!

So richly has God lavished his grace upon us!

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of himself,

among whom all of us lived, we as well as you, when we obeyed the passions of our flesh, carrying out the dictates of the flesh and its impulses, when we were objects of God's anger by nature, like the rest of men.

But, dead in trespasses as we were, God was so rich in mercy that for his great love to us

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift,

God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

Remember, then, that once upon a time you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called 'the Uncircumcision' by that so-called 'Circumcision' which is itself the product of human hands in the flesh ??12 remember you were in those days outside Christ, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the Promise, devoid of hope and God within the world.

in his own flesh he put an end to the feud of the Law with its code of commands, so as to make peace by the creation of a new Man in himself out of both parties,

so as himself to give the death-blow to that feud by reconciling them both to God in one Body through the cross;

Thus you are strangers and foreigners no longer, you share the membership of the saints, you belong to God's own household,

and in him you are yourselves built into this to form a habitation for God in the Spirit.

For this reason I Paul, I whom Jesus has made a prisoner for the sake of you Gentiles ??2 for surely you have heard how the grace of God which was vouchsafed me in your interests has ordered it,

Such is the gospel which I was called to serve by the endowment of God's grace which was vouchsafed me, by the energy of his power;

and enlighten all men upon the new order of that divine secret which God the Creator of all concealed from eternity ??10 intending to let the full sweep of the divine wisdom be disclosed now by the church to the angelic Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly sphere,

by knowing the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge! May you be filled with the entire fulness of God!

one God and Father of all, who is over us all, who pervades us all, who is within us all.

till we should all attain the unity of the faith and knowledge of God's Son, reaching maturity, reaching the full measure of development which belongs to the fulness of Christ ??14 instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error;

their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them ??19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

Let no bad word pass your lips, but only such speech as is good for edification, as occasion may require, words that are gracious and a means of grace to those who hear them.

And do not vex God's holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.

be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, be generous to each other as God has been generous to you in Christ.

Copy God, then, as his beloved children,

and lead lives of love, just as Christ loved you and gave himself up for you to be a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

no, nor indecent, silly, or scurrilous talk ??all that is improper. Rather, voice your thanks to God.

Be sure of this, that no one guilty of sexual vice or impurity or lust (that is, an idolater) possesses any inheritance in the realm of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with specious arguments; these are the vices that bring down God's anger on the sons of disobedience.

(for the fruit of light consists in all that is good and right and true),

and do not get drunk with wine ??that means profligacy ??but be filled with the Spirit,

and render thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ at all times and for all things.

instead of merely working when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, do God's will from the heart like servants of Christ,

Be sure that everyone, slave or free, will be paid back by the Lord and Master for the good he has done.

put on God's armour so as to be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.

So take God's armour, that you may be able to make a stand upon the evil day and hold your ground by overcoming all the foe.

Hold your ground, tighten the belt of truth about your loins, wear integrity as your coat of mail,

put on salvation as your helmet, and take the Spirit as your sword (that is, the word of God),

Peace and love with faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God for all your remembrance of me;

of this I am confident, that he who has begun the good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ.

(God is my witness that I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself!)

your life covered with that harvest of righteousness which Jesus Christ produces to the glory and the praise of God.

and my imprisonment has given the majority of the brotherhood greater confidence in the Lord to venture on speaking the word of God without being afraid.

Never be scared for a second by your opponents; your fearlessness is a clear omen of ruin for them and of your own salvation ??at the hands of God.

Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God

Therefore God raised him high and conferred on him a Name above all names,

and every tongue confess that 'Jesus Christ is Lord,' to the glory of God the Father.

for it is God who in his goodwill enables you to will this and to achieve it.

so as to be blameless and innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where you shine like stars in a dark world;

Even if my life-blood has to be poured as a libation on the sacred sacrifice of faith you are offering to God, I rejoice, I congratulate you all ??18 and you in turn must rejoice and congratulate me.

And he was ill, nearly dead with illness. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me, to save me from having one sorrow upon another.

We are the true Circumcision, we who worship God in spirit, we who pride ourselves on Christ Jesus, we who rely upon no outward privilege.

to press on to the goal for the prize of God's high call in Christ Jesus.

For all those of our number who are mature, this must be the point of view; God will reveal that to any of you who look at things differently.

Copy me, brothers, one and all of you, and notice those who live by the example you get from me.

Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god, they glory in their shame, these men of earthly mind!

Never be anxious, but always make your requests known to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving;

so shall God's peace, that surpasses all our dreams, keep guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Practise also what you have learned and received from me, what you heard me say and what you saw me do; then the God of peace will be with you.

Your debt to me is fully paid and more than paid! I am amply supplied with what you have sent by Epaphroditus, a fragrant perfume, the sort of sacrifice that God approves and welcomes.

My God will supply all your own needs from his wealth in Glory in Christ Jesus.

Glory to God our Father for ever and ever: Amen.

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

to the consecrated and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

We always thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you,

which has reached you as it spreads over all the world with fruit and increase. Such has been your life from the day you learned to know what God's grace really is.

You got that lesson from our beloved fellow-servant Epaphras, a minister of Christ who is faithful to your interests;

Hence, from the day we heard of it, we have never ceased to pray for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and insight,

so that you may lead a life that is worthy of the Lord and give him entire satisfaction. May you be fruitful and increase in the doing of all good, as you thus know God!

He is the likeness of the unseen God, born first before all the creation ??16 for it was by him that all things were created both in heaven and on earth, both the seen and the unseen, including Thrones, angelic Lords, celestial Powers and Rulers; all things have been created by him and for him;

for I am a minister of the church by the divine commission which has been granted me in your interests, to make a full presentation of God's message ??26 of that open secret which, though concealed from ages and generations of old, has now been disclosed to the saints of God.

This is the Christ we proclaim; we train everyone and teach everyone the full scope of this knowledge, in order to set everyone before God mature in Christ;

May their hearts be encouraged! May they learn the meaning of love! May they have all the wealth of conviction that comes from insight! May they learn to know that open secret of God, the Father of Christ,

fixed and founded in him, confirmed in the faith as you have been taught it, and overflowing with thankfulness to God.

when you were buried with him in your baptism and thereby raised with him as you believed in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

when he cut away the angelic Rulers and Powers from us, exposing them to all the world and triumphing over them in the cross.

they get the name of 'wisdom' with their self-imposed devotions, with their fasting, with their rigorous discipline of the body, but they are of no value, they simply pamper the flesh!

Since then you have been raised with Christ, aim at what is above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God;

for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

things that bring down the anger of God on the sons of disobedience.