that He might present the church to Himself as a splendid bride without a blot or wrinkle or anything like it, but to be consecrated and faultless.

Therefore, a man must leave his father and mother and so perfectly unite himself to his wife that the two shall be one.

"so that you may prosper and live a long life on earth."

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will get his reward from the Lord for anything good he has done.

You slave-owners, too, must maintain the same attitude toward your slaves, and stop threatening them, for you know that their real Lord and yours is in heaven, and that He never shows partiality.

For our contest is not with human foes alone, but with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark world; that is, with the spirit-forces of evil challenging us in the heavenly contest.

and for me that a message may be given me when I open my lips, so that I may boldly make known the open secret of the good news,

for the sake of which I am an envoy in prison: so that, when I tell it, I may speak as courageously as I ought.

That you may also know how I am, Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and a faithful minister in the Lord's service, will give you all the information;

that is the very reason I am sending him, to let you know how I am and to cheer your hearts.

For I am certain of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will go on until the day of Jesus Christ to complete it.

And it is my prayer that your love may overflow still more and more, directed by fuller knowledge and keener insight,

so that you may always approve the better things, and be men of transparent character and blameless life,

men that are abounding in the fruits of right-doing with the help of Jesus Christ, to the honor and praise of God.

Now I want you to rest assured, brothers, that those things which have befallen me have actually resulted in the progress of the good news;

in this way it has become well known throughout the Imperial Guard and to all the rest here that I am a prisoner in the service of Christ,

and that most of the Christian brothers have grown confident enough, because of my imprisonment, to dare to tell God's message without being afraid.

the latter, indeed, are doing so from love to me, for they know that I am providentially put here to defend the good news;

the former are preaching Christ from the motive of rivalry, not in sincerity, supposing that this is making it harder for me to bear my imprisonment.

What difference then does it make? In one way or another, whether in pretense or in sincerity, Christ is being preached, and that is the thing that makes me glad; yes, more too, I will continue to be glad of it,

for I know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my spiritual welfare,

in accordance with my eager expectation and hope that I shall never disgrace myself, but that now as always hitherto, by my all-conquering courage, whether by living or dying, Christ will be honored in me.

I am hesitating between two desires, for I long to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far, far better,

Now since I am certain of this, I know that I shall stay on and stay by you all to promote the progress of your faith

which will result in your joy; so that, through union with Christ Jesus, you may have more than sufficient ground for boasting about me, through my being with you again.

Only you must practice living lives that are worthy of the good news, so that whether I come and see you or stay away, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, and that with one purpose you are continuing to cooperate in the fight for faith in the good news.

Never in the slightest degree be frightened by your opponents, for such fearlessness will be strong evidence to them of their impending destruction, but to you a sure sign, and that from God, of your salvation.

since you are having the same struggle that you once saw me have and which you hear that I am still having.

Keep on fostering the same disposition that Christ Jesus had.

This is why God has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name that is above every other name,

so that in the name of Jesus everyone should kneel, in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld,

and everyone should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the praise of God the Father.

so that you may prove to be blameless and spotless, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverted age, in which you shine as light-bearers in the world as you continue

to hold up the message of life. That will give me ground for boasting on the day of Christ, because neither my career nor my labor has been a failure.

I hope, with the approval of the Lord Jesus, soon to send Timothy to you, so that I too may be cheered on getting the news about you.

Really, I am trusting that by the help of the Lord I soon shall come myself.

for he has been longing to see you and has been homesick because you have heard that he was sick.

For he was so sick that he was on the point of dying, but God took pity on him, and not only on him but on me too, to keep me from having one sorrow after another.

I very eagerly send him, so that when you see him you may be glad of it, and I may be less sorrowful.

Finally, my brothers, continue to be glad that you are in union with the Lord. I am not tired of writing you the same things over and over: it means your safety.

though I too might rely on these. If anyone thinks that he can rely on outward privileges, far more might I do so:

But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss.

and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

Yes, I long to come to know Him; that is, the power of His resurrection and so to share with Him his sufferings as to be continuously transformed by His death,

in the hope of attaining, in some measure, the resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead.

It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I do not think that I have captured it yet, but here is my one aspiration, so forgetting what is behind me and reaching out for what is ahead of me,

However, we must continue to live up to that degree of success that we have already reached.

He will so change the outward appearance of our lowly bodies that they will be like His glorious body, by the exertion of the power He has to subject everything to Himself.

Then, through your union with Christ Jesus, the peace of God, that surpasses all human thought, will keep guard over your hearts and thoughts.

Now, brothers, practice thinking on what is true, what is honorable, what is right, what is pure, what is lovable, what is high-toned, yes, on everything that is excellent or praiseworthy.

Practice the things you learned, received, and heard from me, things that you saw me do, and then the God who gives us peace will be with you.

Not that I refer to any personal want, for I have learned to be contented in whatever circumstances I am.

And you Philippians yourselves know that immediately after the good news was first preached to you, when I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership with me to open an account of credits and debits.

It is not your gift that I want, but I do want the profits to pile up to your credit.

I have received your payment in full, and more too. I am amply supplied after getting the things you sent by Epaphroditus; they are like sweet incense, the kind of sacrifice that God accepts and approves.

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;

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.

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,

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.

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.

In it I have been made a minister in accordance with the trusteeship God entrusted to me for you, that I might prove among you the universal message of God,

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,

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.

For it is in Him that all the fullness of Deity continues to live embodied,

canceled the note that stood against us, with its requirements, and has put it out of our way by nailing it to the cross.

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.

which refer to things that perish in the using, in accordance with human rules and teachings?

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

You too used to practice these sins, when you used to live that sort of life.

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.

And over all these qualities put on love, which is the tie of perfection that binds us together.

Let the peace that Christ can give keep on acting as umpire in your hearts, for you were called to this state as members of one body. And practice being thankful.

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.

Masters, you must practice doing the right and square things by your slaves, for you know that you have a Master in heaven.

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.

he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here.

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.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.

Remember me to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets at her house.

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."

This farewell greeting is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am still a prisoner. Spiritual blessing be with you.

For we know, brothers so beloved by God, that He has chosen you,

so that you became examples to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece.

(1:7) For the message of the Lord has rung out from you, not only in Macedonia and Greece, but everywhere the report of your faith in God has been told, so that we need never mention it.

For you know yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was by no means a failure.

For another reason too, we, as far as we are concerned, are constantly giving thanks to God; that is, when you received the message you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which keeps on working in you who believe.

For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you too have suffered the same sort of ill-treatment at the hands of your fellow-countrymen as they did at the hands of the Jews,

by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

Because we did want to come to see you; I mean, that I myself, Paul, wanted again and again to come, but Satan prevented it.

so that none of you might be deceived amid these difficulties. For you knew yourselves that this is our appointed lot,

for when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to be pressed with difficulties, and it took place, as you know.

That was why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be lost.

But now, since Timothy has just come back to me from you, and brought me good tidings of your faith and love, and told me how kindly you remembered me and that you are longing to see me as much as I am to see you,

this is the very reason, namely, through your faith, brothers, that I have been encouraged about you, in spite of all my distresses and crushing difficulties,

as night and day I continue to pray with deepest earnestness and keenest eagerness that I may see your faces and round out to completeness what is lacking in your faith?

so that He may strengthen your hearts to be faultless in purity in the sight of God, when our Lord Jesus comes back with all His consecrated ones.