I am writing thus to you in absence, so that when I do come I may not have to deal sharply with you; I have the Lord's authority for that, but he gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you.

Now brothers, goodbye; mend your ways, listen to what I have told you, live in harmony, keep the peace; then the God of love and peace will be with you.

I have said it before and I now repeat it: whoever preaches a gospel to you that contradicts the gospel you have already received, God's curse be on him!

but since we know a man is justified simply by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing what the Law commands, we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus so as to get justified by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands ??for by doing what the Law commands no person shall be justified.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, Christ lives in me; the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Have you had all that experience for nothing (if it has really gone for nothing)?

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,

but Scripture has consigned all without exception to the custody of sin, in order that the promise due to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith.

(for all of you who had yourselves baptized into Christ have taken on the character of Christ).

Why, you make me afraid I may have spent my labour on you for nothing!

Do take my line, brothers, I beg of you ??just as I once took yours. I have no complaint against you;

Now, what has become of all that? (I can bear witness that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and given me them.)

Am I your enemy to-day, because I have been honest with you?

You are for justification by the Law? Then you are done with Christ, you have deserted grace,

I feel persuaded in the Lord that you will not go wrong. But he who unsettles you will have to meet his doom, no matter who he is.

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.

Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its emotions and passions.

let us have no vanity, no provoking, no envy of one another.

let everyone bring his own work to the test ??then he will have something to boast about on his own account, and not in comparison with his fellows.

For everyone will have to bear his own load of responsibility.

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

so to order it in the fulness of the ages that all things in heaven and earth alike should be gathered up in Christ ??11 in the Christ in whom we have had our heritage allotted us (as was decreed in the design of him who carries out everything according to the counsel of his will),

You also have heard the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, and in him you also by your faith have been stamped with the seal of the long-promised holy Spirit

Hence, as I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

he made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved);

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

not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that;

Whereas now, within Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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,

how the divine secret was disclosed to me by a revelation (if you read what I have already written briefly about this,

through whom, as we have faith in him, we enjoy our confidence of free access.

May Christ dwell in your hearts as you have faith!

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.

That is not how you have understood the meaning of Christ

(for it is Christ whom you have been taught, it is in Christ that you have been instructed ??the real Christ who is in Jesus);

Let the thief steal no more; rather let him work and put his hands to an honest task, so as to have something to contribute to the needy.

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

Have nothing to do with the fruitless enterprises of the darkness; rather expose them.

in order to have the church as his very own, standing before him in all her glory, with never a spot or wrinkle or any such flaw, but consecrated and unblemished.

And as for you masters, act by your servants in the same way, and stop threatening them; be sure that they and you have a Lord and Master in heaven, and there is no partiality about him.

For we have to struggle, not with blood and flesh but with the angelic Rulers, the angelic Authorities, the potentates of the dark present, the spirit-forces of evil in the heavenly sphere.

and have your feet shod with the stability of the gospel of peace;

for the sake of which I am in custody as its envoy. Pray that I may have freedom to declare it as I should.

Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

for what you have contributed to the gospel from the very first day down to this moment;

And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more rich in knowledge and all manner of insight, enabling you to have a sense of what is vital,

I would have you understand, my brothers, that my affairs have really tended to advance the gospel;

Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me ??over my return to you.

For on behalf of Christ you have the favour of suffering no less than of believing in him,

Therefore, my beloved, as you have been obedient always and not simply when I was present, so, now that I am absent, work all the more strenuously at your salvation with reverence and trembling,

hold fast the word of life, so that I can be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because I have not run or worked for nothing.

I have no one like him, for genuine interest in your welfare.

But for Christ's sake I have learned to count my former gains a loss;

indeed I count anything a loss, compared to the supreme value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost everything (I count it all the veriest refuse) in order to gain Christ

Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press forward to appropriate it, because I have been appropriated myself by Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I for one do not consider myself to have appropriated this; my one thought is, by forgetting what lies behind me and straining to what lies before me,

Only, we must let our steps be guided by such truth as we have attained.

For many ??as I have often told you and tell you now with tears ??many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

And you, my true comrade, lend a hand to these women, I beg of you; they have fought at my side in the active service of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

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.

Not that I complain of want, for I have learned how to be content wherever I am.

I know how to live humbly; I also know how to live in prosperity. I have been initiated into the secret for all sorts and conditions of life, for plenty and for hunger, for prosperity and for privations.

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.

since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints,

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,

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;

so as to set you consecrated and unblemished and irreproachable in his presence ??23 that is, if you adhere to the foundations and stability of the faith, instead of moving away from the hope you have learned in the gospel, that gospel which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I Paul was made a minister.

Striving? Yes, I want you to understand my deep concern for you and for those at Laodicea, for all who have never seen my face.

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,

Since you have had the messiah, even Jesus the Lord, brought to you, lead your life in him,

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

in him you have been circumcised with no material circumcision that cuts flesh from the body, but with Christ's own circumcision,

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

Tell no lies to one another; you have stripped off the old nature with its practices,

Also, let the peace of Christ be supreme within your hearts ??that is why you have been called as members of the one Body. And you must be thankful.

Masters, treat your servants justly and fairly; remember you have a Master of your own in heaven.

let your talk always have a saving salt of grace about it, and learn how to answer any question put to you.

Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner salutes you; so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you have got instructions (if he comes to you, give him a welcome);

and so does Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only comrades in the work of God's realm, belonging to the circumcised, who have been any comfort to me.

And tell Archippus, 'Attend to the ministry you have received in the Lord; see that you fulfil it.'

for you have started, my brothers, to copy the churches of God in Christ Jesus throughout Judaea; you have suffered from your compatriots just as they have suffered from the Jews,

for we told you beforehand, when we were with you, that "we Christians are to have trouble" ??and, as you know, it has been so.)

We would like you, brothers, to understand about those who are asleep in death. You must not grieve for them, like the rest of men who have no hope.

Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then it follows that by means of Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For we tell you, as the Lord has told us, that we the living, who survive till the Lord comes, are by no means to take precedence of those who have fallen asleep.

As regards the course and periods of time, brothers, you have no need of being written to.

I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read aloud to all the [holy] brothers.

Well then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the rules which you have learned from us orally or by letter.

Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy.

Certain individuals have failed here by turning to empty argument;

doctors of the Law is what they want to be, but they have no idea either of the meaning of the words they use or of the themes on which they harp.

as laid down by that glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. Certain individuals have scouted the good conscience and thus come to grief over their faith ??20 including Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan. That will teach them to stop their blasphemous ongoings!

also, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, in case he incurs slander and is trapped by the devil.

Lay this before the brotherhood, and you will be an excellent minister of Christ Jesus, brought up on the truths of the faith and on the lessons of the good doctrine you have already followed.

You have a gift that came to you transmitted by the prophets, when the presbytery laid their hands upon you; do not neglect that gift.

(When a widow has children or grandchildren, they must learn that the first duty of religion is to their own household, and that they should make some return to those who have brought them up. In God's sight this is an acceptable thing.)

No one under sixty is to be put on the church's list of widows; and she must have been only once married,

she must have a reputation for good service, as a woman who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, relieved distress, and interested herself in all good works.

Besides, they become idle unconsciously by gadding about from one house to another ??and not merely idle but gossips and busybodies, repeating things they have no right to mention.