which has come to you, just as in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, even as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth;

as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself,

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with thanksgiving.

If with Christ you died to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you still belonged to it, do you submit to regulations such as,

So, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord forgave you, so you also must forgive.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Slaves, in everything obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

knowing that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

And pray for us as well, that God may open a door to us for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains,

so that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.