for what we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all God's people,

That is why, from the day I first heard of it, I have never given up praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full spiritual wisdom and insight, with a clear knowledge of what his will is,

by whom we have been ransomed from captivity through having our sins forgiven.

that your hearts may be cheered. I want you to be united by love, and to have all the benefit of assured knowledge in coming to know Christ??3 that divine mystery in which all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found.

Through your relation to him you have received not a physical circumcision, but a circumcision effected by Christ, in stripping you of your material nature,

If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like

If, then, you have been raised to life with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are where Christ is, above, seated at God's right hand.

For you have died, and your life now lies hidden with Christ in God.

You must not lie to one another. For you have stripped off your old self with its ways

and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully.

Let the ruling principle in your hearts be Christ's peace, for in becoming members of one body you have been called under its sway. And you must be thankful.

And whatever you have to say or do, do it all as followers of the Lord Jesus, and offer your thanksgiving to God the Father through him.

You who are masters must treat your slaves justly and fairly, and remember that you have a Master too, in heaven.

Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does Barnabas' cousin Mark. (About him you have had instructions; if he comes to see you, make him welcome.)

So also does Jesus who is called Justus. They are the only ones among the converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the reign of God who have proved a comfort to me.

When this letter has been read to you, have it read to the church at Laodicea also, and see that you read the letter that is coming from there.

And tell Archippus, "See that you perform the Christian service you have been assigned."