²⁸ Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock^(A) of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.^(B) Be shepherds of the church of God,^[a](C) which he bought^(D) with his own blood.^[b](E)

²² And God placed all things under his feet^(A) and appointed him to be head^(B) over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body,^(C) the fullness of him^(D) who fills everything in every way.^(E)

¹⁸ And he is the head^(A) of the body, the church;^(B) he is the beginning and the firstborn^(C) from among the dead,^(D) so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Paul’s Labor for the Church

²⁴ Now I rejoice^(A) in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,^(B) for the sake of his body, which is the church.^(C)