Colossians 4:12
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12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ,[a] greets you. He is always striving in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured[b] in everything that God wills.(A)
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Romans 15:30
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30 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf,(A)
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Colossians 1:9
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9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s[a] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,(A)
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- 1.9 Gk his
Philemon 23
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Final Greetings and Benediction
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,[a](A)
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- 23 Here you is singular
Colossians 1:28
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28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.[a](A)
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- 1.28 Other ancient authorities add Jesus
Colossians 1:7
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7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our[a] behalf,(A)
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- 1.7 Other ancient authorities read your
2 Peter 1:1
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Salutation
1 Simeon[a] Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as equally honorable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
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- 1.1 Other ancient authorities read Simon
Galatians 4:19
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19 My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,(A)
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Romans 15:14
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Paul’s Reason for Writing So Boldly
14 I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.(A)
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Jude 24
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Benediction
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing,(A)
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Hebrews 5:14-6:1
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14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.(A)
The Peril of Falling Away
6 Therefore let us go on[a] toward perfection,[b] leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God,(B)
Hebrews 5:7
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7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus[a] offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.(A)
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- 5.7 Gk he
Colossians 1:22
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22 he has now reconciled[a] in his fleshly body[b] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,(A)
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Galatians 1:10
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10 Am I now seeking human approval or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.(A)
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2 Corinthians 13:11
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Final Greetings and Benediction
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell.[a] Be restored; listen to my appeal;[b] agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.(A)
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1 Corinthians 14:20
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20 Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.(A)
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1 Corinthians 2:6
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The True Wisdom of God
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.(A)
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John 12:26
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26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.(A)
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Matthew 5:48
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48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.(A)
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James 5:16
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16 Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.(A)
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James 1:1
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Salutation
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the dispersion:
Greetings.
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1 Thessalonians 5:23
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23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound[a] and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.(A)
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- 5.23 Or complete
Colossians 4:1-2
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4 1
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.(A)
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Colossians 2
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2 For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you and for those in Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ,[a](A) 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.(B) 4 I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your orderly conduct and the firmness of your faith in Christ.(C)
Fullness of Life in Christ
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.(D)
8 Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles[b] of the world, and not according to Christ.(E) 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.(F) 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,[c] by the removal of the body[d] of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;(G) 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.(H) 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God[e] made you[f] alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,(I) 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed[g] the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.(J)
16 Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or[h] drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.(K) 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,[i] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[j] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.(L)
Warnings against False Teachers
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental principles[k] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,(M) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(N) 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.[l]
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- 2.2 Other ancient authorities read of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ
- 2.8 Or spirits
- 2.11 Gk a circumcision made without hands
- 2.11 Other ancient authorities add of the sins
- 2.13 Gk he
- 2.13 Other ancient authorities read made us or made
- 2.15 Or divested himself of
- 2.16 Other ancient authorities read and
- 2.18 Meaning of Gk uncertain
- 2.18 Gk by the mind of his flesh
- 2.20 Or spirits
- 2.23 Or are of no value, serving only to indulge the flesh
Philippians 3:12-15
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Pressing toward the Goal
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,[a] but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ[b] has laid hold of me.(A) 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold[c] of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,(B) 14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly[d] call of God in Christ Jesus.(C) 15 Let those of us, then, who are mature[e] think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.(D)
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