Philippians 4 - Colossians 2

Common English Bible

Stand firm in the Lord

4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I love and miss, who are my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord.

Loved ones, ² I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to come to an agreement in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I’m also asking you, loyal friend, to help these women who have struggled together with me in the ministry of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the scroll of life.

⁴ Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! ⁵ Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. ⁶ Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. ⁷ Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

⁸ From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. ⁹ Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.

Paul’s thanks for gifts

¹⁰ I was very glad in the Lord because now at last you have shown concern for me again. (Of course you were always concerned but had no way to show it.) ¹¹ I’m not saying this because I need anything, for I have learned how to be content in any circumstance. ¹² I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor. ¹³ I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength. ¹⁴ Still, you have done well to share my distress.

¹⁵ You Philippians know from the time of my first mission work in Macedonia how no church shared in supporting my ministry except you. ¹⁶ You sent contributions repeatedly to take care of my needs even while I was in Thessalonica. ¹⁷ I’m not hoping for a gift, but I am hoping for a profit that accumulates in your account. ¹⁸ I now have plenty and it is more than enough. I am full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus. Those gifts give off a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice that pleases God. ¹⁹ My God will meet your every need out of his riches in the glory that is found in Christ Jesus. ²⁰ Let glory be given to God our Father forever and always. Amen.

Final greeting

²¹ Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters with me send you their greeting. ²² All God’s people here, especially those in Caesar’s household, send you their greeting. ²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.

Greeting

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother.

² To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and prayer for the Colossians

³ We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. ⁴ We’ve done this since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God’s people. ⁵ You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You previously heard about this hope through the true message, the good news, ⁶ which has come to you. This message has been bearing fruit and growing among you since the day you heard and truly understood God’s grace, in the same way that it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, who is the fellow slave we love and Christ’s faithful minister for your sake. ⁸ He informed us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹ Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we haven’t stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. ¹⁰ We’re praying this so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ by being strengthened through his glorious might so that you endure everything and have patience; ¹² and by giving thanks with joy to the Father. He made it so you could take part in the inheritance, in light granted to God’s holy people. ¹³ He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. ¹⁴ He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.

Hymn about Christ’s work

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies with him in your minds, which was shown by your evil actions. ²² But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death, to present you before God as a people who are holy, faultless, and without blame. ²³ But you need to remain well established and rooted in faith and not shift away from the hope given in the good news that you heard. This message has been preached throughout all creation under heaven. And I, Paul, became a servant of this good news.

Paul’s service for the church

²⁴ Now I’m happy to be suffering for you. I’m completing what is missing from Christ’s sufferings with my own body. I’m doing this for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church by God’s commission, which was given to me for you, in order to complete God’s word. ²⁶ I’m completing it with a secret plan^[c] that has been hidden for ages and generations but which has now been revealed to his holy people. ²⁷ God wanted to make the glorious riches of this secret plan^[d] known among the Gentiles, which is Christ living in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ This is what we preach as we warn and teach every person with all wisdom so that we might present each one mature in Christ. ²⁹ I work hard and struggle for this goal with his energy, which works in me powerfully.

2 I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who haven’t known me personally. ² My goal is that their hearts would be encouraged and united together in love so that they might have all the riches of assurance that come with understanding, so that they might have the knowledge of the secret plan^[e] of God, namely Christ. ³ All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. ⁴ I’m telling you this so that no one deceives you with convincing arguments, ⁵ because even though I am absent physically, I’m with you in spirit. I’m happy to see the discipline and stability of your faith in Christ.

Error threatening the church

⁶ So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. ⁷ Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught. ⁸ See to it that nobody enslaves you with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to human traditions and the way the world thinks and acts rather than Christ. ⁹ All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body. ¹⁰ And you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by human hands. The circumcision of Christ is realized in the stripping away of the whole self dominated by sin. ¹² You were buried with him through baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead because of the things you had done wrong and because your body wasn’t circumcised, God made you alive with Christ and forgave all the things you had done wrong. ¹⁴ He destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ When he disarmed the rulers and authorities, he exposed them to public disgrace by leading them in a triumphal parade.

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone judge you about eating or drinking or about a festival, a new moon observance, or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These religious practices are only a shadow of what was coming—the body that cast the shadow is Christ. ¹⁸ Don’t let anyone who wants to practice harsh self-denial and worship angels rob you of the prize. They go into detail about what they have seen in visions and have become unjustifiably arrogant by their selfish way of thinking. ¹⁹ They don’t stay connected to the head. The head nourishes and supports the whole body through the joints and ligaments, so the body grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰ If you died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts, why do you submit to rules and regulations as though you were living in the world? ²¹ “Don’t handle!” “Don’t taste!” “Don’t touch!” ²² All these things cease to exist when they are used. Such rules are human commandments and teachings. ²³ They look like they are wise with this self-made religion and their self-denial by the harsh treatment of the body, but they are no help against indulging in selfish immoral behavior.