Bible in 90 Days

²⁶ All of you are God's children because you believe in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ They baptized you as believers in Christ. That means that you have put on Christ, like someone who puts on new clothes. ²⁸ It does not matter whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. It does not matter whether you are a slave or a free person. It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman. You all belong together because you all belong to Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham. Because of that, you will receive all the good things that God promised to Abraham.

Paul explains about sons

4 I will say it like this. Think about a son who will one day receive what belongs to his father. While he is still a child, he is like a slave in the family. That is true, even though all his father's things really belong to him. ² He has to wait until the time that his father has decided. Until then, the son has to obey his teachers and the guides who take care of him. ³ In the same way, we were children like that in God's family. We were slaves to the bad spirits that rule this world. ⁴ But when the time that God had decided arrived, he sent his Son into the world. A human mother gave birth to him. He was born a Jew, under the authority of God's Law. ⁵ In that way, he made us free from the authority of the Law. Before that, we were like slaves under the Law. But God's Son paid our debt, so that God would accept us as his true children. ⁶ Because we are his children, God has sent his Son's Spirit to live inside us. His Spirit causes us to call God, ‘Father, my Father’. ⁷ So you are not slaves any more, but you are God's children. And because of that, you will receive all the good things that God has promised.

Continue to trust Christ

⁸ Before, when you did not know God, you served false gods. They were not gods at all, but you were their slaves. ⁹ But now you do know God. Or really, I should say that God knows you. So you must not turn back to serve those weak spirits that rule this world. Why do you want to obey their useless rules and become their slaves again? ¹⁰ You say that certain days, or months, or seasons, or years are special. That is how you want to please God. ¹¹ I am afraid about you. I worked very much to help you. I do not want my work to have no results.

¹² My Christian friends, please become like me! I ask you to do this, because when I was with you, I became like you. You did not then do anything wrong to me. ¹³ You must remember that I first came to you because I was ill. That was when I first told God's good news to you. ¹⁴ I caused trouble for you because I was ill. But you did not insult me. You did not tell me to go away. But you were kind to me. You took care of me as if I were an angel from God, or even Christ Jesus himself. ¹⁵ But now you do not seem to be happy with me any more. I can say that you would have pulled out your own eyes to help me. You would have given them to me, if that had been possible. ¹⁶ But now I seem to have become your enemy! Is that because I am telling you God's true message?

¹⁷ Those false teachers try very much to please you. But they do not really want what is good for you. They want to make you turn away from me. Then you will only want to listen to them. ¹⁸ It is good for someone to try to please other people if they really want to help them. That is true all the time, not only when I am there with you. ¹⁹ My children, I feel like a mother who is giving birth to you again. I will continue to feel that kind of pain until you become more completely like Christ. ²⁰ I want very much to be there with you now. Then I would know better how to speak to you. As it is, I do not know what to think about you.

A picture of Hagar and Sarah

²¹ I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says. ²² The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman. ²³ Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.^[a]

²⁴ These two women are like pictures of two agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on Sinai mountain.^[b] That agreement causes people to become slaves. ²⁵ Hagar is like a picture of Sinai mountain in Arabia.^[c] Also, she is like the city of Jerusalem here on earth now, because that city and its people are slaves under the authority of God's Law.

²⁶ But Abraham's wife, Sarah, is a picture of the new Jerusalem that is above. Sarah was a free person, not a slave, and she is like our mother. ²⁷ It says in the Bible:

²⁸ You, my Christian friends, are like Sarah's son, Isaac. Like him, you became God's children as a result of God's promise. ²⁹ Isaac was born because of God's Spirit. The son who was born in the human way gave much trouble to Isaac at that time. You who are believers receive the same kind of trouble now. ³⁰ But this is what it says in the Bible: ‘Send away the woman who is a slave and her son. That woman's son will never receive anything from his father. The son of the free woman will receive all those good things.’^{[e] 31} So then, my Christian friends, we are not children of the woman who is a slave. No, we are children of the free woman.

We should live as free people

5 Christ has made us free so that we can be really free! So be strong and do not turn back. Do not let yourselves become slaves to the Jewish rules again.

² Listen carefully! I, Paul, tell you this. If you agree that someone should circumcise you, then Christ will be worth nothing to you. ³ I will say it very clearly. Every man who lets someone circumcise him must then obey all the Jewish rules. ⁴ I say this to you people who try to obey the rules of God's Law. If you think that God will accept you as right because you do that, you have turned away from Christ. You no longer agree to accept God's kind gift. ⁵ But if we trust what Christ has done for us, God's Spirit helps us to wait. We are sure that God will accept us as right with him. ⁶ We belong to Christ Jesus. So it does not matter whether anyone has circumcised us or not. The only thing that matters is that we believe in Christ. As a result we will love others in the way that we live.

⁷ Like good runners, you were doing very well! You should not have let anyone turn you away from God's true message. ⁸ It is not God who has caused you to change what you believe. No! God is the one who has chosen you to serve him. ⁹ People say this: ‘Only a small amount of yeast in the flour will cause a loaf of bread to grow big.’^{[f] 10} But I feel sure about you, because we belong to the Lord. I know that you will agree with what I say about this. But as for the man who is confusing you, God will punish him. It does not matter who he is, God will punish him.

¹¹ My Christian friends, do you think that I still teach that someone must circumcise believers? If I really taught that, then I would not still receive trouble from people. What I teach about Christ's death on the cross would not cause anyone to become angry. ¹² Those people who are causing trouble and want to circumcise you should cut their own bodies! Yes, that is what they should do!

Live by God's Spirit

¹³ My Christian friends, God has chosen you to serve him as free people. But you are still weak and human. So you are not free to do anything that you might want to do. Instead, you must serve one another, because you love each other. ¹⁴ One rule brings together all the rules in God's Law. That one rule says: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’^{[g] 15} So you must not live like wild animals. Wild animals fight and they eat each other. If you live like that, be very careful! You may destroy one another completely.

¹⁶ So this is what I say: Let God's Spirit show you how to live in a good way. Then you will not do the wrong things that you may want to do, as people who are weak and human. ¹⁷ The things that you want to do as a weak person are opposite to the things that God's Spirit wants. The things that God's Spirit wants are the opposite of what we want as weak people. Our own thoughts fight against what God's Spirit wants us to do. As a result, you are not free to do the things that you really want to do. ¹⁸ But if God's Spirit leads you, then the rules of God's Law have no authority over you.

¹⁹ Everyone knows the kinds of bad things that weak people want to do. They have sex with people that they are not married to. They do things that are bad and disgusting. ²⁰ They worship idols. They do magic to hurt people. They become enemies and they fight one another. They are jealous of other people. They become very angry. They want to please themselves and to be important. They cause trouble. They make people belong to different groups. ²¹ They want things that belong to other people. They are drunks. They have wild parties. And they like to do many other bad things like those. So I warn you again, as I have already warned you before. People who continue to do any of those bad things will not receive good things from God. God has prepared those good things for the people who belong to his kingdom.

²² But God's Spirit causes us to live in a different way. We love other people. We are happy and we have peace in our minds. We are patient, kind and good. People can trust us to do what is right. ²³ We respect other people and we rule ourselves properly. God's Spirit helps us to live in that way. There is no law that says these things are wrong.

²⁴ We belong to Christ. As a result, we no longer obey our wrong human thoughts. We stop doing the bad things that our thoughts want us to do. It is like we have killed those thoughts on the cross. ²⁵ Now it is God's Spirit that gives us life. So we must let God's Spirit lead us in how we live. ²⁶ We must not become proud. We must not be jealous of each other, so that we cause trouble to one another.

Be kind and good to each other

6 My friends, if you see that someone among you is doing a wrong thing, you must warn that person. Those of you who have help from God's Spirit should tell that person how to live in a good way. But you must be patient and respect him. Be very careful yourselves, so that you do not also want to do wrong things. ² When anyone among you has troubles, you must help each other. If you do that, you will be obeying Christ's rule.^{[h] 3} You must not think that you are too important to help other people. If you are not really so important, you are thinking a false thought. ⁴ Everyone should think carefully about the things that they themselves do. If those things are good, that is a reason to be proud. A person like that does not need to think about whether he is better than anyone else. ⁵ Each person must live in a way that they know is right for them.

⁶ Everyone who is learning about God's message from a teacher should help his teacher. The student should share all the good things that he has with his teacher.

⁷ Nobody can hide the things that he does from God. Do not think a false thought like that! It is like a farmer who plants seeds in his field. The same kind of crops will grow as the seeds which he plants. That will be his harvest. ⁸ A person may do things only to make himself happy. That person's harvest will be God's punishment and death. Or a person may do the things that God's Spirit wants. That person will receive a harvest from God's Spirit. The harvest will be life with God for ever. ⁹ We must continue to do things that are good and we should not get tired. If we do not feel weak and stop doing good things, then we will receive a good harvest at the proper time.

¹⁰ Because of all that, we must help everyone when we have the chance. Certainly we must do good things to help our friends who believe in Christ, as we do.

Paul finishes his letter

¹¹ Now I am writing these last words to you myself. You can see how large the letters are, when I write them with my own hand!

¹² Do not agree with those people who want to make you obey the Jewish rules. They say that you must let someone circumcise you. They want other people to think that they are important. They do not want to receive any trouble from others. They are afraid to teach that Christ's death on the cross is enough to save us. ¹³ Even those men that someone has circumcised do not obey all the Jewish rules. They want to circumcise you only to make themselves seem important. They want to show that they have authority over your bodies. ¹⁴ But I do not want to say any great things about myself. The only thing that makes me great is our Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, it is like I have also died. The things that belong to this world have become dead to me, and I have become dead to them. ¹⁵ It does not matter whether anyone has circumcised you or not. What matters is that God has made you a new person.

¹⁶ I pray that God will bless everyone who lives by that rule. I pray that God will give them peace in their minds and that he will be kind to them. I pray this for all who belong to God's true people.

¹⁷ I want to receive no more trouble from anyone after this. The marks on my body show that I am Jesus' servant.

¹⁸ My Christian friends, I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to you. I pray that he will help you in your spirits. Amen. This is true!

Paul says ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

I am writing to you, God's own people who live in Ephesus. You are those who continue to believe in Christ Jesus, and so you belong to him.

² I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.

God blesses us as Christians

³ We praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in very many ways. Because we belong to Christ, we enjoy all the good things that come from heaven. God blesses our spirits with those good things. ⁴ Before God made the world, he chose us to be his people because of Christ. He chose us so that we would please him. Because we belong to Christ, God accepts us as completely good. This shows how much he loves us. ⁵ Long ago, he already decided to accept us into his family as his children, because of Jesus Christ. He chose us to belong to him because it made him very happy. ⁶ As a result, we praise him, because he is great and he has been so kind to us. He has given us so much because of his Son, whom he loves very much. ⁷ When Christ died as a sacrifice on the cross, he paid the price to make us free. Because of Christ's death on our behalf, God has forgiven our sins. God is so very kind that he has done all this for us!

⁸ Even more than that, God has shown how wise he is. He understands what we need. ⁹ He has let us know his great purpose, which had been a secret before. That plan would make him very happy. It would be possible because of Christ. ¹⁰ God will make that plan happen when the time is completely right. At that time, he will bring everything together so that Christ rules all of them. That includes the things that are in heaven, and the things that are on earth.

¹¹ God is able to make all things happen just like he decides. He chose us to be his own people, because we are united with Christ. In the beginning, God had already decided that this was his purpose. ¹² We were the first people to trust in Christ, God's special Messiah.^[i] God wanted us to show how great he is. He wanted people to praise him because of us. ¹³ You believers in Ephesus also heard God's true message. You heard the good news about how God saves you. When you believed in Christ, God gave his Holy Spirit to you. He had promised to do that, to show that you belong to him. ¹⁴ God has put his Holy Spirit inside us now. As a result, we know that one day we will receive all the good things that God has promised. At that time we will be completely free, because we belong to God. So we praise God and we say that he is great!

Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians

¹⁵ People have told me that you continue to trust in the Lord Jesus. They have told me that you love all God's people. Because I have heard these good things about you, ¹⁶ I am always thanking God because of you. Whenever I pray to God, I always ask him to help you. ¹⁷ God is very great! He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that his Holy Spirit will make you wise. I pray that his Holy Spirit will help you to understand what God is like. Then you will know God better and better. ¹⁸ I pray that God will bring light into your minds. Then you will understand about the many good things that he has prepared for you. You know that you will receive those things because he has chosen you to be his people. God has prepared very valuable things for you in heaven. ¹⁹ You will also know how very powerful God is. He uses that power to help us now, as we trust in Christ.

God's power is greater than anything we could ever know. ²⁰ He used that power to raise Christ, so that he became alive again after his death. Then he gave Christ a place to sit at his right side in heaven.^{[j] 21} There, Christ rules over every other ruler and leader. He rules over everything else that has authority. He is greater than any power which people respect. That is true for the rulers of this world now, and also the rulers of the world that will come. ²² God has put all things under Christ's authority. He has made Christ the ruler over all things. He has done this to help his people, the church. ²³ The church is like Christ's body and he is its head. Christ fills all things everywhere and he causes the church to become complete.

God has made us alive with Christ

2 Remember how you lived before. You did wrong things and bad things. As a result, you were dead in your spirits. ² You lived in a bad way, like the people who belong to this world. You were obeying Satan, who rules the powerful spirits in the air. Those spirits are working now in everyone who refuses to obey God. ³ At one time, all of us lived like those people. We did whatever bad things our bodies wanted to do. If our thoughts made us want to do something, we did it. Because we were like that, God was angry with us. He should have punished us, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is very good and kind! He loved us very much. ⁵ Because of our sins, we were dead in our spirits. But God gave us a new life, because we are united with Christ. Yes, God has saved you because he is so kind. ⁶ Also, God raised us up with Christ, so that we now sit with Christ in heaven. God has done this for us because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ He wanted to show, for all future time, how very kind he is. He has helped us so much because of what Christ Jesus has done. ⁸ When you believed in Jesus, God saved you because he is very kind. You could not save yourselves, but that is God's gift to you. ⁹ He has not saved you as a result of any good things that you have done. So nobody has any reason to be proud about it. ¹⁰ It is God who has worked in us to make us what we are. He has given us a new life because we are united with Christ Jesus. He saved us so that now we can do good things in our lives. Those are good things that he has already prepared for us to do.

Christ has brought Jews and Gentiles together

¹¹ So you who were born as Gentiles should remember what you were like before. Jews insulted you because nobody has circumcised you. They themselves are proud that men have circumcised them as God's people. ¹² At that time, you did not know about Christ, God's special Messiah. You did not belong to the nation of Israel's people. You did not know about the good things that God had promised to his people. You were living in this world with nothing good to hope for. You were living without God's help. ¹³ You were far away from God. But now, God has brought you near to himself, because you belong to Christ Jesus. That is possible because of Christ's death on the cross as a sacrifice.

¹⁴ It is Christ himself who has brought peace between Jews and Gentiles. He has brought those two groups together, to be one group. He has destroyed the things that made them separate. As a result, they are no longer enemies. ¹⁵ When his body died on the cross, Christ took away the power of the Jewish laws and rules. In that way, he made the two groups join together as one new group of people. As a result, he caused them to have peace. ¹⁶ As a single group, Christ brought Jews and Gentiles back to God. He stopped them from hating each other. He did this by his death on the cross.

¹⁷ When Christ came, he told people God's good news about peace. He told that message to you Gentiles, who were far away from God. He also told it to us Jews, who were near to God.^{[k] 18} Now we all have received the same Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us. As a result, we can all come near to God the Father.

¹⁹ So now, you Gentiles are not strangers among God's people any more. You belong to the group of God's people that he rules. You belong to God's family, as all God's people do. ²⁰ You are like a house that God is building for himself. God's apostles and his prophets are like the foundation under the house. Jesus Christ is like the most important stone in the house. ²¹ He makes the whole building stand together strongly. In that way, all God's people together become like a special house that belongs to the Lord. ²² Because you belong to Christ, God is building you all together to become his house. That is where God lives by his Spirit.

God has chosen Paul to help the Gentiles

3 That is why I pray for you. I, Paul, am in prison because I serve Christ Jesus. He has sent me to help you Gentiles. ² You must have heard that God has chosen me to do that. He has been very kind to give me this work to help you. ³ God has clearly shown to me his true purpose. That was a secret before, but God has helped me to know it. I have written a few words about this already.^{[l] 4} When you read those words, you will be able to understand. I have come to know God's true message about Christ. ⁵ God did not tell this secret message to the people who lived before us. But now the Holy Spirit has shown it to God's apostles and prophets. ⁶ This is the message of God's good news: Gentiles, as well as Jews, may receive the good things that God has prepared for his children. We may all belong to the same group of God's people, like we are his body. Everyone who is united with Christ Jesus receives the good things that God has promised.

⁷ I tell that good news to other people, because God chose me to serve him in that way. That was God's gift to me, because he is so kind. God uses his great power to help me in that work. ⁸ I am the least important of all God's people. But God has given this special work to me because he is so kind. He has sent me to tell his good news to the Gentiles. Then they know about the many valuable things that Christ has prepared for us.

⁹ I help everyone to know how God makes his purpose happen. God himself created all things, and he has hidden this secret during past times. ¹⁰ But now God wants the people of his church to show everyone how wise he is in every way. He wants the spiritual rulers and everything that has authority in the heavens to know this. ¹¹ This had always been God's purpose, from the beginning of all things. And it was our Lord Christ Jesus who made it happen.

¹² Because we are united with Christ, we can come near to God. We are not afraid to do that. We can be sure that God will accept us, because we trust in Christ. ¹³ So do not become weak or afraid. I am now suffering so that I can help you. So you should be strong, so that God will bless you.

Paul prays for the Christians at Ephesus

¹⁴ Yes, that is why I pray for you. I go down on my knees to pray to God, our Father. ¹⁵ Every family, those in heaven and those on earth, receives its true name from him. ¹⁶ I pray that God will cause you to be strong in your spirits. God has great and valuable things in heaven to help you. I pray that God's Spirit will help you with God's own power. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will make his home in you, as you believe in him. Then you will know God's love very well. You will be like trees that have roots which go down deep into God's love. That will make you strong. ¹⁸ Then you will understand, with all God's people, how much Christ loves us. That love is very wide and long and high and deep! ¹⁹ Christ's love for us is so great that nobody can ever completely know it. As you understand this more and more, God's own nature will completely fill you.

²⁰ We praise God, who causes his power to work in us. In that way, he is able to do much more than we could ever ask for. He can do much more than we could even think about. ²¹ We want all God's people to know that God is great! Everyone who belongs to his church and who trusts in Christ Jesus should praise him! We should praise him always and for ever. Amen. That is true!

God's people are like one body

4 Because I serve the Lord, I am here in prison. I really want you to live as God's own people should live. God has called you to come to him. He has chosen you to be his own people. ² Do not think that you are better than other people. Always be kind and patient with each other. Love one another, so that you do not quickly become angry with each other. ³ Do your best to let God's Spirit keep you united. You belong together so live in peace with each other. ⁴ As God's people, you are like one body. There is one Spirit that gives you life. God has chosen you to be his own people. So you all expect to receive the same great things from God. ⁵ There is one Lord. There is one true message that we must believe. There is one baptism.^{[m] 6} There is one God, who is the Father of all of us. He has authority over all of us. He works through all of us. He is in all of us.

⁷ But God has been kind to all of us. Each of us has received a special gift, just as Christ has decided to give us. ⁸ This is what it says about him:

⁹ It says: ‘He went up.’ That must mean that Christ had also come down. He came down to a lower place, the earth. ¹⁰ So the man who came down is also the man who went up, high above all the heavens. He did that so that he would fill everything everywhere.

¹¹ It was Christ who chose to give different gifts to his people. He chose some to be apostles. He chose some to speak messages from God. He chose some to tell God's good news to many people. He chose some to take care of his people, and to teach them. ¹² He gave all these gifts to help God's people to serve him in different ways. As a result, the church, which is like Christ's body, would become strong. ¹³ In that way, all of us will become united, like one person. We will all believe in Jesus as the Son of God. We will all know him. We will become like a man who has grown up well. We will be completely as God wants us to be, just like Christ himself.

¹⁴ So then we will not be like children any more. Our minds will not become confused by strange ideas. We will not change what we believe, from one thing to another. Some people teach things that are not true. They do clever things to deceive people. But we will not agree with their false message. ¹⁵ Instead, we will love each other and we will speak God's true message. As a result, we will become more and more like Christ in every way. He is the head of his body, which is the church. ¹⁶ As its head, he helps the whole body to grow well. Each part joins with the other parts so that the whole body becomes strong. As each separate part does its proper work, we love each other more and more.

Live in a way that pleases God

¹⁷ So I say this to you. I am sure that I have the Lord's authority to say it. You must not live any longer like the Gentile people who do not know God. They do whatever their silly ideas teach them to do. ¹⁸ They cannot understand God's true message because their minds are in the dark. They have not accepted the life that God gives. They have decided that they do not want to know about God. They do not even try to understand. ¹⁹ They do not feel ashamed when they do all kinds of disgusting things. They do more and more bad things just to please themselves.

²⁰ But when you learned about Christ, you did not learn to do things like that! ²¹ I am sure that you have heard about him properly. People taught you the true message that comes from Jesus. ²² They taught you to change the way that you live. You must put away the nature that you had before. That old nature deceived you. As a result, you wanted to do things that would destroy you. ²³ Instead, let God's Spirit make you think in a new way. ²⁴ Take up the new nature that God has prepared for you. That nature is like God's own nature. Then you will live in a truly good way that pleases God.

²⁵ So you must stop telling lies. Each of you must say only true things to one another. Remember that all of us belong to one another, like parts of the same body. ²⁶ When you are angry, do not do anything bad as a result. Once the day comes to an end, do not continue to be angry. ²⁷ Do not give the Devil a chance to hurt you like that.

²⁸ Any of you who robbed people before must now stop taking things. Instead, you should work hard with your own hands. Then you will be able to share what you have with people who are poor.

²⁹ Do not say bad things that hurt or insult people. Instead, say only good things that will help people. Your words should help people to become strong when they hear them.

³⁰ Do not do anything that will make God's Holy Spirit sad. God gave his Holy Spirit to you to show that you belong to him. As a result you know that God will make you completely free one day.

³¹ Do not be jealous of other people. Do not become angry or shout at them. Do not quarrel with other people or insult them. Do not do anything or say anything that will hurt other people. ³² Instead, help one another and be kind to each other. Forgive one another. Remember that God has forgiven you because of what Christ has done.

Be very careful how you live

5 You are God's children and he loves you very much. So you must try to be like him. ² Show that you love other people. Remember how much Christ loved us. He gave himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He offered himself in a way that pleased God, like a sacrifice with a lovely smell.

³ So, as God's people, you must never have sex with anyone that you are not married to. Do not do any kind of disgusting thing like that. Do not want many things for yourselves, just to make you happy. That is not how God's people should live. ⁴ Do not speak in a way which uses dirty words. Do not talk about silly things, like fools do. It is not right for God's people to talk like that. Instead, you should speak in a way which shows that you are thanking God.

⁵ You can be sure about this: If anyone has sex in a wrong way, that person does not belong to God's people. Nobody who does any kind of disgusting thing belongs to God's people. People who want many things just to please themselves are like people who worship an idol. They also do not belong to God's people. Nobody like that belongs to the kingdom where Christ and God rule. They will not receive the good things that God has prepared for his people.

⁶ Do not let anyone have a chance to deceive you with a false message about those kinds of bad things. God will certainly punish people who do not obey him. ⁷ So keep away from those kinds of people. ⁸ Once your minds were completely in the dark. But now you belong to the Lord. As a result, you have become full of light. So now you must live as people who belong to the light. ⁹ The light helps you to live in a way that is good, right and true. ¹⁰ You should learn more and more to do the things that please the Lord. ¹¹ People whose minds are in the dark do things that have no good purpose. Keep away from wrong things like that. Instead, show how bad those things really are. ¹² People like that should be ashamed of the things that they do secretly. Those things are too bad for us even to talk about. ¹³ But when God's light shines on something, people can see clearly its true nature. ¹⁴ Everything that becomes clear to see is in the light. That is why it says:

¹⁵ So you must be very careful how you live. Live like people who are wise. Do not live like fools. ¹⁶ Many bad things are happening in these days. So, whenever you have a chance to do something good, do as much as you can. ¹⁷ Do not live like fools. But instead, understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Do not drink too much wine so that you become drunk. That will destroy your life. Instead, let God's Spirit fill you. ¹⁹ He will help you to speak to each other with all kinds of spiritual songs. Sing psalms from the Bible, and Christian songs. Praise the Lord with songs from inside yourselves. ²⁰ And always thank God, the Father, for everything, by our Lord Jesus Christ's name.

Wives and husbands

²¹ Serve one another to show that you respect Christ as your master.

²² Wives, obey your own husbands, as you obey the Lord. ²³ A husband has authority over his wife, in the same way that Christ has authority over the church. The church is like Christ's body. As its head, he saves her. ²⁴ As the church serves Christ as its master, so wives should serve their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. He even agreed to die on its behalf. ²⁶ He did that to make us completely clean, as the people of God. It was like he washed us with water, as he brought God's message to us. ²⁷ Christ himself did this to bring us to himself as a beautiful group of his people. His church would belong to him completely. It would be pure, without anything bad to spoil it.

²⁸ So husbands should love their wives, just as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife shows that he loves himself. ²⁹ There is nobody who hates his own body. Everyone feeds his body and he takes care of it. In the same way, the church is like Christ's body that he takes care of. ³⁰ We are like the parts of Christ's body. ³¹ The Bible says this: ‘When a man marries, he leaves his father and his mother. Instead, God joins the man and his wife together. The two people become like one body.’^{[p] 32} This is God's secret and it is difficult to understand. But I am saying that it teaches us about Christ and the church. ³³ But each one of you husbands should understand this: love your own wife as you love yourself. And every wife among you must respect her husband.

Children and parents

6 You who are children, obey your parents. Because you belong to the Lord, that is the right thing to do. ² God's Law says: ‘Always respect your father and your mother.’ That is the first rule of God's Law that also has a promise. ³ The promise is this: ‘As a result, you will be happy and you will live for a long time on the earth.’^[q]

⁴ Fathers, do not do things that make your children angry. Instead, teach them carefully as they grow up. Help them to understand the message of the Lord, and help them to obey it.

Slaves and masters

⁵ You who are slaves, obey your human masters. Respect them and be afraid of them. Work well to help them, as if you were working for Christ as your master. ⁶ Do not do good work only when they can see you. Some people only work to make other people like them. Instead, work well all the time, as slaves who serve Christ. Work in the way that God wants you to work. ⁷ Be happy to obey your human masters. Remember that you are serving the Lord himself, not just other people. ⁸ You know that anyone who does some good thing will receive a good gift from the Lord. This will happen whether that person is a slave or a free person.

⁹ You who are masters, be good to your slaves in the same way. Do not frighten them with punishment. Remember that both you and your slaves have the same Master in heaven. And he is always fair when he judges people, whoever they are.

How God helps us to be strong

¹⁰ At the end of my letter, I want to say this to you: Be united with the Lord, so that you are strong. Then his great power will help you. ¹¹ Use all the help that God gives to us. Then you can be like a soldier who fights against the Devil. You must put on the whole armour that God gives to us. The Devil attacks us in clever ways, and we need to be strong. ¹² We are not fighting against human enemies. Instead, we are fighting against the rulers and the powerful spirits that have authority over this dark world. We are fighting against the bad spirits who live in the heavens.

¹³ Because of that, take all the help that God gives, like it is your armour. Then, when the bad time comes, you will be able to stand strongly. You will not fall. After you have finished everything, you will still be standing strongly in your place.

¹⁴ So you must stand strongly. This is God's armour that you must wear: God's true message will be like a belt that you tie round your body.^[r] Always do what is right. That will be like a metal shirt that you wear to keep your body safe. ¹⁵ Be prepared to tell people the good news about peace with God. That will be like shoes on your feet. ¹⁶ As well as all that, have faith to trust God. That will be like a shield that you hold in front of you. It will stop the Devil from hurting you with his arrows that burn with fire.^{[s] 17} Remember that God has saved you from your sins. That will be like a strong hat that keeps your head safe. Also, use God's message to help you. That will be like a sword that God's Spirit puts in your hand.

¹⁸ As you stand strongly like that, always pray for God's help. Pray about everything as God's Spirit helps you to pray. For this purpose, watch carefully all the time. Also, continue to pray for all God's people everywhere.

¹⁹ Please pray for me, too. Pray that God will give me the right message to speak. Pray that I will not be afraid to tell people about God's good news. Pray that I can explain God's secret to them. ²⁰ God has sent me to tell people the good news on his behalf. And that is why I am now in prison. So pray that I will speak God's message bravely, as I ought to speak it.

Paul finishes his letter

²¹ My Christian friend, Tychicus, will tell you all the news about me. He works hard as the Lord's servant. He will tell you about what is happening here. Then you will know what I am doing and how I am. ²² That is the reason why I am sending him to you. I want him to tell you what is happening to us here, so that you will feel stronger.

²³ I pray that God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ will be good to you who are believers. I pray that you will have peace in your minds. I pray that you will love one another, as you continue to trust Christ. ²⁴ I pray that God will be very kind to everyone who continues to love our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul and Timothy say ‘Hello’

1 Paul and Timothy write this letter to you. We are servants of Christ Jesus.

We are writing to you, God's own people who live in Philippi. You belong to God because you are united with Christ Jesus. We are writing to all of you. This includes the leaders and the deacons in the church there.^[t]

² We pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. We pray that they will give you peace in your minds.

Paul thanks God for the believers at Philippi

³ Every time that I think about you, I thank my God because of you. ⁴ I am always praying for you. Every time that I pray for you, I feel very happy. ⁵ I am happy because together we tell people the good news about Christ. You have always helped me with that work, since the first day that you yourselves heard the good news. ⁶ I know that God has begun to do good things in you. And I am sure that he will continue to work in you. Then, on the day when Jesus Christ returns, his work in you will be finished.

⁷ It is right for me to feel like this about all of you, because I love you very much. God has been very kind to all of us. Because you know that, you have continued to help me. You have helped me while I have been here in this prison. You also helped me when I was free and I could teach the good news. I explained to people why the good news is God's true message. Together, we have known how kind God is. ⁸ God knows that I very much want to be with all of you. I love you very much, just like Christ Jesus himself loves you.

⁹ This is what I pray for you. I pray that you will continue to love each other more and more. I pray that you will know God better and better. I pray that you will understand all those things that are true. ¹⁰ Then you will be able to choose what is best in the way that you live. Then, on the day when Christ returns, you will be completely clean. You will not be guilty of any bad thing. ¹¹ Because of the work that Jesus Christ has done in you, you will be right with God. And your lives will be full of good things. As a result, people will praise God and they will say that he is very great.

Paul has served God in prison

¹² My friends, I want you to know this. The trouble that has happened to me has helped more people to know about God's good news. ¹³ I am in a prison because I am Christ's servant.^[u] The soldiers in the king's house and all the people here know that. ¹⁴ Also, because I am in a prison, most of the other believers here trust the Lord even more. The Lord has made them brave, so that they are not afraid to speak God's message to people.

¹⁵ It is true that some of these Christians are jealous of me. They want to show that they are better than me. That is why they tell people the message about Christ. But other Christians speak about Christ because they want to help me. ¹⁶ They tell people about him because they love me. They know that God has put me here in this prison. And he wants me to show people that the good news is true. ¹⁷ Those other people speak about Christ because they want to seem important. They do not really want to help people. They just want to cause trouble for me while I am here in this prison. ¹⁸ But it does not matter to me! All of them are telling people about Christ. That is the most important thing. Whether they speak because of wrong reasons or because of right reasons, they are speaking the message about Christ! Because of that, I am happy.

Yes, I will continue to be happy. ¹⁹ You are praying for me and Jesus Christ's Spirit is helping me. So I know that what has happened to me will have a good result. Yes, God will rescue me. ²⁰ I never want to do anything that will cause me to be ashamed. I hope very much that I will never do that. I want to be brave now, as I always have been. In the way that I live, I want to show that Christ is very great. I want to do that if I continue to live. And I want to do that if I die.

²¹ Christ is everything that I live for. If I die, that will be even better for me. ²² But if I continue to live, I will be able to do more good things to help people. I do not know whether it would be better to live or to die. I do not know which to choose. ²³ Both of them seem very good to me. I want to leave this world so that I can be with Christ. That is a much better thing. ²⁴ But you people need me to continue to live here in this world. ²⁵ Yes, I am sure that you need me. For that reason, I know that I will continue to live among you. Then I will be able to help you to trust Christ even more. And that will make you even happier. ²⁶ Then, when I am there with you again, you will have an even better reason to thank Christ Jesus.

²⁷ The most important thing is that you continue to live in a good way. Live in the way that the good news about Christ teaches. I want to know that you agree together about the good news. And that you work together to show others that the good news is true. Whether I come to visit you or not, I want to know that you all help one another like that. ²⁸ I want to know that you are not afraid of the people who speak against you. If you are brave, that will be a sign from God. It will show your enemies that they will lose and you will win. God will punish them, but he will save you. ²⁹ God is helping you to serve Christ well. That means that you believe in Christ. But it also means that you receive trouble and pain on his behalf. Both of those are gifts from God. ³⁰ You are receiving the same kinds of trouble that I myself receive. You saw that when I was with you. Now you hear that it is still happening to me.

Be more like Christ

2 You belong to Christ, and he makes you brave. His love makes you strong. You are able to help one another because his Spirit is in you. You can be kind to each other, and you can forgive each other. ² Because of that, this is how you can make me completely happy: In your mind, think about things in the same way as one another. Love one another completely. In your spirit, agree with one another. And work together for the same purpose. ³ In the way that you live, do not just try to help yourself. Do not be proud. Instead, respect other people. Think about other people as more important than yourself. ⁴ Do not think only about the things that you want to do for yourself. Each of you should think also about how you can help other people.

⁵ You should think about things in the same way that Christ Jesus thought:

Christians must be like lights in the world

¹² So, my friends, you must continue to obey God.^[x] When I was with you, you always obeyed. Now that I am not with you, that is even more important. God has saved you. You must always live in a way which shows that is true. Respect God and obey him. Remember that he is great and powerful. ¹³ It is God himself who is working in you. Now you want to obey him, and he makes you strong to do that. When you obey him, that makes him very happy.

¹⁴ Whatever you are doing, do not complain. And do not argue. ¹⁵ Then you will not be guilty of anything that is wrong. You will be clean inside yourselves. You will be living in a completely good way, as God's children should. In this world, you are living among bad people who have turned away from what is good. But you must bring light into this dark place, like stars that shine in the night. ¹⁶ Tell people the true message that can give them life with God. Then I will know that my work among you had good results. Because of that, I will be very happy on the day when Christ returns.

¹⁷ You believe in Christ, and you are his servants. That is like you are offering yourselves as a sacrifice to God. Perhaps I will soon have to die. Then my blood would be like drink that I am pouring on your sacrifice, to please God. So, if I have to die now, I will be happy. And we should all be happy together. ¹⁸ Yes, it is right that you should be happy, and I will also be happy with you.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ I want to send Timothy to come to you soon. I hope that the Lord Jesus will let me do that. Then, when Timothy returns to me, he can tell me news about you. And that will make me happy. ²⁰ Timothy really loves you, as I do. There is nobody else here with me like him. ²¹ Everyone else thinks only about themselves. They have no interest in the things that are important to Jesus Christ. ²² But you know what Timothy is like. He has worked with me like a son works to help his father. Together we have taught people God's good news. ²³ That is why I hope to send him to you soon. But first, I want to know what will happen to me here. ²⁴ The Lordhas helped me to hope that I will soon come to you myself.

²⁵ Whatever happens, I think I must send Epaphroditus to come back to you.^[y] He is our true Christian brother. He has worked with me to serve God together. We have worked hard, like soldiers. When I needed help, you sent him to me. He has helped me on your behalf. ²⁶ Now he wants very much to see all of you again. He became very sad, because you heard the message that he was ill. ²⁷ Certainly, he was very ill, and he almost died. But God was kind to him. And God was kind to me too. If Epaphroditus had died, I would have become even more sad. ²⁸ So I want even more to send him back to you. Then you can be really happy, and I will not feel sad any more.

²⁹ Receive Epaphroditus well when he comes, and be happy. Like you, he belongs to the Lord's people. You should respect people like him and be kind to them. ³⁰ He nearly died because he was working to serve Christ. He came to help me, because you could not help me yourselves. He was even ready to die so that he could do that on your behalf.^[z]

Christ is more important than anything

3 My Christian friends, there are a few more things that I want to say. You belong to the Lord, so be happy! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. And it will help to keep you safe.

² Be very careful! Some people are teaching bad things. They say that you must cut your bodies. They are like dangerous dogs. Do not believe them! ³ But we are truly God's people. And it is not because someone has circumcised us. It is God's own Spirit that leads us to worship God. We thank God because of what Christ Jesus has done for us. We know that it is not human ideas that can save us.^[aa]

⁴ For myself, I could have trusted those human ideas. Perhaps somebody may think that they could trust in those things to save them. Then I would have an even better reason to trust in them. ⁵ I belong to Israel's people, to Benjamin's tribe. I am a true Jew. They circumcised me when I was eight days old. I was a Pharisee, and I obeyed the Jewish rules very carefully. ⁶ I tried very much to please God. So I caused a lot of trouble and pain for the Christians. I obeyed the rules of God's Law, and nobody could say that I did anything wrong.

⁷ All those ideas seemed very important to me then. But now they are worth nothing to me, because I trust in Christ. ⁸ Yes, now that I know Christ Jesus as my Lord, that is the most valuable thing. Nothing else is important at all. I have thrown everything else away, so that I can serve Christ. All those other things are like dirt to me. I think about them like that, so that I can have Christ. ⁹ I want to be united with him. Because I believe in Christ, God accepts me as right with him. I know that I cannot become right in any other way, even if I obey all of God's Law. When I trust in Christ, God accepts me as right because of my faith.

¹⁰ Yes, I want to know Christ better and better. I want to know the power which God showed when Christ rose from death. I want to have the same kind of troubles that he did. I want to obey God like he did in his death. ¹¹ Then I hope that I also will become alive again after death.

Christians do not belong to this world

¹² I am not saying that I have already reached that place in my life. I have not yet completely become the person that God wants me to be. But I am trying very hard to reach that place. That was Christ's purpose when he first made me his own. ¹³ My Christian friends, I do not think that I have reached that place yet. But this is what I do: I do not think about past things that have already happened. Instead, I try hard to reach the things that are in front of me. ¹⁴ I am like a runner who wants to reach the end of the race. I run straight towards that place, so that I can win God's gift. Because I belong to Christ Jesus, God has called me to live with him in heaven. That is God's gift to me at the end of the race.

¹⁵ All of us should agree to live like that, if we properly understand God's message. If you think differently about these things, God will show you clearly what is right. ¹⁶ But we should continue to live in the way that we already know is right.

¹⁷ My Christian friends, you should try to live in the way that I do. Carefully watch other people who live like that. We have shown you what is right. ¹⁸ Many people live in a way that shows they do not agree with God's message. I have told you about these people many times before. And now I am crying when I tell you about them. I am very sad, because they speak against Christ's death on the cross. ¹⁹ In the end, God will destroy them. Their stomach is what they worship. They are proud of things that should make them ashamed. Their thoughts are full of things that belong to this world. ²⁰ But as for us, the home where we belong is in heaven. We are waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to come from there. He is the one who will come from heaven and save us. ²¹ He will change these weak bodies that we have now on this earth. He will make them become strong and beautiful, like his own body that he has in heaven. Christ will use his great power to do this. That is the power that he uses to rule over everything.

How Christians should live

4 My dear Christian friends, I love you very much. I want very much to see you again. You make me very happy. You show that my work among you had good results. Please continue to live in a way that pleases the Lord. This is what I have taught you to do.

² I say this to Euodia and to Syntyche: ‘You belong to the Lord, so please agree with each other. Stop arguing.’ ³ I ask you too, my true friend, please help these two women to agree together.^[ab] They have worked with me to tell people the good news. They have worked very hard to help me. They worked together with Clement, and with the other people who helped me in the work. All those workers' names are written in God's book of life.^[ac]

⁴ Always be happy because you belong to the Lord. I will say that again, ‘Be happy!’ ⁵ Be kind and patient in a way that everyone can see. Remember that the Lord is near. ⁶ Do not worry about anything. Instead, pray to God about everything. Ask him to help you with the things that you need. And thank him for his help. ⁷ If you do that, God will give you peace in your minds. That peace is so great that nobody can completely understand it. You will not worry or be afraid, because you belong to Christ Jesus.

⁸ Now my friends, I want to say this to you. Fill your minds with thoughts about good things. Think about things that are true, clean, right and lovely. Always think about things which people know are very good. ⁹ Remember what I have taught you. Remember the message that you heard from me. Remember what you saw when I lived among you. You also must do those same things. God is the one who gives us peace in our minds. He will be with you.

Paul thanks the believers at Philippi

¹⁰ I am very happy that you want to help me again. I praise the Lord for that. I know that you wanted to help me before. But you have not had a chance to do anything until now. ¹¹ When I say that, it is not because I need anything. I have learned to be happy, whatever things may happen to me. ¹² I know what it is like to need things. I also know what it is like to have more than enough. I have learned this secret. I know how to be happy whatever happens. I can be happy when I have enough food to eat, and also when I am hungry. I can be happy when I have plenty of things, and also when I have nothing. ¹³ I can do all these things because Christ makes me strong.

¹⁴ But certainly, you have been very kind to me. You have helped me now, when I am in trouble. ¹⁵ Also, you Christians in Philippi know that you already helped me earlier. That was the time when I started to tell people God's good news. When I left Macedonia, you were the only group of Christians who helped me. We were able to help one another, and no other group of Christians did that for me.^{[ad] 16} Even when I was at Thessalonica, you helped me. More than once, you sent gifts to me because I needed things.^[ae]

¹⁷ It is not your gifts themselves that I want. But I want you to do good things so that God will bless you in return. ¹⁸ Epaphroditus has brought the gifts that you sent to me. I have received those gifts, so that I no longer need anything. You have sent me more than enough. Your gifts are like a sacrifice with a nice smell that you have offered to God. God accepts that kind of sacrifice. It makes him very happy. ¹⁹ My Lord God in heaven has plenty of good and valuable things. Because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will give to you everything that you need.

²⁰ Our Father God is very great! It is right that everyone should praise him always and for ever! Amen. This is true.

Paul finishes his letter

²¹ Say ‘hello’ on my behalf to all of God's people there who belong to Christ Jesus. The believers who are here with me say ‘hello’ to you. ²² All God's people here say ‘hello’ to you. The Christians who live in the king's house say a special ‘hello’ to you.

²³ We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be kind to you, so that your spirits are strong.

Paul and Timothy say ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Our friend Timothy is here with me while I write.

² We are writing to you, God's own people who live in Colossae. You are like brothers and sisters to us because you continue to believe in Christ.

I pray that God, our Father, will continue to help you. I pray that he will give you peace in your minds.

Paul thanks God for the believers

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. ⁴ We thank God because people have told us good things about you. You continue to trust Christ Jesus. You also love all God's people. ⁵ You live like that because you hope to receive good things from God.^[af] You know that God has prepared those good things for you. He is keeping them safe in heaven. You learned that when people first told you God's true message, his good news.

⁶ You have heard this good news, like people all over the world have heard it. It has caused good results among you since the time when you heard it first. At that time, you understood the true message about how kind God really is. As a result, God is blessing you more and more, like he blesses his people everywhere. ⁷ It was our good friend Epaphras who first told you this good news. Like us, he is Christ's servant. He serves Christ on our behalf. ⁸ He has told us about the love that God's Spirit has given to you.

Paul prays that they will know God more and more

⁹ Because of all that, we have not stopped praying for you, ever since the day that we heard about you. We ask God that his Spirit will make you truly wise. He will help you to know clearly what he wants you to do. You will understand his true message. ¹⁰ Then you will be able to live in a way that the Lord wants you to live. Everything that you do will please him. We pray that all these good things will have good results. We pray that you will know God better and better. ¹¹ God rules from heaven with great power. We pray that he will make you strong with every kind of strength. Then, when troubles come, you can still be patient and strong. ¹² You will be able to thank God, our Father, and be happy. God has prepared good things for his people to receive in heaven. Because God has included you among his people, you will also share those good things in the kingdom of light. ¹³ God has saved us from the dark kingdom where Satan rules.^[ag] He has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. ¹⁴ God's Son, Jesus, paid the price for our sins and made us free. Yes, God has forgiven us.^[ah]

Who God's Son, Jesus Christ, is

¹⁵ We cannot see God. But Jesus Christ shows us completely who God is. Even before God made anything, Jesus was already there as God's Son who rules everything. ¹⁶ When God created everything, it was his Son who did it. His Son made everything that is on earth and in heaven. He created everything that we can see, as well as the things that we cannot see. He made rulers and leaders. He made everything that has power and authority. God gave his Son the authority to create everything, so that his Son would receive praise. ¹⁷ God's Son was there before anything else was there. And now he causes everything to continue in its proper place. ¹⁸ The church is like Christ's body and he is its head.^[ai] He is where it all begins. As God's special Son, he was the first person who became alive again after death.^[aj] As a result, Christ is first and most important in all things.

¹⁹ God chose to put his nature in Christ completely. ²⁰ He decided that Christ would die on the cross as a sacrifice. In that way, God would bring all things back to himself. Then everything could live in peace with God. That includes everything on the earth and everything in heaven.

²¹ As for you, you were far away from God at one time. You thought bad things and you did bad things. As a result, you were God's enemies. ²² But now you have become God's friends. This happened because Christ's human body died on the cross. As a result, God has brought you to himself. As you stand in front of him, you are completely good and clean inside. He sees nothing in you that is bad.

²³ But you must continue to believe God's true message. Do not turn away from it. Continue to trust God, as you did when you first heard the good news. People have told this good news to everyone all over the world. And God has chosen me, Paul, as his servant to tell this good news.

Paul's work for Christ's people

²⁴ At this time, I am suffering on your behalf, but I am still happy. Christ himself suffered on behalf of his people, the church. Now, while I live in my human body, I also suffer. I continue to receive the pain that Christ received, so that it may be complete.^[ak] In that way, I help the church, which is like Christ's own body.

²⁵ I have become God's servant, so that I can help the church. God chose me to do that. He chose me to explain his message to you completely. ²⁶ That message is a secret that God hid from everyone before now. He hid it from all the people who lived in past times. But now he has shown this secret to his people. ²⁷ God wanted them to understand how great this secret is. It shows that God will bless people who live in all countries of the world. This secret message is that Christ lives in you. And because of that, you know that you will live with God in heaven one day.

²⁸ That is why we tell everyone the message about Christ. God helps us to be very wise as we warn people and we teach them. We want every person who belongs to Christ to become complete, as God sees them. ²⁹ That is why I work very hard. Christ works powerfully in me to make me strong for this difficult work.

2 I want you to know that I am doing a difficult work on your behalf. I am also working to help the people at Laodicea and other people who have never met me. ² I want all the believers to become strong in their spirits. I want them to help each other because they love one another. Then God will bless them very much, because they understand God's secret message very well. They will be completely sure of it. And they will know Christ himself, who is God's secret. ³ Christ is the one who holds everything that makes people wise. He helps people to know the true message that God had hidden.

⁴ I am telling you these things so that false teachers will not deceive you. They may teach ideas that seem good, but do not listen to them. ⁵ My body is not there with you, but I think about you a lot. I hear that you are living and working well together. I also hear that you continue to trust Christ strongly. That makes me very happy.

How Christians should live

⁶ You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. So remember that you belong to him as you live your lives. ⁷ Get your strength from Christ himself, so that you become stronger and stronger.^[al] Continue to believe the true message that we taught you. And thank God very much for everything.

⁸ Be careful that you do not believe any false teachers. The ideas that they teach may seem clever. But they really want to deceive you. They are ideas that have come from the human minds of our ancestors. Or ideas that come from spirits that belong to this world. They are not the true message about Christ. ⁹ The whole nature of God himself lives in Christ, in his human body. ¹⁰ And because you are united with Christ, you are now complete. He is the one who rules over everything that has power or authority.

¹¹ Also, because you are united with Christ, you truly belong to God's people. No person has circumcised you to show this. It is like Christ himself has circumcised you, to show that you belong to God. It is like he has cut off your old nature which made you do bad things.^{[am] 12} When they baptized you, it was like God buried you with Christ.^[an] And God also raised you to a new life with Christ. You believed that God has great power to do that. You believed that God raised Jesus to life after he died. Because you believed, God raised you to have a new life.

¹³ At one time, you were dead in your spirits, because of the wrong things that you did. God had not cut off your old nature. You did not belong to his people. But now God has caused you to become alive with Christ. He has forgiven us for all the wrong things that we have done. ¹⁴ We are guilty of many wrong things that are against God's laws. But Christ died on the cross on our behalf. He paid the debt of our sins. It is like he has destroyed the list of all the debts that we should pay to God. ¹⁵ On the cross, Christ took away the power of the bad spirits that have authority to rule people. He showed clearly that he himself has won against them. Now everyone can see that those bad spirits have no power.

Do not obey human ideas

¹⁶ Some people may tell you that it is wrong for you to eat or to drink certain things. Or they make rules about special festival days, about new moons, or about the Jewish days for rest. Do not agree with people like that. ¹⁷ Rules like that are only like shadows of real things that would happen later. But now we have what is real, Christ himself!

¹⁸ Some people may tell you that you must always serve other people like a slave. They may tell you that you must worship angels. Do not let those people speak bad things against you. They like to talk a lot about the special things that God has shown them. They think that they are very clever. But their ideas only come from human minds. ¹⁹ False teachers like that do not receive their message from Christ. As God's people, we are like a body and Christ is like our head. He is the one who causes the whole body to be strong. He helps us to work well together, like the different parts of a body. Then we can all grow properly, because it is God who is helping us to grow.

²⁰ Remember that your old nature has died with Christ. So the powerful spirits that rule this world no longer have any authority over you. You do not need to serve them, because you do not belong to this world now. You do not need to obey their rules. ²¹ They teach, ‘Do not touch things like that!’ Or, ‘Do not eat that kind of food!’ Or, ‘Keep away from that thing!’ ²² Rules like that are only about things that spoil when you use them.^[ao] They are rules that come from human ideas. ²³ They teach you ideas about what you must do to worship God. They teach you to serve other people like a slave. They say that you must hurt yourself. You must show that you control your body. Rules like that may seem to be wise, but really they are not worth anything. They cannot stop our weak human nature from doing the bad things that we want to do.

The old life and the new life

3 God has raised you with Christ to a new life. So you should want more and more the things that belong to heaven. That is where Christ is now. He sits there at God's right side. ² So think about the good things that are there in heaven above. Do not think only about things that are on the earth. ³ Remember that your old nature has died. God is keeping your new life safe with Christ. ⁴ You have that new life because you belong to Christ. One day, Christ will show himself clearly to everyone. Then everyone will see that you are with him. They will see that you also are great, like he is.

⁵ Your old nature likes to do bad things that belong to this earth. But your old nature is dead, so do not do these bad things any more. Do not have sex with someone that you are not married to. Do not think bad, disgusting thoughts. Do not want to have sex in a wrong way. Do not want to do any kinds of bad things. Do not want to have many things for yourselves. That shows that you worship those things as your idol. ⁶ God will certainly punish people who do those kinds of bad things.

⁷ At one time, you lived like that. You did those kinds of bad things. ⁸ But now you must refuse to do all kinds of things like that. Do not become angry with people or shout at them. Do not do anything or say anything that will hurt other people. Do not speak any bad or disgusting words. ⁹ Do not deceive each other with lies. Remember that you have taken off your old nature, like an old coat. As a result, you can stop doing all the bad things that you liked to do before.

¹⁰ Now you have received a new nature. It is God who made it for you so that you can become more and more like him. You will learn to know him better and better. ¹¹ People have this new nature only because they belong to Christ. That is the important thing. Jews are not different from Gentiles. It does not matter whether someone has circumcised you or not. It does not matter which country you come from or how clever you are. It does not matter whether you are a slave or a free person. Christ is all that matters. He lives in every believer.

¹² God has chosen you to be his own special people. You belong to him and he loves you very much. So this is how you should live: Be kind to other people and help them. Do not think that you are better than other people. Instead, respect them and be patient with them. ¹³ Do not become angry with each other. If you think that someone has done something wrong against you, forgive them. Remember that the Lord has forgiven you. So you should also forgive other people. ¹⁴ And you must also love each other. That is the most important thing that you should do. Love holds all these good things completely together.

¹⁵ Christ has given you peace in your minds. So let that peace rule your thoughts. God has chosen you to be like one body, as his people. So he wants you to live together in peace. Thank God for everything that he gives to you. ¹⁶ Let Christ's message always be in your thoughts, with all the good things that it brings. Use that message to teach and to warn each other. Be very wise as you do that. And also sing all kinds of spiritual songs to praise God. Sing psalms and Christian songs. As you sing, thank God from inside yourselves. ¹⁷ Show that you belong to the Lord Jesus with everything that you do and with everything that you say. Always thank God the Father in the way that you serve Jesus.

Do what is right, at home and at work

¹⁸ Wives, obey your husbands. That is the right thing to do, because you belong to the Lord.

¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives. Do not bring trouble to them.

²⁰ Children, always obey your parents. That pleases the Lord.

²¹ Fathers, do not cause your children to be upset. If you do, they might think that they never do anything that is good.

²² Slaves, always obey your human masters. Do not do good work only when they can see you. Some people only work to make other people like them. Instead, serve your masters well because you want to. That will show that you respect the Lord as your master. ²³ Whatever things you are doing, do them well. Remember that you are serving the Lord. You are not only serving people. ²⁴ You know that you will receive the good things that the Lord has promised to his people. He will give you what is right for you. The Lord Jesus Christ is the master that you serve. ²⁵ Remember that God will punish anyone who does wrong things. He always judges people correctly, whoever they are.

4 Masters, be fair to your servants. Give them what is right. Remember that you also serve a master, and he is in heaven.

Paul tells the believers to pray

² Continue to pray seriously. Stay awake, like people who watch carefully. And remember to thank God. ³ Also pray for us. Ask God to make it possible for us to tell people his message. We want people to understand the message about Christ that was a secret before. I am now in a prison because I taught people those things. ⁴ Pray that I will be able to tell people this message clearly. That is what I should do.

⁵ When you are with people who do not believe in Christ, be careful how you live. Use every chance to do good things. ⁶ When you speak to people, always speak kind words. Say things that will help them. Then, when someone asks you a question, you will know how to reply.

Paul finishes his letter

⁷ Our Christian friend, Tychicus, will tell you all the news about me. He works hard to serve the Lord. Like me, he is the Lord's servant. ⁸ I want him to tell you what is happening to us, so that you will feel stronger. That is the reason why I am sending him to you. ⁹ Onesimus will travel with him. As you know, he is one of your own people. He is a good Christian friend who serves Christ well. Onesimus and Tychicus will tell you everything that is happening here.

¹⁰ Aristarchus is also here with me in the prison. He says ‘hello’ to you. Barnabas's cousin, Mark also says ‘hello’ to you. I have already told you about him. So, if he comes to you, be kind to him. ¹¹ Jesus, who is also called Justus, says ‘hello’ to you, too. These three men are the only Jewish believers who are serving God with me. We work together to bring people into the kingdom of God. These men have helped me to be strong.

¹² Epaphras says ‘hello’ to you. He is also one of your people, and he is Jesus Christ's servant. He always prays very strongly for you. He prays that you will continue to grow as believers. He prays that you will completely understand everything that God wants you to do. ¹³ I can tell you this about Epaphras: He has worked very hard for you, and also for the people at Laodicea and at Hierapolis.

¹⁴ Our good friend Luke, the doctor, says ‘hello’ to you. Demas also says ‘hello’. ¹⁵ Say ‘hello’ for me to all the believers at Laodicea. Also say ‘hello’ to Nympha and to the group of believers that meet in her house.

¹⁶ After someone has read this letter to all of you, send it to the believers at Laodicea. Tell them to read it aloud to the church there. You must also read my letter that the believers at Laodicea will send to you.

¹⁷ Say to Archippus, ‘As you serve the Lord, be careful to finish the work that he gave you to do.’

¹⁸ I, Paul, am writing these words at the end of this letter with my own hand. Remember to pray for me while I am in prison. I pray that God will continue to be very kind to you.