New Testament Plan

¹Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

²I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

³Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

⁵Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

⁹What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

¹¹Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

¹²I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

¹⁴Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

¹⁵And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.

¹⁶Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.

¹⁷Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

¹⁸I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

¹⁹And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

²⁰To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²¹Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.

²²All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

²To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

⁴since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

⁵because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

⁶which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing — as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

⁷just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

⁸and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

¹¹being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

¹³He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.

¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

²¹And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

²³if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

²⁵of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

²⁶the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.

²⁷To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

²⁹For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,

²that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

⁵For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

⁶Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

¹⁰and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

¹⁶Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations —

²¹“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”

²²(referring to things that all perish as they are used) — according to human precepts and teachings?

²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.