New Testament Plan

¹Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

²I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.

³Indeed, true companion, I ask you also, help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement as well as 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 gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near.

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

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

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

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

¹⁰But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked an opportunity to act.

¹¹Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

¹²I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

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

¹⁴Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my difficulty.

¹⁵You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone;

¹⁶for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.

¹⁷Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the profit which increases to your account.

¹⁸But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

¹⁹And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

²⁰Now to our God and Father be the 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 and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

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

⁵because of the hope reserved for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel

⁶which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth;

⁷just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

⁸and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this reason we also, since the day we heard about it, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

¹¹strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience; joyously

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

¹³For He rescued 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, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

¹⁸He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

¹⁹For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

²⁰and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

²¹And although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds,

²²yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

²³if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am supplementing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in behalf of His body, which is the church.

²⁵I was made a minister of this church according to the commission from God granted to me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

²⁶that is, the mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints,

²⁷to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸We proclaim Him, admonishing every person and teaching every person with all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Christ.

²⁹For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power which works mightily within me.

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have in your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,

²that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and that they would attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,

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

⁴I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.

⁵For even though I am absent in body, I am nevertheless with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderly manner and the stability of your faith in Christ.

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

⁷having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

⁸See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.

⁹For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

¹⁰and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over every ruler and authority;

¹¹and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands, in the removal of 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 working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

¹³And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings,

¹⁴having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

¹⁵When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

¹⁶Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day—

¹⁷things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

²⁰If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

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

²²(which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of man?

²³These are matters which do have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.