Bible in 90 Days

²⁶ For you are all children of God, through faith, in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁷ You see, every one of you who has been baptized into the Messiah has put on the Messiah. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no “male and female”; you are all one in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁹ And, if you belong to the Messiah, you are Abraham’s family. You stand to inherit the promise.

The son and the spirit

4 Let me put it like this. As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave—even if, in fact, he is master of everything! ² He is kept under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father.

³ Well, it’s like that with us. When we were children, we were kept in “slavery” under the “elements of the world.” ⁴ But when the fullness of time arrived, God sent out his son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ so that he might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

⁶ And, because you are sons, God sent out the spirit of his son into our hearts, calling out “Abba, Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son! And, if you’re a son, you are an heir, through God.

The true God and the false gods

⁸ However, at that stage you didn’t know God, and so you were enslaved to beings that, in their proper nature, are not gods. ⁹ But now that you’ve come to know God—or, better, to be known by God—how can you turn back again to that weak and poverty-stricken line-up of elements that you want to serve all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing days, and months, and seasons, and years! ¹¹ I am afraid for you; perhaps my hard work with you is all going to be wasted.

Paul’s appeal to his children

¹² Become like me!—because I became like you, my dear family. This is my plea to you. You didn’t wrong me: ¹³ no, you know that it was through bodily weakness that I announced the gospel to you in the first place. ¹⁴ You didn’t despise or scorn me, even though my condition was quite a test for you, but you welcomed me as if I were God’s angel, as if I were the Messiah, Jesus! ¹⁵ What’s happened to the blessing you had then? Yes, I can testify that you would have torn out your eyes, if you’d been able to, and given them to me. ¹⁶ So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷ The other lot are eager for you, but it’s not in a good cause. They want to shut you out, so that you will then be eager for them. ¹⁸ Well, it’s always good to be eager in a good cause, and not only when I’m there with you. ¹⁹ My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you! ²⁰ I wish I were there with you right now, and could change my tone of voice. I really am at a loss about you.

Abraham’s two sons

²¹ So, you want to live under the law, do you? All right, tell me this: are you prepared to hear what the law says? ²² For the Bible says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl and one by the free woman. ²³ Now the child of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, while the child of the free woman was born according to promise.

²⁴ Treat this as picture-language. These two women stand for two covenants: one comes from Mount Sinai, and gives birth to slave-children; that is Hagar. ²⁵ (Sinai, you see, is a mountain in Arabia, and it corresponds, in the picture, to the present Jerusalem, since she is in slavery with her children.) ²⁶ But the Jerusalem which is above is free—and she is our mother.

²⁷ For the Bible says,

²⁸ Now you, my family, are children of promise, in the line of Isaac. ²⁹ But things now are like they were then: the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the spirit. ³⁰ But what does the Bible say? “Throw out the slave-girl and her son! For the son of the slave-girl will not inherit with the son of the free.” ³¹ So, my family, we are not children of the slave-girl, but of the free.

Freedom in Christ

5 The Messiah set us free so that we could enjoy freedom! So stand firm, and don’t get yourselves tied down by the chains of slavery.

² Look here: I, Paul, am telling you that if you get circumcised, the Messiah will be of no use to you. ³ I testify once more, against every person who gets circumcised, that he is thereby under obligation to perform the entire law. ⁴ You are split off from the Messiah, you people who want to be justified by the law! You have dropped out of grace. ⁵ For we are waiting eagerly, by the spirit and by faith, for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in the Messiah, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power. What matters is faith, working through love.

Warnings against compromise

⁷ You were running well. Who got in your way and stopped you being persuaded by the truth? ⁸ This persuasion didn’t come from the one who called you! ⁹ A little leaven works its way through the whole lump. ¹⁰ I am persuaded in the Lord that you won’t differ from me on this. But the one who is troubling you will bear the blame, whoever he may be. ¹¹ As for me, my dear family, if I am still announcing circumcision, why are people still persecuting me? If I were, the scandal of the cross would have been neutralized. ¹² If only those who are making trouble for you would cut the whole lot off!

The law and the spirit

¹³ When God called you, my dear family, he called you to make you free. But you mustn’t use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, you must become each other’s servants, through love. ¹⁴ For the whole law is summed up in one word, namely this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite each other and devour each other, watch out! You may end up being destroyed by each other.

¹⁶ Let me say this to you: live by the spirit, and you won’t do what the flesh wants you to. ¹⁷ For the flesh wants to go against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you can’t do what you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They are such things as fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, bursts of rage, selfish ambition, factiousness, divisions, ²¹ moods of envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things. I told you before, and I tell you again: people who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.

Fruit of the spirit

²² But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, great-heartedness, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. There is no law that opposes things like that! ²⁴ And those who belong to the Messiah, Jesus, crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the spirit, let’s line up with the spirit. ²⁶ We shouldn’t be conceited, vying with one another and jealous of each other.

Bearing one another’s burdens

6 My dear family, if someone is found out in some trespass, then you—the “spiritual” ones!—should set such a person right, in a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves: you too may be tested. ² Carry each other’s burdens; that’s the way to fulfill the Messiah’s law. ³ If you think you’re something when you are not, you deceive yourself. ⁴ Every one of you should test your own work, and then you will have a reason to boast of yourself, not of somebody else. ⁵ Each of you, you see, will have to carry your own load.

Practical support in the church

⁶ If someone is being taught the word, they should share with the teacher all the good things they have. ⁷ Don’t be misled; God won’t have people turning their noses up at him. What you sow is what you’ll reap. ⁸ Yes: if you sow in the field of your flesh you will harvest decay from your flesh, but if you sow in the field of the spirit you will harvest eternal life from the spirit. ⁹ Don’t lose your enthusiasm for behaving properly. You’ll bring in the harvest at the proper time, if you don’t become weary. ¹⁰ So, then, while we have the chance, let’s do good to everyone, and particularly to the household of the faith.

Boasting in the cross

¹¹ Look at the large-size letters I’m writing to you in my own hand. ¹² It’s the people who want to make a fine showing in the flesh who are trying to force you into getting circumcised—for this purpose only, that they may avoid persecution for the Messiah’s cross. ¹³ You see, even the circumcised ones don’t keep the law; rather, they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast about your flesh.

¹⁴ As for me, God forbid that I should boast—except in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. ¹⁵ Circumcision, you see, is nothing; neither is uncircumcision! What matters is new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy on everyone who lines up by that standard—yes, on God’s Israel.

¹⁷ For the rest, let nobody make trouble for me. You see, I carry the marks of Jesus on my body.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah be with your spirit, my dear family. Amen.

Blessings on the sovereign God!

1 From Paul, one of Messiah Jesus’ apostles through God’s purpose, to the holy ones in Ephesus who are also loyal believers in Messiah Jesus: ² may God our father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, give you grace and peace!

³ Let us bless God, the father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spirit-inspired blessing in the heavenly realm.

The choice and the plan

⁴ He chose us in him before the world was made, so as to be holy and irreproachable before him in love. ⁵ He foreordained us for himself, to be adopted as sons and daughters through Jesus the Messiah. That’s how he wanted it, and that’s what gave him delight, ⁶ so that the glory of his grace, the grace he poured on us in his beloved one, might receive its due praise.

⁷ In the Messiah, and through his blood, we have deliverance—that is, our sins have been forgiven—through the wealth of his grace ⁸ which he lavished on us. Yes, with all wisdom and insight ⁹ he has made known to us the secret of his purpose, just as he wanted it to be and set it forward in him ¹⁰ as a blueprint for when the time was ripe. His plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah—yes, everything in heaven and on earth, in him.

The inheritance and the spirit

¹¹ In him we have received the inheritance! We were foreordained to this, following the intention of the one who does all things in accordance with the counsel of his purpose. ¹² This was so that we, we who first hoped in the Messiah, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you too, who heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed it—in him you were marked out with the spirit of promise, the holy one. ¹⁴ The spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the time when the people who are God’s special possession are finally reclaimed and freed. This, too, is for the praise of his glory.

Knowing the power of the Messiah

¹⁵ Because of all this, and because I’d heard that you are loyal and faithful to Jesus the master, and that you show love to all God’s holy people, ¹⁶ I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I pray that the God of Messiah Jesus our Lord, the father of glory, would give you, in your spirit, the gift of being wise, of seeing things people can’t normally see, because you are coming to know him ¹⁸ and to have the eyes of your inmost self opened to God’s light. Then you will know exactly what the hope is that goes with God’s call; you will know the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in his holy people; ¹⁹ and you will know the outstanding greatness of his power towards us who are loyal to him in faith, according to the working of his strength and power.

²⁰ This was the power at work in the Messiah when God raised him from the dead and sat him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ above all rule and authority and power and lordship, and above every name that is invoked, both in the present age and also in the age to come. ²² Yes: God has “put all things under his feet,” and has given him to the church as the head over all. ²³ The church is his body; it is the fullness of the one who fills all in all.

Warning signs on the wrong road

2 So where do you come into it all? Well, you were dead because of your offenses and sins! ² That was the road you used to travel, keeping in step with this world’s “present age”; in step, too, with the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is, even now, at work among people whose whole lives consist of disobeying God. ³ Actually, that’s how all of us used to behave, conditioned by physical desires. We used to do what our flesh and our minds were urging us to do. What was the result? We too were subject to wrath in our natural state, just like everyone else.

⁴ But when it comes to mercy, God is rich! He had such great love for us that ⁵ he took us at the very point where we were dead through our offenses, and made us alive together with the Messiah (yes, you are saved by sheer grace!). ⁶ He raised us up with him, and made us sit with him—in the heavenly places, in Messiah Jesus! ⁷ This was so that in the ages to come he could show just how unbelievably rich his grace is, the kindness he has shown us in Messiah Jesus.

Grace, not works

⁸ How has this all come about? You have been saved by grace, through faith! This doesn’t happen on your own initiative; it’s God’s gift. ⁹ It isn’t on the basis of works, so no one is able to boast. ¹⁰ This is the explanation: God has made us what we are. God has created us in Messiah Jesus for the good works that he prepared, ahead of time, as the road we must travel.

Two into one will go

¹¹ So then, remember this! In human terms, that is, in your “flesh,” you are “Gentiles.” You are the people who the so-called “circumcision” refer to as the so-called “uncircumcision”—circumcision, of course, being something done by human hands to human flesh. ¹² Well, once upon a time you were separated from the Messiah. You were detached from the community of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants which contained the promise. There you were, in the world with no hope and no god!

¹³ But now, in Messiah Jesus, you have been brought near in the Messiah’s blood—yes, you, who used to be a long way away! ¹⁴ He is our peace, you see. He has made the two to be one. He has pulled down the barrier, the dividing wall, that turns us into enemies of each other. He has done this in his flesh, ¹⁵ by abolishing the law with its commands and instructions.

The point of doing all this was to create, in him, one new human being out of the two, so making peace. ¹⁶ God was reconciling both of us to himself in a single body, through the cross, by killing the enmity in him.

Unveiling the new Temple

¹⁷ So the Messiah came and gave the good news. Peace had come! Peace, that is, for those of you who were a long way away, and peace, too, for those who were close at hand. ¹⁸ Through him, you see, we both have access to the father in the one spirit.

¹⁹ This is the result. You are no longer foreigners or strangers. No: you are fellow citizens with God’s holy people. You are members of God’s household. ²⁰ You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is fitted together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² You, too, are being built up together, in him, into a place where God will live by the spirit.

God’s secret plan unveiled at last

3 It’s because of all this that I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles . . .

² I’m assuming, by the way, that you’ve heard about the plan of God’s grace that was given to me to pass on to you? ³ You know—the secret purpose that God revealed to me, as I wrote briefly just now? ⁴ Anyway . . .

When you read this you’ll be able to understand the special insight I have into the Messiah’s secret. ⁵ This wasn’t made known to human beings in previous generations, but now it’s been revealed by the spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ The secret is this: that, through the gospel, the Gentiles are to share Israel’s inheritance. They are to become fellow members of the body, along with them, and fellow sharers of the promise in Messiah Jesus.

⁷ This is the gospel that I was appointed to serve, in line with the free gift of God’s grace that was given to me. It was backed up with the power through which God accomplishes his work.

Wisdom for the rulers

⁸ I am the very least of all God’s people. However, he gave me this task as a gift: that I should be the one to tell the Gentiles the good news of the Messiah’s wealth, wealth no one could begin to count. ⁹ My job is to make clear to everyone just what the secret plan is, the purpose that’s been hidden from the very beginning of the world in God who created all things. ¹⁰ This is it: that God’s wisdom, in all its rich variety, was to be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places—through the church!

¹¹ This was God’s eternal purpose, and he’s accomplished it in Messiah Jesus our Lord. ¹² We have confidence, and access to God, in him, in full assurance, through his faithfulness. ¹³ So, I beg you: don’t lose heart because of my sufferings on your behalf! That’s your glory!

God’s love, God’s power—in us

¹⁴ Because of this, I am kneeling down before the father, ¹⁵ the one who gives the name of “family” to every family that there is, in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶ My prayer is this: that he will lay out all the riches of his glory to give you strength and power, through his spirit, in your inner being; ¹⁷ that the Messiah may make his home in your hearts, through faith; that love may be your root, your firm foundation; ¹⁸ and that you may be strong enough (with all God’s holy ones) to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love—though actually it’s so deep that nobody can really know it! So may God fill you with all his fullness.

²⁰ So: to the one who is capable of doing far, far more than we can ask or imagine, granted the power which is working in us— ²¹ to him be glory, in the church, and in Messiah Jesus, to all generations, and to the ages of ages! Amen!

Live up to your calling!

4 So, then, this is my appeal to you—yes, it’s me, the prisoner in the Lord! You must live up to the calling you received. ² Bear with one another in love; be humble, meek and patient in every way with one another. ³ Make every effort to guard the unity that the spirit gives, with your lives bound together in peace.

⁴ There is one body and one spirit; you were, after all, called to one hope which goes with your call. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and father of all, who is over all, through all and in all.

⁷ But grace was given to each one of us, according to the measure the Messiah used when he was distributing gifts. ⁸ That’s why it says,

⁹ When it says here that “he went up,” what this means is that he also came down into the lower place, that is, the earth. ¹⁰ The one who came down is the one who also “went up”—yes, above all the heavens!—so that he might fill all things.

Grown-up Christianity

¹¹ So these were the gifts that he gave. Some were to be apostles, others prophets, others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers. ¹² Their job is to give God’s people the equipment they need for their work of service, and so to build up the Messiah’s body. ¹³ The purpose of this is that we should all reach unity in our belief and loyalty, and in knowing God’s son. Then we shall reach the stature of the mature Man measured by the standards of the Messiah’s fullness.

¹⁴ As a result, we won’t be babies any longer! We won’t be thrown this way and that on a stormy sea, blown about by every gust of teaching, by human tricksters, by their cunning and deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, we must speak the truth in love, and so grow up in everything into him—that is, into the Messiah, who is the head. ¹⁶ He supplies the growth that the whole body needs, linked as it is and held together by every joint which supports it, with each member doing its own proper work. Then the body builds itself up in love.

Off with the old, on with the new

¹⁷ So this is what I want to say; I am bearing witness to it in the Lord. You must no longer behave like the Gentiles, foolish-minded as they are. ¹⁸ Their understanding is darkened; they are cut off from God’s life because of their deep-seated ignorance, which springs from the fact that their hearts are hard. ¹⁹ They have lost all moral sensitivity, and have given themselves over to whatever takes their fancy. They go off greedily after every kind of uncleanness.

²⁰ But that’s not how you learned the Messiah!— ²¹ if indeed you did hear about him, and were taught in him, in accordance with the truth about Jesus himself. ²² That teaching stressed that you should take off your former lifestyle, the old humanity. That way of life is decaying, as a result of deceitful lusts. ²³ Instead, you must be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and you must put on the new humanity, which is being created the way God intended it, displaying justice and genuine holiness.

The kindness that imitates God himself

²⁵ Put away lies, then. “Each of you, speak the truth with your neighbor,” because we are members of one another. ²⁶ “Be angry, but don’t sin”; don’t let the sun go down on you while you’re angry, ²⁷ and don’t leave any loophole for the devil. ²⁸ The thief shouldn’t steal any longer, but should rather get on with some honest manual work, so as to be able to share with people in need.

²⁹ Don’t let any unwholesome words escape your lips. Instead, say whatever is good and will be useful in building people up, so that you will give grace to those who listen.

³⁰ And don’t disappoint God’s holy spirit—the spirit who put God’s mark on you to identify you on the day of freedom. ³¹ All bitterness and rage, all anger and yelling, and all blasphemy—put it all away from you, with all wickedness. ³² Instead, be kind to one another, cherish tender feelings for each other, forgive one another, just as God forgave you in the Messiah.

5 So you should be imitators of God, like dear children. ² Conduct yourselves in love, just as the Messiah loved us, and gave himself for us, as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

Darkness and light in matters of sex

³ As for fornication, uncleanness of any kind, or greed: you shouldn’t even mention them! You are, after all, God’s holy people. ⁴ Shameful, stupid or coarse conversations are quite out of place. Instead, there should be thanksgiving.

⁵ You should know this, you see: no fornicator, nobody who practices uncleanness, no greedy person (in other words, an idolator), has any inheritance in the Messiah’s kingdom, or in God’s. ⁶ Don’t let anyone fool you with empty words. It’s because of these things, you see, that God’s wrath is coming on people who are disobedient.

⁷ So don’t share in their practices. ⁸ After all, at one time you were darkness, but now, in the Lord, you are light! So behave as children of light. ⁹ Light has its fruit, doesn’t it, in everything that’s good, and just, and true. ¹⁰ Think through what’s going to be pleasing to the Lord. Work it out.

Light and darkness

¹¹ So, then, don’t get involved in the works of darkness, which all come to nothing. Instead, expose them! ¹² The things they do in secret, you see, are shameful even to talk about. ¹³ But everything becomes visible when it’s exposed to the light, ¹⁴ since everything that is visible is light. That’s why it says:

¹⁵ So take special care how you conduct yourselves. Don’t be unwise, but be wise. ¹⁶ Make use of any opportunity you have, because these are wicked times we live in. ¹⁷ So don’t be foolish; rather, understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ And don’t get drunk with wine; that way lies dissipation. Rather, be filled with the spirit! ¹⁹ Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Wives and husbands

²¹ Be subject to one another out of reverence for the Messiah.

²² Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ The man, you see, is the head of the woman, just as the Messiah, too, is head of the church. He is himself the savior of the body. ²⁴ But, just as the church is subject to the Messiah, in the same way women should be subject in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as the Messiah loved the church, and gave himself for it, ²⁶ so that he could make it holy, cleansing it by washing it with water through the word. ²⁷ He did this in order to present the church to himself in brilliant splendor, without a single spot or blemish or anything of the kind—that it might be holy and without blame. ²⁸ That’s how husbands ought to love their own wives, just as they love their own bodies.

Someone who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, nobody ever hates his own flesh: he feeds it and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does with the church, ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ “That’s why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh.”

³² The hidden meaning in this saying is very deep; but I am reading it as referring to the Messiah and the church. ³³ Anyway, each one of you must love your wife as you love yourself; and the wife must see that she respects her husband.

Children, parents, slaves and masters

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord. This is right and proper. ² “Honor your father and your mother”—this is the first commandment that comes with a promise attached!— ³ “so that things may go well with you and that you may live a long life on earth.”

⁴ Fathers, don’t make your children angry. Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, obey your human masters, with respect and devotion, with the same single-mindedness that you have towards the Messiah. ⁶ You must get on with your work, not only when someone is watching you, as if you were just trying to please another human being, but as slaves of the Messiah. Do God’s will from your heart. ⁷ Get on with your tasks with a kind and ready spirit as if you were serving the master himself and not human beings. ⁸ After all, you know that if anyone, slave or free, does something good, they will receive it back from the master.

⁹ Masters, do the same to them! Give up using threats. You know, after all, that the master in heaven is their master and yours, and he is no respecter of persons.

God’s complete armor

¹⁰ What else is there to say? Just this: be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power. ¹¹ Put on God’s complete armor. Then you’ll be able to stand firm against the devil’s trickery. ¹² The warfare we’re engaged in, you see, isn’t against flesh and blood. It’s against the leaders, against the authorities, against the powers that rule the world in this dark age, against the wicked spiritual elements in the heavenly places.

¹³ For this reason, you must take up God’s complete armor. Then, when wickedness grabs its moment, you’ll be able to withstand, to do what needs to be done, and still to be on your feet when it’s all over. ¹⁴ So stand firm! Put the belt of truth round your waist; put on justice as your breastplate; ¹⁵ for shoes on your feet, ready for battle, take the good news of peace. ¹⁶ With it all, take the shield of faith; if you’ve got that, you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is God’s word.

Prayer and peace

¹⁸ Pray on every occasion in the spirit, with every type of prayer and intercession. You’ll need to keep awake and alert for this, with all perseverance and intercession for all God’s holy ones— ¹⁹ and also for me! Please pray that God will give me his words to speak when I open my mouth, so that I can make known, loud and clear, the secret truth of the gospel. ²⁰ That, after all, is why I’m a chained-up ambassador! Pray that I may announce it boldly; that’s what I’m duty-bound to do.

²¹ It’s important that you should know how things are with me, and what I’m up to; so our dear brother Tychicus will tell you about it. He is a loyal servant in the Lord. ²² I’ve sent him to you with this in mind, so that you may know how things are with us, and so that he may encourage your hearts.

²³ Peace be to the whole family, and love with faith, from God the father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. ²⁴ Grace be with all who love our Lord, Messiah Jesus, with a love that never dies!

Paul’s reasons for thanks

1 From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Messiah Jesus, to all God’s holy ones in Messiah Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and ministers: ² grace to you and peace, from God our father and Messiah Jesus the Lord.

³ I thank my God every time I think of you! ⁴ I always pray with joy, whenever I pray for you all, ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ Of this I’m convinced: the one who began a good work in you will thoroughly complete it by the day of Messiah Jesus.

⁷ It’s right for me to think this way about all of you. You have me in your hearts, here in prison as I am, working to defend and bolster up the gospel. You are my partners in grace, all of you! ⁸ Yes: God can bear witness how much I’m longing for all of you with the deep love of Messiah Jesus.

⁹ And this is what I’m praying: that your love may overflow still more and more, in knowledge and in all astute wisdom. ¹⁰ Then you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil, and be sincere and faultless on the day of the Messiah, ¹¹ filled to overflowing with the fruit of right living, fruit that comes through Messiah Jesus to God’s glory and praise.

The Messiah is proclaimed

¹² Now, my dear family, I want you to know that the things I’ve been through have actually helped the gospel on its way. ¹³ You see, everybody in the Imperial Guard, and all the rest for that matter, have heard that I am here, chained up, because of the Messiah. ¹⁴ My imprisonment has given new confidence to most of the Lord’s family; they are now much more prepared to speak the word boldly and fearlessly.

¹⁵ There are some, I should say, who are proclaiming the Messiah because of envy and rivalry; but there are others who are doing it out of good will. ¹⁶ These last are acting from love, since they know that I’m in prison because of defending the gospel; ¹⁷ but the others are announcing the Messiah out of selfishness and jealousy. They are not acting from pure motives. They imagine that they will make more trouble for me in my captivity.

¹⁸ So what? Only this: the Messiah is being announced, whether people mean it or not! I’m happy to celebrate that!

To live or to die?

Yes, and I really am going to celebrate: ¹⁹ because I know that this will result in my rescue, through your prayer and the support of the spirit of Messiah Jesus. ²⁰ I’m waiting eagerly and full of hope, because nothing is going to put me to shame. I am going to be bold and outspoken, now as always, and the Messiah is going to gain a great reputation through my body, whether in life or in death.

²¹ You see, for me to live means the Messiah; to die means to make a profit. ²² If it’s to be living on in the flesh, that means fruitful work for me. Actually, I don’t know which I would choose. ²³ I’m pulled both ways at once: I would really love to leave all this and be with the Messiah, because that would be far better. ²⁴ But staying on here in the flesh is more vital for your sake. ²⁵ Since I’ve become convinced of this, I know that I will remain here, and stay alongside all of you, to help you to advance and rejoice in your faith, ²⁶ so that the pride you take in Messiah Jesus may overflow because of me, when I come to visit you once again.

The gospel in public

²⁷ The one thing I would stress is this: your public behavior must match up to the gospel of the Messiah. That way, whether I do come and see you or whether I remain elsewhere, the news that I get about you will indicate that you are standing firm with a single spirit, struggling side by side with one united intent for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸ and not letting your opponents intimidate you in any way. This is a sign from God: one that signifies their destruction, but your salvation.

²⁹ Yes: God has granted you that, on behalf of the Messiah, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. ³⁰ You are engaged in the same struggle which you once watched me go through; and, as you now hear, I’m still going through it.

Unity in everything

2 So if our shared life in the Messiah brings you any comfort; if love still has the power to make you cheerful; if we really do have a partnership in the spirit; if your hearts are at all moved with affection and sympathy— ² then make my joy complete! Bring your thinking into line with one another.

Here’s how to do it. Hold on to the same love; bring your innermost lives into harmony; fix your minds on the same object. ³ Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everybody else as your superior. ⁴ Look after each other’s best interests, not your own.

The mind of the Messiah

⁵ This is how you should think among yourselves—with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus:

How salvation is worked out

¹² So, my dear people: you always did what I said, so please now carry on in the same way, not just as though I was there with you, but much more because I’m not! Your task now is to work at bringing about your own salvation; and naturally you’ll be taking this with utter seriousness. ¹³ After all, God himself is the one who’s at work among you, who provides both the will and the energy to enable you to do what pleases him.

¹⁴ There must be no grumbling and disputing in anything you do. ¹⁵ That way, nobody will be able to fault you, and you’ll be pure and spotless children of God in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation. You are to shine among them like lights in the world, ¹⁶ clinging on to the word of life. That’s what I will be proud of on the day of the Messiah. It will prove that I didn’t run a useless race, or work to no purpose.

¹⁷ Yes: even if I am to be poured out like a drink-offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I shall celebrate, and celebrate jointly with you all. ¹⁸ In the same way, you should celebrate, yes, and celebrate with me.

On Timothy

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I in turn may be encouraged by getting news about you. ²⁰ I have nobody else of his quality: he will care quite genuinely about how you are. ²¹ Everybody else, you see, looks after their own interests, not those of Messiah Jesus. ²² But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a child with a father he has worked as a slave alongside me for the sake of the gospel. ²³ So I’m hoping to send him just as soon as I see how it will turn out with me. ²⁴ And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come very soon as well.

On Epaphroditus

²⁵ But I did think it was necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. He is my brother; he has worked alongside me and fought alongside me; and he’s served as your agent in tending to my needs. ²⁶ He was longing for you all, you see, and he was upset because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷ And he really was sick, too; he nearly died. But God took pity on him—yes, and on me as well, so that I wouldn’t have one sorrow piled on top of another.

²⁸ This has made me all the more eager to send him, so that you’ll see him again and be glad, and my own anxieties will be laid to rest. ²⁹ So give him a wonderfully happy welcome in the Lord, and hold people like him in special respect. ³⁰ He came close to death through risking his life for the Messiah’s work, so that he could complete the service to me that you hadn’t been able to perform.

Warning: don’t trust in the flesh

3 So then, my dear family, it comes down to this: celebrate in the Lord! It’s no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it’s safe for you.

² Watch out for the dogs! Watch out for the “bad works” people! Watch out for the “incision” party, that is, the mutilators! ³ We are the “circumcision,” you see—we who worship God by the spirit, and boast in Messiah Jesus, and refuse to trust in the flesh.

⁴ Mind you, I’ve got good reason to trust in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to trust in the flesh, I’ve got more. ⁵ Circumcised? On the eighth day. Race? Israelite. Tribe? Benjamin. Descent? Hebrew through and through. Torah-observance? A Pharisee. ⁶ Zealous? I persecuted the church! Official status under the law? Blameless.

Gaining the Messiah

⁷ Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. ⁸ Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing Messiah Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, ⁹ and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. ¹⁰ This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It means sharing the form and pattern of his death, ¹¹ so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.

Chasing on to the finish

¹² I’m not implying that I’ve already received “resurrection,” or that I’ve already become complete and mature! No; I’m hurrying on, eager to overtake it, because Messiah Jesus has overtaken me. ¹³ My dear family, I don’t reckon that I have yet overtaken it. But this is my one aim: to forget everything that’s behind, and to strain every nerve to go after what’s ahead. ¹⁴ I mean to chase on towards the finishing post, where the prize waiting for me is the upward call of God in Messiah Jesus.

¹⁵ Those of us who are mature should think like this! If you think differently about it, God will reveal this to you as well. ¹⁶ Only let’s be sure to keep in line with the position we have reached.

Citizens of heaven

¹⁷ So, my dear family, I want you, all together, to watch what I do and copy me. You’ve got us as a pattern of behavior; pay careful attention to people who follow it.

¹⁸ You see, there are several people who behave as enemies of the cross of the Messiah. I told you about them often enough, and now I’m weeping as I say it again. ¹⁹ They are on the road to destruction; their stomach is their god, and they find glory in their own shame. All they ever think about is what’s on the earth.

²⁰ We are citizens of heaven, you see, and we’re eagerly waiting for the savior, the Lord, Messiah Jesus, who is going to come from there. ²¹ Our present body is a shabby old thing, but he’s going to transform it so that it’s just like his glorious body. And he’s going to do this by the power which makes him able to bring everything into line under his authority.

4 Well then, my dear family—I miss you so much, you’re my joy and crown!—this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, my beloved people.

Celebrate in the Lord!

² I have a special appeal which goes jointly to Euodia and Syntyche: please, please, come to a common mind in the Lord. ³ (And here’s a request for you too, my loyal comrade: please help these women. They have struggled hard in the gospel alongside me, as have Clement and my other fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.)

⁴ Celebrate joyfully in the Lord, all the time. I’ll say it again: celebrate! ⁵ Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are. The Lord is near.

⁶ Don’t worry about anything. Rather, in every area of life let God know what you want, as you pray and make requests, and give thanks as well. ⁷ And God’s peace, which is greater than we can ever understand, will keep guard over your hearts and minds in Messiah Jesus.

⁸ For the rest, my dear family, these are the things you should think through: whatever is true, whatever is holy, whatever is upright, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever has a good reputation; anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy. ⁹ And these are the things you should do: what you learned, received, heard and saw in and through me. And the God of peace will be with you.

The hidden secret

¹⁰ I’ve been having a great celebration in the Lord because your concern for me has once again burst into flower. (You were of course concerned for me before, but you didn’t have an opportunity to show it.)

¹¹ I’m not talking about lacking anything. I’ve learnt to be content with what I have. ¹² I know how to do without, and I know how to cope with plenty. In every possible situation I’ve learned the hidden secret of being full and hungry, of having plenty and going without, and it’s this: ¹³ I have strength for everything in the one who gives me power.

Closing thanks and greetings

¹⁴ But you did the right thing by entering into partnership with me in my suffering. ¹⁵ Indeed, as you people in Philippi know well, when the gospel was getting under way and I was moving on from Macedonia, there wasn’t a single other church, except yourselves, that entered into a two-way partnership with me, giving and receiving. ¹⁶ Yes: when I was in Thessalonica you sent help to me, not just once but twice.

¹⁷ I stress that it isn’t the gift I’m interested in. My concern is that you should have a healthy profit balance showing up on your account. ¹⁸ For myself, I’ve received full payment, and I’m well stocked up. In fact, I’m full to overflowing, now that I have received from Epaphroditus what you sent. It’s like a sacrifice with a beautiful smell, a worthy offering, giving pleasure to God. ¹⁹ What’s more, my God will meet all your needs, too, out of his store of glorious riches in Messiah Jesus. ²⁰ Glory be to our God and father forever and ever, Amen!

²¹ Give my greetings to all God’s people in Messiah Jesus. The family with me here send their greetings. ²² All God’s people send you greetings, especially those from Caesar’s household.

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

Thanksgiving for the gospel’s work

1 Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by God’s purpose, and Timothy my brother; ² to God’s holy people in Colossae, the Messiah’s faithful family; grace to you and peace, from God our father.

³ We always thank God, the father of our Lord, Messiah Jesus, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we’ve heard of your faith in Messiah Jesus and the love you have for all God’s holy people, ⁵ because of the hope which is kept safe for you in the heavenly places. You heard about this before in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ which has arrived on your doorstep—just as, in fact, it’s producing fruit and growing in all the world, as it has been among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. ⁷ That’s how you learnt it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave. He’s a loyal and faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf. ⁸ He it was who gave us the news about your love in the spirit.

Prayer for wisdom and gratitude

⁹ For this reason, from the day we heard it, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We’re asking God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. ¹⁰ This will mean that you’ll be able to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, and so give him real delight, as you bear fruit in every good work and grow up in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ I pray that you’ll be given all possible strength, according to the power of his glory, so that you’ll have complete patience and become truly steadfast and joyful.

¹² And I pray that you will learn to give thanks to the father, who has made you fit to share the inheritance of God’s holy ones in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. ¹⁴ He is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

In praise of Jesus Christ

Reconciled and firm in faith

²¹ So what about you? Well, there was a time when you were excluded! You were enemies in your thinking, and in wicked behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you in the body of his flesh, through death, in order to bring you into his presence holy, blameless and without any accusation.

²³ This assumes, of course, that you keep firmly on in the faith—by which I mean, solid on your foundations, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard. This gospel, after all, has been announced in all creation under heaven! And this is the gospel of which I, Paul, became a servant.

The Messiah, living within you

²⁴ Right now I’m having a celebration—a celebration of my sufferings, which are for your benefit! And I’m steadily completing, in my own flesh, what is presently lacking in the Messiah’s afflictions on behalf of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I became the church’s servant, according to the terms laid down by God when he gave me my commission on your behalf, the commission to fulfill God’s word.

²⁶ This word declares the mystery that was kept secret from past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to God’s holy people. ²⁷ God’s intention was to make known to them just what rich glory this mystery contains, out there among the nations. And this is the key: the Messiah, living within you as the hope of glory!

²⁸ He is the one we are proclaiming. We are instructing everybody and teaching everybody in every kind of wisdom, so that we can present everybody grown up, complete, in the Messiah. ²⁹ That’s what I am working for, struggling with all his energy which is powerfully at work within me.

God’s hidden treasure—Messiah Jesus!

2 You see, I’d like you to know just what a struggle I am having on behalf of yourselves, and the family in Laodicea, and all the people who don’t know me by sight. ² I want their hearts to be encouraged as they’re brought together in love. I want them to experience all the wealth of definite understanding, and to come to the knowledge of God’s mystery—the Messiah! ³ He is the place where you’ll find all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴ I’m saying this so that nobody will deceive you with plausible words. ⁵ Though I’m away from you in person, you see, I am present with you in the spirit, and I’m celebrating as I keep an eye on your good order, and the solidity of your faith in the Messiah.

⁶ So, then, just as you received Messiah Jesus the Lord, you must continue your journey in him. ⁷ You must put down healthy roots in him, being built up brick by brick in him, and established strongly in the faith, just as you were taught, with overflowing thankfulness.

Beware of deceivers

⁸ Watch out that nobody uses philosophy and hollow trickery to take you captive! These are in line with human tradition, and with the “elements of the world”—not with the Messiah. ⁹ In him, you see, all the full measure of divinity has taken up bodily residence. ¹⁰ What’s more, you are fulfilled in him, since he’s the head of all rule and authority.

¹¹ In him, indeed, you were circumcised with a special, new type of circumcision. It isn’t something that human hands can do. It is the Messiah’s version of circumcision, and it happens when you put off the “body of flesh”: ¹² when you’re buried with him in baptism, and indeed also raised with him, through faith in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

The law and the cross

¹³ In the same way, though you were dead in legal offenses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Jesus, forgiving us all our offenses. ¹⁴ He blotted out the handwriting that was against us, opposing us with its legal demands. He took it right out of the way, by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He stripped the rulers and authorities of their armor, and displayed them contemptuously to public view, celebrating his triumph over them in him.

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in a question of food or drink, or in the matter of festivals, new moons or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These things are a shadow cast by the coming reality—and the body that casts the shadow belongs to the Messiah! ¹⁸ Don’t let anyone rule you out of order by trying to force you into a kind of fake humility, or into worshiping angels. Such people will go on and on about visions they’ve had; they get puffed up without good reason by merely human thinking, ¹⁹ and they don’t keep hold of the Head. It’s from him that the whole body grows with the growth God gives it, as it’s nourished and held together by its various ligaments and joints.

Dying and rising with Christ

²⁰ If you died with the Messiah, coming out from the rule of the “worldly elements,” what’s the point of laying down laws as though your life was still merely worldly? ²¹ “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!” ²² Rules like that all have to do with things that disappear as you use them. They are the sort of regulations and teachings that mere humans invent. ²³ They may give an appearance of wisdom, since they promote a do-it-yourself religion, a kind of humility, and severe treatment of the body. But they are of no use when it comes to dealing with physical self-indulgence.

3 So if you were raised to life with the Messiah, search for the things that are above, where the Messiah is seated at God’s right hand! ² Think about the things that are above, not the things that belong on the earth. ³ Don’t you see: you died, and your life has been hidden with the Messiah, in God! ⁴ When the Messiah is revealed (and he is your life, remember), then you too will be revealed with him in glory.

Old clothes, new clothes

⁵ So, then, you must kill off the parts of you that belong on the earth: illicit sexual behavior, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and greed (which is a form of idolatry). ⁶ It’s because of these things that God’s wrath comes on the children of disobedience. ⁷ You too used to behave like that, once, when your life consisted of that sort of thing.

⁸ But now you must put away the lot of them: anger, rage, wickedness, blasphemy, dirty talk coming out of your mouth. ⁹ Don’t tell lies to each other! You have stripped off the old human nature, complete with its patterns of behavior, ¹⁰ and you have put on the new one—which is being renewed in the image of the creator, bringing you into possession of new knowledge. ¹¹ In this new humanity there is no question of “Greek and Jew,” or “circumcised and uncircumcised,” of “barbarian, Scythian,” or “slave and free.” The Messiah is everything and in everything!

Love, peace and thanksgiving

¹² These are the clothes you must put on, then, since God has chosen you, made you holy, and lavished his love upon you. You must be tender-hearted, kind, humble, meek, and ready to put up with anything. ¹³ You must bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against someone else, you must forgive each other. Just as the master forgave you, you must do the same. ¹⁴ On top of all this you must put on love, which ties everything together and makes it complete. ¹⁵ Let the Messiah’s peace be the deciding factor in your hearts; that’s what you were called to, within the one body. And be thankful.

¹⁶ Let the Messiah’s word dwell richly among you, as you teach and exhort one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God with grateful hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or action, do everything in the name of the master, Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the father.

The Christian household

¹⁸ Now a word for wives: you should be subject to your husbands. This is appropriate in the Lord. ¹⁹ And for husbands: you should treat your wives with love, and not be bitter with them. ²⁰ And for children: obey your parents in everything; this pleases the Lord. ²¹ And for fathers: don’t provoke your children to anger, otherwise they might lose heart.

²² A word, too, for slaves: obey your earthly masters in everything. Don’t do it simply out of show, to curry favor with human beings, but wholeheartedly, because you fear the Master. ²³ Whatever you do, give it your very best, as if you were working for the Master and not for human beings. ²⁴ After all, you know that you’re going to receive the true inheritance from the Master as your reward! It is the Master, the Messiah, that you are serving. ²⁵ Anyone who does wrong will be paid back for wrongdoing, and there will be no favorites.

4 Here’s a word, too, for masters: do what is just and fair for your slaves. Remember that you too have a Master—in heaven.

The fellowship of prayer

² Devote yourselves to prayer; keep alert in it, with thanksgiving. ³ While you’re about it, pray for us, too, that God will open in front of us a door for the word, so that we may speak of the mystery of the Messiah—which is why I’m here in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may speak clearly about it. That’s what I am duty-bound to do.

⁵ Behave wisely towards outsiders; buy up every opportunity. ⁶ When you speak, make sure it’s always full of grace, and well flavored with salt! That way you’ll know how to give each person an appropriate answer.

⁷ Our dear brother Tychicus will tell you all my news. He is a faithful servant, indeed a fellow slave in the Lord. ⁸ This is why I’m sending him to you—to let you know how things are with us, and to encourage your hearts. ⁹ I’m also sending Onesimus, who is a dear and faithful brother. He is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that’s going on here.

Greetings from others

¹⁰ Aristarchus (who’s in jail with me here) sends you greetings. So does Mark, Barnabas’s nephew. You’ve received instructions about him; if he comes to you, do make him welcome. ¹¹ Jesus Justus sends greetings as well. These three are the only fellow Jews I have among my colleagues working for God’s kingdom, and they have been an encouragement to me.

¹² Epaphras, one of your own folk and also one of Messiah Jesus’ slaves, sends you greetings. He’s always struggling in prayer on your behalf, praying that you will stand firm and mature, and have your minds fully settled on everything that God wants you to do. ¹³ I can bear him witness that he’s gone to a lot of trouble on your behalf, and also on behalf of the family in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Luke, the beloved doctor, sends greetings; so too does Demas.

¹⁵ Pass my greetings on to the family in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. ¹⁶ When this letter has been read to you, make sure it’s read in Laodicea as well; and you, too, should read the letter that will come on to you from Laodicea. ¹⁷ And say to Archippus: “Take care to complete the commission that you have received in the Lord.”

¹⁸ I’m signing off in my own hand: PAUL.

Remember the chains I’m wearing.

Grace be with you.