Bible in 90 Days

^26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁸ Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.

4 This is what I am saying: When young children inherit all that their father owned, they are still no different from his slaves. It doesn’t matter that they own everything. ² While they are children, they must obey those who are chosen to care for them. But when they reach the age the father set, they are free. ³ It is the same for us. We were once like children, slaves to the useless rules^[a] of this world. ⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son, who was born from a woman and lived under the law. ⁵ God did this so that he could buy the freedom of those who were under the law. God’s purpose was to make us his children.

⁶ Since you are now God’s children, he has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit cries out, “ Abba,^[b] Father.” ⁷ Now you are not slaves like before. You are God’s children, and you will receive everything he promised his children.

Paul’s Love for the Galatian Believers

⁸ In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. ⁹ But now you know the true God. Really, though, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to the same kind of weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? ^10-11 It worries me that you follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. I fear that my work for you has been wasted.

¹² Brothers and sisters, I became like you. So please become like me. You were very good to me before. ¹³ You know that I came to you the first time because I was sick. That was when I told the Good News to you. ¹⁴ My sickness was a burden to you, but you did not stop showing me respect or make me leave. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God. You accepted me as if I were Jesus Christ himself! ¹⁵ You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I can say without a doubt that you would have done anything to help me. If it had been possible, you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶ Am I now your enemy because I tell you the truth?

¹⁷ Those people^[c] are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and work hard for them. ¹⁸ It is good for you to work hard, of course, if it is for something good. That’s something you should do whether I am there or not. ¹⁹ My little children, I am in pain again over you, like a mother giving birth. I will feel this pain until people can look at you and see Christ. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now. Then maybe I could change the way I am talking to you. Now I don’t know what to do about you.

The Example of Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Some of you people want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says? ²² The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. ²³ Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.

²⁴ This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. ²⁵ So Hagar is like Mount Sinai in Arabia. She is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city is a slave, and all its people are slaves to the law. ²⁶ But the heavenly Jerusalem that is above is like the free woman, who is our mother. ²⁷ The Scriptures say,

²⁸ My brothers and sisters, you are children who were born because of God’s promise, just as Isaac was. ²⁹ But the other son of Abraham, who was born in the normal way, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same today. ³⁰ But what do the Scriptures say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has, but the son of the slave woman will receive nothing.”^{[e] 31} So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman. We are children of the free woman.

Keep Your Freedom

5 We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong in that freedom. Don’t go back into slavery again. ² Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you start following the law by being circumcised, then Christ cannot help you. ³ Again, I warn everyone: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then you must follow the whole law. ⁴ If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is finished—you have left God’s grace. ⁵ I say this because our hope of being right with God comes through faith. And the Spirit helps us feel sure as we wait for that hope. ⁶ When someone belongs to Christ Jesus, it is not important if they are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.

⁷ You were doing so well. Who caused you to stop following the truth? ⁸ It certainly wasn’t the one who chose you. ⁹ Be careful! “Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.”^{[f] 10} I trust in the Lord that you will not believe those different ideas. Someone is trying to confuse you. Whoever it is will be punished.

¹¹ My brothers and sisters, I don’t teach that a man must be circumcised. If I do teach circumcision, then why am I still being persecuted? If I still taught circumcision, then my message about the cross would not be a problem. ¹² I wish those people who are bothering you would add castration^[g] to their circumcision.

¹³ My brothers and sisters, God chose you to be free. But don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful selves. Instead, serve each other with love. ¹⁴ The whole law is made complete in this one command: “Love your neighbor^[h] the same as you love yourself.”^{[i] 15} If you continue hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.

The Spirit and Human Nature

¹⁶ So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants. ¹⁷ The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don’t do what you really want to do. ¹⁸ But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law.^[j]

¹⁹ The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things, ²⁰ worshiping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups, ²¹ being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, and doing other things like this. I warn you now as I warned you before: The people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom. ²² But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. ²⁵ We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit. ²⁶ We must not feel proud and boast about ourselves. We must not cause trouble for each other or be jealous of each other.

Help Each Other

6 Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too. ² Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. ³ If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself. ⁴ Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. ⁵ You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours.

Never Stop Doing Good

⁶ Whoever is being taught God’s word should share the good things they have with the one who is teaching them.

⁷ If you think you can fool God, you are only fooling yourselves. You will harvest what you plant. ⁸ If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life. ⁹ We must not get tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time. We must not give up. ¹⁰ When we have the opportunity to do good to anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.

Paul Ends His Letter

¹¹ This is my own handwriting. You can see how big the letters are. ¹² Those men who are trying to force you to be circumcised are only doing it so that their people will accept them. They are afraid they will be persecuted if they follow only the cross^[k] of Christ. ¹³ They are circumcised, but they don’t obey the law themselves. They want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about what they did to you.

¹⁴ I hope I will never boast about things like that. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for boasting. Through Jesus’ death on the cross the world is dead^[l] to me, and I am dead to the world. ¹⁵ It doesn’t matter if anyone is circumcised or not. The only thing that matters is this new life we have from God.^{[m] 16} Peace and mercy to those who follow this rule—to all God’s people.^[n]

¹⁷ So don’t give me any more trouble. I have scars on my body that show^[o] I belong to Jesus.

¹⁸ My brothers and sisters, I pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with your spirits. Amen.

1 Greetings from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted.

To God’s holy people living in Ephesus,^[p] believers who belong to Christ Jesus.

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. ⁴ In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault. ⁵ And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it. ⁶ And this brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves.

⁷ In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace. ⁸ God gave us that grace fully and freely. With full wisdom and understanding ⁹ he let us know his secret plan. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ. ¹⁰ God’s goal was to finish his plan when the right time came. He planned that all things in heaven and on earth be joined together with Christ as the head.

¹¹ In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people. God had already planned for us to be his people, because that is what he wanted. And he is the one who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants. ¹² We Jews were the first to hope in Christ. And we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God in all his glory. ¹³ It is the same with you. You heard the true message, the Good News about the way God saves you. When you heard that Good News, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he promised. ¹⁴ The Spirit is the first payment that guarantees we will get all that God has for us. Then we will enjoy complete freedom as people who belong to him. The goal for all of us is the praise of God in all his glory.

Paul’s Prayer

^15-16 That is why I always remember you in my prayers and thank God for you. I have done this ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. ¹⁷ I always pray to the great and glorious Father, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that he will give you the Spirit, who will let you know truths about God and help you understand them, so that you will know him better.

¹⁸ I pray that God will open your minds to see his truth. Then you will know the hope that he has chosen us to have. You will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious. ¹⁹ And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. It is the same as the mighty power ²⁰ he used to raise Christ from death and put him at his right side in the heavenly places. ²¹ He put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings. He gave him authority over everything that has power in this world or in the next world. ²² God put everything under Christ’s power and made him head over everything for the church. ²³ The church is Christ’s body. It is filled with him. He makes everything complete in every way.

From Death to Life

2 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. ² Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers^[q] that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. ³ In the past all of us lived like that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.

⁴ But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. ⁵ We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.) ⁶ Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. ⁷ God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.

⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹ You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.

One in Christ

¹¹ You were not born as Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.^[r]” Those Jews who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do to their bodies.) ¹² Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you did not know about the agreements^[s] with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. ¹³ Yes, at one time you were far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus, you are brought near to him. You are brought near to God through the blood sacrifice of Christ.

¹⁴ Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body, ¹⁵ Christ ended the law with its many commands and rules. His purpose was to make the two groups become one in him. By doing this he would make peace. ¹⁶ Through the cross Christ ended the hate between the two groups. And after they became one body, he wanted to bring them both back to God. He did this with his death on the cross. ¹⁷ Christ came and brought the message of peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he brought that message of peace to those who were near to God. ¹⁸ Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

¹⁹ So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. ²⁰ You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation that the apostles and prophets prepared. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone^[t] in that building. ²¹ The whole building is joined together in Christ, and he makes it grow and become a holy temple^[u] in the Lord. ²² And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Paul’s Work for the Non-Jewish People

3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner because I serve Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews. ² Surely you know that God gave me this work through his grace to help you. ³ God let me know his secret plan by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. ⁴ And if you read what I wrote, you can see that I understand the secret truth about Christ. ⁵ People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has made it known to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ And this is the secret truth: that by hearing the Good News, those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in the blessings God has for his people. They are part of the same body, and they share in the promise God made through Christ Jesus.

⁷ By God’s special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. He gave me that grace by using his power. ⁸ I am the least important of all God’s people. But he gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches Christ has. These riches are too great to understand fully. ⁹ And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the one who created everything. ¹⁰ His purpose was that all the rulers and powers in the heavenly places will now know the many different ways he shows his wisdom. They will know this because of the church. ¹¹ This agrees with the plan God had since the beginning of time. He did what he planned, and he did it through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Christ we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ. ¹³ So I ask you not to be discouraged because of what is happening to me. My sufferings are for your benefit—for your honor and glory.

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father. ¹⁵ Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. ¹⁶ I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸ And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. ¹⁹ Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. ²¹ To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

The Unity of the Body

4 So, as a prisoner for the Lord, I beg you to live the way God’s people should live, because he chose you to be his. ² Always be humble and gentle. Be patient and accept each other with love. ³ You are joined together with peace through the Spirit. Do all you can to continue as you are, letting peace hold you together. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, and God chose you to have one hope. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. ⁶ There is one God and Father of us all, who rules over everyone. He works through all of us and in all of us.

⁷ Christ gave each one of us a special gift. Everyone received what he wanted to give them. ⁸ That is why the Scriptures say,

⁹ When it says, “He went up,” what does it mean? It means that he first came down low to earth. ¹⁰ So Christ came down, and he is the same one who went up. He went up above the highest heaven in order to fill everything with himself. ¹¹ And that same Christ gave these gifts to people: He made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to care for and teach God’s people.^{[v] 12} Christ gave these gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we are all joined together in what we believe and in what we know about the Son of God. Our goal is to become like a full-grown man—to look just like Christ and have all his perfection.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be like babies. We will not be people who are always changing like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to deceive us—those who make clever plans and use every kind of trick to fool others into following the wrong way. ¹⁵ No, we will speak the truth with love. We will grow to be like Christ in every way. He is the head, ¹⁶ and the whole body depends on him. All the parts of the body are joined and held together, with each part doing its own work. This causes the whole body to grow and to be stronger in love.

The Way You Should Live

¹⁷ I have something from the Lord to tell you. I warn you: Don’t continue living like those who don’t believe. Their thoughts are worth nothing. ¹⁸ They have no understanding, and they know nothing because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives. ¹⁹ They have lost their feeling of shame and use their lives to do what is morally wrong. More and more they want to do all kinds of evil. ²⁰ But that way of life is nothing like what you learned when you came to know Christ. ²¹ I know that you heard about him, and in him you were taught the truth. Yes, the truth is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to leave your old self. This means that you must stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self gets worse and worse, because people are fooled by the evil they want to do. ²³ You must be made new in your hearts and in your thinking. ²⁴ Be that new person who was made to be like God, truly good and pleasing to him.

²⁵ So you must stop telling lies. “You must always speak the truth to each other,”^[w] because we all belong to each other in the same body. ²⁶ “When you are angry, don’t let that anger make you sin,”^[x] and don’t stay angry all day. ²⁷ Don’t give the devil a way to defeat you. ²⁸ Whoever has been stealing must stop it and start working. They must use their hands for doing something good. Then they will have something to share with those who are poor.

²⁹ When you talk, don’t say anything bad. But say the good things that people need—whatever will help them grow stronger. Then what you say will be a blessing to those who hear you. ³⁰ And don’t make the Holy Spirit sad. God gave you his Spirit as proof that you belong to him and that he will keep you safe until the day he makes you free. ³¹ Never be bitter, angry, or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. ³² Be kind and loving to each other. Forgive each other the same as God forgave you through Christ.

5 You are God’s dear children, so try to be like him. ² Live a life of love. Love others just as Christ loved us. He gave himself for us—a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

³ But there must be no sexual sin among you. There must not be any kind of evil or selfishly wanting more and more, because such things are not right for God’s holy people. ⁴ Also, there must be no evil talk among you. Don’t say things that are foolish or filthy. These are not for you. But you should be giving thanks to God. ⁵ You can be sure of this: No one will have a place in the kingdom of Christ and of God if that person commits sexual sins, or does evil things, or is a person who selfishly wants more and more. A greedy person like that is serving a false god.

⁶ Don’t let anyone fool you with words that are not true. God gets very angry when people who don’t obey him talk like that. ⁷ So don’t have anything to do with them. ⁸ In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. ⁹ This light produces every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. ¹⁰ Try to learn what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have no part in the things that people in darkness do, which produce nothing good. Instead, tell everyone how wrong those things are. ¹² Actually, it is shameful to even talk about the things those people do in secret. ¹³ But the light makes clear how wrong those things are. ¹⁴ Yes, everything is made clear by the light. This is why we say,

¹⁵ So be very careful how you live. Live wisely, not like fools. ¹⁶ I mean that you should use every opportunity you have for doing good, because these are evil times. ¹⁷ So don’t be foolish with your lives, but learn what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, which will ruin your life, but be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹ Encourage each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord. ²⁰ Always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wives and Husbands

²¹ Be willing to serve each other out of respect for Christ.

²² Wives, be willing to serve your husbands the same as the Lord. ²³ A husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the Savior of the church, which is his body. ²⁴ The church serves under Christ, so it is the same with you wives. You should be willing to serve your husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives the same as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. ²⁶ He died to make the church holy. He used the telling of the Good News to make the church clean by washing it with water. ²⁷ Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be holy and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other thing wrong in it.

²⁸ And husbands should love their wives like that. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself, ²⁹ because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ The Scriptures say, “That is why a man will leave his father and mother and join his wife, and the two people will become one.”^{[y] 32} That secret truth is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband.

Children and Parents

6 Children, obey your parents the way the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do. ² The command says, “You must respect your father and mother.”^[z] This is the first command that has a promise with it. ³ And this is the promise: “Then all will go well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”^[aa]

⁴ Fathers, don’t make your children angry, but raise them with the kind of teaching and training you learn from the Lord.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect. And do this with a heart that is true, just as you obey Christ. ⁶ You must do this not just to please your masters while they are watching, but all the time. Since you are really slaves of Christ, you must do with all your heart what God wants. ⁷ Do your work, and be happy to do it. Work as though it is the Lord you are serving, not just an earthly master. ⁸ Remember that the Lord will give everyone a reward for doing good. Everyone, slave or free, will get a reward for the good things they do.

⁹ Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Don’t say things to scare them. You know that the one who is your Master and their Master is in heaven, and he treats everyone the same.

Wear the Full Armor of God

¹⁰ To end my letter I tell you, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. ¹¹ Wear the full armor of God. Wear God’s armor so that you can fight against the devil’s clever tricks. ¹² Our fight is not against people on earth. We are fighting against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ That is why you need to get God’s full armor. Then on the day of evil, you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing.

¹⁴ So stand strong with the belt of truth tied around your waist, and on your chest wear the protection of right living. ¹⁵ On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. ¹⁶ And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows that come from the Evil One. ¹⁷ Accept God’s salvation as your helmet. And take the sword of the Spirit—that sword is the teaching of God. ¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers, and ask for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready. Never give up. Always pray for all of God’s people.

¹⁹ Also pray for me—that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret truth about the Good News without fear. ²⁰ I have the work of speaking for that Good News, and that is what I am doing now, here in prison. Pray that when I tell people the Good News, I will speak without fear as I should.

Final Greetings

²¹ I am sending you Tychicus, the brother we love. He is a faithful servant of the Lord’s work. He will tell you everything that is happening with me. Then you will know how I am and what I am doing. ²² That’s why I am sending him—to let you know how we are and to encourage you.

²³ I pray that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will give peace and love with faith to all the brothers and sisters there. ²⁴ God’s grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.

1 Greetings from Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ.

To all of you in Philippi who are God’s holy people in Christ Jesus, including your elders^[ab] and special servants.

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Prayer

³ I thank God every time I remember you. ⁴ And I always pray for all of you with joy. ⁵ I thank God for the help you gave me while I told people the Good News. You helped from the first day you believed until now. ⁶ I am sure that the good work God began in you will continue until he completes it on the day when Jesus Christ comes again.

⁷ I know I am right to think like this about all of you because you are so close to my heart. This is because you have all played such an important part in God’s grace to me—now, during this time that I am in prison, and whenever I am defending and proving the truth of the Good News. ⁸ God knows that I want very much to see you. I love all of you with the love of Christ Jesus.

⁹ This is my prayer for you:

that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; ¹⁰ that you will see the difference between what is important and what is not and choose what is important; that you will be pure and blameless for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that your life will be full of the many good works that are produced by Jesus Christ to bring glory and praise to God.

Paul’s Troubles Help the Lord’s Work

¹² Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that all that has happened to me has helped to spread the Good News. ¹³ All the Roman guards and all the others here know that I am in prison for serving Christ. ¹⁴ My being in prison has caused most of the believers to put their trust in the Lord and to show more courage in telling people God’s message.

¹⁵ Some people are telling the message about Christ because they are jealous and bitter. Others do it because they want to help. ¹⁶ They are doing it out of love. They know that God gave me the work of defending the Good News. ¹⁷ But those others tell about Christ because of their selfish ambition. Their reason for doing it is wrong. They only do it because they think it will make trouble for me in prison. ¹⁸ But that doesn’t matter. What is important is that they are telling people about Christ, whether they are sincere or not. So I am glad they are doing it.

I will continue to be glad, ¹⁹ because I know that your prayers and the help the Spirit of Jesus Christ gives me will cause this trouble to result in my freedom.^{[ac] 20} I am full of hope and feel sure I will not have any reason to be ashamed. I am certain I will continue to have the same boldness to speak freely that I always have. I will let God use my life to bring more honor to Christ. It doesn’t matter whether I live or die. ²¹ To me, the only important thing about living is Christ. And even death would be for my benefit.^{[ad] 22} If I continue living here on earth, I will be able to work for the Lord. But what would I choose—to live or to die? I don’t know. ²³ It would be a hard choice. Sometimes I want to leave this life and be with Christ. That would be much better for me; ²⁴ however, you people need me here alive. ²⁵ I am sure of this, so I know that I will stay here and be with you to help you grow and have joy in your faith. ²⁶ When I am there with you again, you will be bursting with pride over what Christ Jesus did to help me.

²⁷ Just be sure you live as God’s people in a way that honors the Good News of Christ. Then if I come and visit you or if I am away from you, I will hear good things about you. I will know that you stand together with the same purpose and that you work together like a team to help others believe the Good News. ²⁸ And you will not be afraid of those who are against you. All of this is proof from God that you are being saved and that your enemies will be lost. ²⁹ God has blessed you in ways that serve Christ. He allowed you to believe in Christ. But that is not all. He has also given you the honor of suffering for Christ. Both of these bring glory to Christ. ³⁰ You saw the difficulties I had to face, and you hear that I am still having troubles. Now you must face them too.

Be United and Care for Each Other

2 Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, ² then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. ³ In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too.

Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish

⁵ In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought.

Be the People God Wants You to Be

¹² My dear friends, you always obeyed what you were taught. Just as you obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important for you to obey now that I am not there. So you must continue to live in a way that gives meaning to your salvation. Do this with fear and respect for God. ¹³ Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.

¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing ¹⁵ so that you will be blameless and pure, children of God without any fault. But you are living with evil people all around you, who have lost their sense of what is right. Among those people you shine like lights in a dark world, ¹⁶ and you offer them the teaching that gives life. So I can be proud of you when Christ comes again. You will show that my work was not wasted—that I ran in the race and won.

¹⁷ Your faith makes you give your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. Maybe I will have to offer my own life with your sacrifice. But if that happens, I will be glad, and I will share my joy with all of you. ¹⁸ You also should be glad and share your joy with me.

News About Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ With the blessing of the Lord Jesus, I hope I will be able to send Timothy to you soon. I will be glad to learn how you are. ²⁰ I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares for you. ²¹ Others are interested only in their own lives. They don’t care about the work of Christ Jesus. ²² You know the kind of person Timothy is. He has served with me in telling the Good News like a son with his father. ²³ I plan to send him to you quickly, as soon as I know what will happen to me. ²⁴ I am sure the Lord will help me come to you soon.

²⁵ For now, I think I must send Epaphroditus back to you. He is my brother in God’s family, who works and serves with me in the Lord’s army. When I needed help, you sent him to me, ²⁶ but now he wants very much to see all of you again. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷ He was sick and near death. But God helped him and me too, so that I would not have even more grief. ²⁸ So I want very much to send him to you. When you see him, you can be happy. And I can stop worrying about you. ²⁹ Welcome him in the Lord with much joy. Give honor to people like Epaphroditus. ³⁰ He should be honored because he almost died for the work of Christ. He put his life in danger so that he could help me. This was help that you could not give me.

Christ Is More Important Than Anything

3 And now, my brothers and sisters, be filled with joy in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. I want to be sure that you are prepared.

² Be careful of the dogs—those men whose work does only harm. They want to cut on everyone who isn’t circumcised.^{[ae] 3} But we are the ones who have the true circumcision^[af]—we who worship God through his Spirit. We don’t trust in ourselves or anything we can do. We take pride only in Christ Jesus. ⁴ Even if I am able to trust in myself, still I don’t do it. If anyone else thinks they have a reason to trust in themselves, they should know that I have a greater reason for doing so. ⁵ I was circumcised on the eighth day after my birth. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a true Jew, and so were my parents. The law was very important to me. That is why I became a Pharisee. ⁶ I was so eager to defend my religion^[ag] that I persecuted the church. And no one could find fault with the way I obeyed the Law of Moses.

⁷ At one time all these things were important to me. But because of Christ, I decided that they are worth nothing. ⁸ Not only these things, but now I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Christ, I lost all these things, and now I know that they are all worthless trash. All I want now is Christ. ⁹ I want to belong to him. In Christ I am right with God, but my being right does not come from following the law. It comes from God through faith. God uses my faith in^[ah] Christ to make me right with him. ¹⁰ All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death. ¹¹ Then there is hope that I myself will somehow be raised from death.

Trying to Reach the Goal

¹² I don’t mean that I am exactly what God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and make it mine. That’s what Christ Jesus wants me to do. It is the reason he made me his. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me. ¹⁴ I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven.

¹⁵ All of us who have grown to be spiritually mature should think this way too. And if there is any of this that you don’t agree with, God will make it clear to you. ¹⁶ But we should continue following the truth we already have.

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example. Also, learn by watching those who are living the way we showed you. ¹⁸ There are many who live like enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you about them. And it makes me cry to tell you about them now. ¹⁹ The way they live is leading them to destruction. They have replaced God with their own desires. They do shameful things, and they are proud of what they do. They think only about earthly things. ²⁰ But the government that rules us is in heaven. We are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from there. ²¹ He will change our humble bodies and make them like his own glorious body. Christ can do this by his power, with which he is able to rule everything.

Some Things to Do

4 My dear brothers and sisters, I love you and want to see you. You bring me joy and make me proud of you. Continue following the Lord as I have told you.

² Euodia and Syntyche, you both belong to the Lord, so please agree with each other. ³ For this I make a special request to my friend who has served with me so faithfully: Help these women. They worked hard with me in telling people the Good News, together with Clement and others who worked with me. Their names are written in the book of life.^[ai]

⁴ Always be filled with joy in the Lord. I will say it again. Be filled with joy.

⁵ Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon. ⁶ Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have. ⁷ And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds.^[aj]

⁸ Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. ⁹ And do what you learned and received from me—what I told you and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.

Paul Thanks the Philippian Believers

¹⁰ I am so happy, and I thank the Lord that you have again shown your care for me. You continued to care about me, but there was no way for you to show it. ¹¹ I am telling you this, but not because I need something. I have learned to be satisfied with what I have and with whatever happens. ¹² I know how to live when I am poor and when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of how to live through any kind of situation—when I have enough to eat or when I am hungry, when I have everything I need or when I have nothing. ¹³ Christ is the one who gives me the strength I need to do whatever I must do.

¹⁴ But it was good that you helped me when I needed help. ¹⁵ You people in Philippi remember when I first told the Good News there. When I left Macedonia, you were the only church that gave me help. ¹⁶ Several times you sent me things I needed when I was in Thessalonica. ¹⁷ Really, it is not that I want to get gifts from you. But I want you to have the benefit that comes from giving. ¹⁸ I have everything I need. I have even more than I need. I have all I need because Epaphroditus brought your gift to me. Your gift is like a sweet-smelling sacrifice offered to God. God accepts that sacrifice and it pleases him. ¹⁹ My God will use his glorious riches to give you everything you need. He will do this through Christ Jesus. ²⁰ Glory to our God and Father forever and ever. Amen.

²¹ Give our greetings to God’s people there—to each one who belongs to Christ Jesus. Those in God’s family who are with me send you their greetings. ²² And greetings to you from all of God’s people here, especially those who work in the service of the emperor.

²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

1 Greetings from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Greetings also from Timothy, our brother in Christ.

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

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³ In our prayers we always thank God for you. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ We thank him because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people. ⁵ Your faith and love continue because you know what is waiting for you in heaven—the hope you have had since you first heard the true message, the Good News ⁶ that was told to you. Throughout the world, this Good News is bringing blessings and is spreading. And that’s what has been happening among you since the first time you heard it and understood the truth about God’s grace. ⁷ You heard it from Epaphras, our dear friend and co-worker. He is a faithful servant of Christ for us.^{[ak] 8} He also told us about the love you have from the Spirit.

⁹ Since the day we heard these things about you, we have continued praying for you. This is what we pray:

that God will make you completely sure of what he wants by giving you all the wisdom and spiritual understanding you need; ¹⁰ that this will help you live in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every way; that your life will produce good works of every kind and that you will grow in your knowledge of God^[al]; ¹¹ that God will strengthen you with his own great power, so that you will be patient and not give up when troubles come.

Then you will be happy ¹² and give thanks to the Father. He has made you able to have what he has promised to give all his holy people, who live in the light. ¹³ God made us free from the power of darkness. And he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. ¹⁴ The Son paid the price to make us free. In him we have forgiveness of our sins.

The Son of God Is the Same as God

²¹ At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, because the evil you did was against him. ²² But now he has made you his friends again. He did this by the death Christ suffered while he was in his body. He did it so that he could present you to himself as people who are holy, blameless, and without anything that would make you guilty before him. ²³ And that is what will happen if you continue to believe in the Good News you heard. You must remain strong and sure in your faith. You must not let anything cause you to give up the hope that became yours when you heard the Good News. That same Good News has been told to everyone on earth, and that’s the work that I, Paul, was given to do.

Paul’s Work for the Church

²⁴ I am happy in my sufferings for you. There is much that Christ must still suffer. And I gladly accept my part of those sufferings in my body for the good of his body, the church. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do. This work helps you. My work is to tell the complete message of God. ²⁶ This message is the secret truth that was hidden since the beginning of time. It was hidden from everyone for ages, but now it has been made known to God’s holy people. ²⁷ God decided to let his people know just how rich and glorious that truth is. That secret truth, which is for all people, is that Christ lives in you, his people. He is our hope for glory. ²⁸ So we continue to tell people about Christ. We use all wisdom to counsel every person and teach every person. We are trying to bring everyone before God as people who have grown to be spiritually mature in Christ. ²⁹ To do this, I work and struggle using the great strength that Christ gives me. That strength is working in my life.

2 I want you to know that I am trying very hard to help you. And I am trying to help those in Laodicea and others who have never seen me. ² I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love and to have the full confidence that comes from understanding. I want them to know completely the secret truth that God has made known. That truth is Christ himself. ³ In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are kept safe.

⁴ I tell you this so that no one can fool you by telling you ideas that seem good, but are false. ⁵ Even though I am far away, my thoughts are always with you. I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.

Continue to Follow Christ Jesus

⁶ You accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, so continue to live following him. ⁷ You must depend on Christ only, drawing life and strength from him. Just as you were taught the truth, continue to grow stronger in your understanding of it. And never stop giving thanks to God.

⁸ Be sure you are not led away by the teaching of those who have nothing worth saying and only plan to deceive you. That teaching is not from Christ. It is only human tradition and comes from the powers that influence^[ao] this world. ⁹ I say this because all of God lives in Christ fully, even in his life on earth. ¹⁰ And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority.

¹¹ In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, one that was not done by human hands. That is, you were made free from the power of your sinful self. That is the kind of circumcision Christ does. ¹² When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him because of your faith in God’s power. God’s power was shown when he raised Christ from death.

¹³ You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ Because we broke God’s laws, we owed a debt—a debt that listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. He took it away and nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ He defeated the rulers and powers of the spiritual world. With the cross he won the victory over them and led them away, as defeated and powerless prisoners for the whole world to see.

Don’t Follow Rules That People Make

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone make rules for you about eating and drinking or about Jewish customs (festivals, New Moon celebrations, or Sabbath days). ¹⁷ In the past these things were like a shadow that showed what was coming. But the new things that were coming are found in Christ. ¹⁸ Some people enjoy acting as if they are humble and love to worship angels.^[ap] They always talk about the visions they have seen. Don’t listen to them when they say you are wrong because you don’t do these things. It is so foolish for them to feel such pride, because it is all based on their own human ideas. ¹⁹ They don’t keep themselves under the control of the head. Christ is the head, and the whole body depends on him. Because of Christ all the parts of the body care for each other and help each other. So the body is made stronger and held together as God causes it to grow.

²⁰ You died with Christ and were made free from the powers that influence this world. So why do you act as if you still belong to the world? I mean, why do you follow rules like these: ²¹ “Don’t eat this,” “Don’t taste that,” “Don’t touch that”? ²² These rules are talking about earthly things that are gone after they are used. They are only human commands and teachings. ²³ These rules may seem to be wise as part of a made-up religion in which people pretend to be humble and punish their bodies. But they don’t help people stop doing the evil that the sinful self wants to do.

Your New Life

3 You were raised from death with Christ. So live for what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. ² Think only about what is up there, not what is here on earth. ³ Your old self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. ⁴ Yes, Christ is now your life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory.

⁵ So put everything evil out of your life: sexual sin, doing anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control you, and wanting things that are wrong. And don’t keep wanting more and more for yourself, which is the same as worshiping a false god. ⁶ God will show his anger against those who don’t obey him,^[aq] because they do these evil things. ⁷ You also did these things in the past, when you lived like them.

⁸ But now put these things out of your life: anger, losing your temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and saying shameful things. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other. You have taken off those old clothes—the person you once were and the bad things you did then. ¹⁰ Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him. ¹¹ In this new life it doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, circumcised or not. It doesn’t matter if you speak a different language or even if you are a Scythian.^[ar] It doesn’t matter if you are a slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he is in all of you.

Your New Life With Each Other

¹² God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So your new life should be like this: Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. ¹³ Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking. It is for peace that you were chosen to be together in one body.^[as] And always be thankful.

¹⁶ Let the teaching of Christ live inside you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ Everything you say and everything you do should be done for Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.

Your New Life at Home

¹⁸ Wives, be willing to serve your husbands. This is the right thing to do in following the Lord.

¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives, and be gentle to them.

²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything. This pleases the Lord.

²¹ Fathers, don’t upset your children. If you are too hard to please, they might want to stop trying.

²² Servants, obey your masters in everything. Obey all the time, even when they can’t see you. Don’t just pretend to work hard so that they will treat you well. No, you must serve your masters honestly because you respect the Lord. ²³ In all the work you are given, do the best you can. Work as though you are working for the Lord, not any earthly master. ²⁴ Remember that you will receive your reward from the Lord, who will give you what he promised his people. Yes, you are serving Christ. He is your real Master.^{[at] 25} Remember that anyone who does wrong will be punished for that wrong. And the Lord treats everyone the same.

4 Masters, give what is good and fair to your servants. Remember that you have a Master in heaven.

Some Things to Do

² Never stop praying. Be ready for anything by praying and being thankful. ³ Also pray for us. Pray that God will give us an opportunity to tell people his message. I am in prison for doing this. But pray that we can continue to tell people the secret truth that God has made known about Christ. ⁴ Pray that I will say what is necessary to make this truth clear to everyone.

⁵ Be wise in the way you act with those who are not believers. Use your time in the best way you can. ⁶ When you talk, you should always be kind and wise. Then you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should.

News About Those With Paul

⁷ Tychicus is my dear brother in Christ. He is a faithful helper and he serves the Lord with me. He will tell you everything that is happening with me. ⁸ That is why I am sending him. I want you to know how we are, and I am sending him to encourage you. ⁹ I am sending him with Onesimus, the faithful and dear brother from your group. They will tell you everything that has happened here.

¹⁰ Aristarchus, the one here in prison with me, sends you his greetings. Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, also sends his greetings. (I have already told you what to do about Mark. If he comes, welcome him.) ¹¹ And greetings from Jesus, the one who is also called Justus. These are the only Jewish believers who work with me for God’s kingdom. They have been a great comfort to me.

¹² Epaphras, another servant of Jesus Christ from your group, sends his greetings. He constantly struggles for you in prayer. He prays that you will grow to be spiritually mature and have everything that God wants for you. ¹³ I know that he has worked hard for you and the people in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Greetings also from Demas and our dear friend Luke, the doctor.

¹⁵ Give our greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea. Greetings also to Nympha and to the church that meets in her house. ¹⁶ After this letter is read to you, be sure it is also read to the church in Laodicea. And you read the letter that I wrote to them. ¹⁷ Tell Archippus, “Be sure to do the work the Lord gave you.”

¹⁸ Here’s my greeting in my own handwriting— Paul. Remember me in prison. God’s grace be with you.