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, there is no difference between Jew and Greek. There is no difference between slaves and free men. There is no difference between male and 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 I want to tell you this: While the one who will inherit his father’s property is still a child, he is no different from a slave. It does not matter that the child owns everything. ² While he is a child, he must obey those who are chosen to care for him. But when the child reaches the age set by his father, he is free. ³ It is the same for us. We were once like children. We were slaves to the useless rules of this world. ⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son. His Son was born of a woman and lived under the law. ⁵ God did this so that he could buy freedom for those who were under the law. His purpose was to make us his children.

⁶ And you are God’s children. That is why God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit cries out, “Father, dear Father.”^{[a] 7} So now you are not a slave; you are God’s child, and God will give you what he promised, because you are his child.

Paul’s Love for the Christians

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, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? ¹⁰ You still follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. ¹¹ I am afraid for you. I fear that my work for you has been wasted.

¹² Brothers, I was like you; so I beg you to become like me. You were very good to me before. ¹³ You remember that I came to you the first time because I was sick. That was when I preached the Good News to you. ¹⁴ Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself! ¹⁵ You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I remember that you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me if that were possible. ¹⁶ Now am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?

¹⁷ Those people^[b] are working hard to persuade you. But this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us. They want you to follow only them. ¹⁸ It is good for people to show interest in you, but only if their purpose is good. This is always true. It is true when I am with you and when I am away. ¹⁹ My little children, again I feel pain for you as a mother feels when she gives birth. I will feel this until you truly become like Christ. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now. Then maybe I could change the way I am talking to you. Now I do not know what to do about you.

The Example of Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Some of you people still want to be under the law of Moses. 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. 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 makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and men. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai.^[c] The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. ²⁵ She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and 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 which is above is like the free woman. She is our mother. ²⁷ It is written in the Scriptures:

²⁸ My brothers, you are God’s children because of his promise, as Isaac was then. ²⁹ The son who was born in the normal way treated the other son badly. It is the same today. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture 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.”^{[d] 31} So, my brothers, 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. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law. ² Listen! I am Paul. I tell you that if you go back to the law by being circumcised, then Christ is no good for you. ³ Again, I warn every man: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then you must follow all the law. ⁴ If you try to be made right with God through the law, then your life with Christ is over—you have left God’s grace. ⁵ But we hope to be made right with God through faith, and we wait for this hope anxiously with the Spirit’s help. ⁶ When we are in Christ Jesus, it is not important if we are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.

⁷ You were running a good race. You were obeying the truth. Who stopped you from following the true way? ⁸ Whatever way he used did not come from the One who chose you. ⁹ Be careful! “Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.” ¹⁰ But I trust in the Lord that you will not believe those different ideas. Someone is confusing you with such ideas. And he will be punished, whoever he is.

¹¹ My brothers, I do not teach that a man must be circumcised. If I teach circumcision, then why am I still being treated badly? If I still taught circumcision, my preaching about the cross would not be a problem. ¹² I wish the people who are bothering you would castrate^[e] themselves!

¹³ My brothers, God called you to be free. But do not use your freedom as an excuse to do the things that please your sinful self. Serve each other with love. ¹⁴ The whole law is made complete in this one command: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”^{[f] 15} If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful! You will completely destroy each other.

The Spirit and Human Nature

¹⁶ So I tell you: Live by following the Spirit. Then you will not do what your sinful selves want. ¹⁷ Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit. The Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves. The two are against each other. So you must not do just what you please. ¹⁸ But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The result of sin’s control in our lives is clear. It includes sexual immorality, impurity and wild living, ²⁰ worshiping false gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, ²¹ having envy, being drunk, having wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like this. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not be in God’s kingdom. ²² But the Spirit gives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves. 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 be proud. We must not make trouble with each other. And we must not be jealous of each other.

Help Each Other

6 Brothers, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are spiritual should go to him and help make him right again. You should do this in a gentle way. But be careful! You might be tempted to sin, too. ² Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you truly obey the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks that he is important when he is really not important, he is only fooling himself. ⁴ He should not compare himself with others. Each person should judge his own actions. Then he can be proud for what he himself has done. ⁵ Each person must be responsible for himself.

⁶ Anyone who is learning the teaching of God should share all the good things he has with his teacher.

Life Is Like Planting a Field

⁷ Do not be fooled: You cannot cheat God. A person harvests only what he plants. ⁸ If he plants to satisfy his sinful self, his sinful self will bring him eternal death. But if he plants to please the Spirit, he will receive eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹ We must not become 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 help 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 I am writing this myself. See what large letters I use. ¹² Some men are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do these things so that the Jews will accept them. They are afraid that they will be treated badly if they follow only the cross of Christ.^{[g] 13} Those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised. Then they can brag about what they forced you to do. ¹⁴ I hope I will never brag about things like that. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for bragging. Through the cross of Jesus my world was crucified and I died to the world. ¹⁵ It is not important if a man is circumcised or not circumcised. The important thing is being the new people God has made. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy to those who follow this rule—to all of God’s people.

¹⁷ So do not give me any more trouble. I have scars on my body. These show^[h] I belong to Christ Jesus.

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

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

1 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,^[i] believers in Christ Jesus.

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 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. In his love he chose us to be his holy people—people without blame before him. ⁵ And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him. ⁶ This brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One he loves. ⁷ In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death. And so we have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace. ⁸ God gave us that grace fully and freely. God, with full wisdom and understanding, ⁹ let us know his secret purpose. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ. ¹⁰ His goal was to carry out his plan when the right time came. He planned that all things in heaven and on earth would be joined together in Christ as the head.

¹¹ In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people. God had already chosen us to be his people, because that is what he wanted. And God is the One who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants. ¹² We are the first people who hoped in Christ. And we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God’s glory. ¹³ So it is with you. You heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation. When you heard it, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. ¹⁴ That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will get what God promised for his people. This will bring full freedom to the people who belong to God, to bring praise to God’s glory.

Paul’s Prayer

^15-16 That is why I always remember you in my prayers and always thank God for you. I have always done this since the time I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. ¹⁷ I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ—to the glorious Father. I pray that he will give you a spirit that will make you wise in the knowledge of God—the knowledge that he has shown you. ¹⁸ I pray that you will have greater understanding in your heart. Then you will know the hope that God has chosen to give us. I pray that 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. That power is the same as the great strength ²⁰ God used to raise Christ from death and put him at his right side in heaven. ²¹ God made Christ more important than all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings. Christ is more important than anything in this world or in the next world. ²² God put everything under his power. And God made him the head over everything for the church. ²³ The church is Christ’s body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.

From Death to Life

2 In the past your spiritual lives were dead because of your sins and the things you did wrong against God. ² Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives. You followed the ruler of the evil powers 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 them. We lived trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.

⁴ But God’s mercy is great, and he loved us very much. ⁵ We were spiritually dead because of the things we did wrong against God. But God gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace. ⁶ And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. ⁷ He did this so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace. He shows that grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believe. You did not save yourselves. It was a gift from God. ⁹ You cannot brag that you are saved by the work you have done. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would do good works. God had planned in advance those good works for us. He had planned for us to live our lives doing them.

One in Christ

¹¹ You were born non-Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.”^[j] Those who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.) ¹² Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel. And you had no part in the agreements^[k] with the promise 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 God through the blood of Christ’s death. ¹⁴ Because of Christ we now have peace. Christ made both Jews and non-Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them. But Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body. ¹⁵ The Jewish law had many commands and rules. But Christ ended that law. Christ’s purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him. By doing this Christ would make peace. ¹⁶ Through the cross Christ ended the hatred between the two groups. And after Christ made the two groups to be one body, he wanted to bring them back to God. Christ did this with his death on the cross. ¹⁷ Christ came and preached peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he preached peace to those Jews 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-Jews are not visitors or strangers. Now 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 of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone^[l] in that building. ²¹ That whole building is joined together in Christ. And Christ makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews. You are being built into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Paul’s Work for the Non-Jews

3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am a prisoner for you who are not Jews. ² Surely you know that God gave me this work to tell you about his grace. ³ God let me know his secret plan. He showed it to me. I have already written a little about this. ⁴ And if you read what I wrote, then you can see that I truly understand the secret truth about the Christ. ⁵ People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret truth to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This is that secret truth: that the non-Jews will receive what God has for his people, just as the Jews will. The non-Jews are together with the Jews as part of the same body. And they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus. The non-Jews have all of this because of the Good News.

⁷ By God’s special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. God gave me that grace through his power. ⁸ I am the least important of all God’s people. But God gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches of Christ. Those riches are too great to understand fully. ⁹ And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for God’s secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in God since the beginning of time. God is the One who created everything. ¹⁰ His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms. ¹¹ This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time. And God carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ. ¹³ So I ask you not to become discouraged because of the sufferings I am having for you. My sufferings bring honor to you.

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 in his great glory to give you the power to be strong in spirit. 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. I pray that you can understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. ¹⁹ Christ’s love is greater than any person can ever know. But I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, God 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 I am in prison because I belong to the Lord. God chose you to be his people. I tell you now to live the way God’s people should live. 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 together in this way. Let peace hold you together. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit. And God called you to have one hope. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. ⁶ There is one God and Father of everything. He rules everything. He is everywhere and in everything.

⁷ Christ gave each one of us a special gift. Each one received what Christ wanted to give him. ⁸ That is why it says in the Scriptures,

⁹ When it says, “He went up,” what does it mean? It means that he first came down to the earth. ¹⁰ So Jesus came down, and he is the same One who went up. He went up above all the heavens. Christ did that to fill everything with himself. ¹¹ And Christ gave gifts to men—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people. ¹² Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving. He gave those gifts to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge about the Son of God. We must become like a mature person—we must grow until we become like Christ and have all his perfection.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from men who are trying to fool us. Those men make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path. ¹⁵ No! We will speak the truth with love. We will grow up in every way to be like Christ, who is the head. ¹⁶ The whole body depends on Christ. And all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part of the body does its own work. And this makes the whole body grow and be strong with love.

The Way You Should Live

¹⁷ In the Lord’s name, I tell you this. I warn you: Do not continue living like those who do not believe. Their thoughts are worth nothing. ¹⁸ They do not understand. 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 they use their lives for doing evil. More and more they want to do all kinds of evil things. ²⁰ But the things you learned in Christ were not like this. ²¹ I know that you heard about him, and you are in him; so you were taught the truth. Yes, the truth is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to leave your old self—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse and worse because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do. ²³ But you were taught to be made new in your hearts. ²⁴ You were taught to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy.

²⁵ So you must stop telling lies. Tell each other the truth because we all belong to each other in the same body.^{[m] 26} When you are angry, do not sin. And do not go on being angry all day. ²⁷ Do not give the devil a way to defeat you. ²⁸ If a person is stealing, he must stop stealing and start working. He must use his hands for doing something good. Then he will have something to share with those who are poor.

²⁹ When you talk, do not say harmful things. But say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will help those who listen to you. ³⁰ And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God’s proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the time comes. ³¹ Do not be bitter or 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 just as God forgave you in Christ.

Living in the Light

5 You are God’s children whom he loves. So try to be like God. ² Live a life of love. Love other people just as Christ loved us. Christ gave himself for us—he was a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

³ But there must be no sexual immorality among you. There must not be any kind of evil or greed. Those things are not right for God’s holy people. ⁴ Also, there must be no evil talk among you. You must not speak foolishly or tell evil jokes. These things are not right 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 who engages in sexual sin, or does evil things, or is greedy. Anyone who is greedy is serving a false god.

⁶ Do not let anyone fool you by telling you things that are not true. These things will bring God’s anger on those who do not obey him. ⁷ So have no part 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 Light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. ¹⁰ Try to learn what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Do not do the things that people in darkness do. That brings nothing good. But do good things to show that the things done in darkness are wrong. ¹² It is shameful even to talk about what those people do in secret. ¹³ But the light makes all things easy to see. ¹⁴ And everything that is made easy to see can become light. This is why it is said:

¹⁵ So be very careful how you live. Do not live like those who are not wise. Live wisely. ¹⁶ I mean that you should use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times. ¹⁷ So do not be foolish with your lives. But learn what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Do not be drunk with wine. That will ruin you spiritually. But be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹ Speak to 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 obey each other. Do this because you respect Christ.

²² Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord. ²³ The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. The church is Christ’s body—Christ is the Savior of the body. ²⁴ The church is under the authority of Christ. So it is the same with you wives. You should be under the authority of your husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ died for the church ²⁶ to make it belong to God. Christ used the word 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 pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. ²⁸ And husbands should love their wives in the same way. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ No person 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 Scripture says, “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.”^{[n] 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. This is the right thing to do. ² The command says, “Honor your father and mother.”^[o] This is the first command that has a promise with it. ³ The promise is: “Then everything will be well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”^[p]

⁴ Fathers, do not make your children angry, but raise them with the training and teaching of the Lord.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect. And do that with a heart that is true, just as you obey Christ. ⁶ You must do more than obey your masters to please them only while they are watching you. You must obey them as you are obeying Christ. With all your heart you must do what God wants. ⁷ Do your work, and be happy to do it. Work as if you were serving the Lord, not as if you were serving only men. ⁸ Remember that the Lord will give a reward to everyone, slave or free, for doing good.

⁹ Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Do not say things to scare them. You know that the One who is your Master and their Master is in heaven. And that Master treats everyone alike.

Wear the Full Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, 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 evil 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 world. 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 And on your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. ¹⁶ And also use the shield of faith. With that you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One. ¹⁷ Accept God’s salvation to be 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 God’s people.

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

Final Greetings

²¹ I am sending to you Tychicus, our brother whom 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 is why I am sending him. I want you to know how we are. I am sending him to encourage you.

²³ Peace and love with faith to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ God’s grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.

Serve Others with Joy

1 From Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ.

To all of God’s holy people in Christ Jesus who live in Philippi. And to your overseers and deacons.

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 preached the Good News. You helped from the first day you believed until now. ⁶ God began doing a good work in you. And he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again. I am sure of that.

⁷ And I know that I am right to think like this about all of you. I am sure because I have you in my heart. All of you share in God’s grace with me. You share in God’s grace with me while I am in prison, while I am defending the Good News, and while I am proving the truth of the Good News. ⁸ God knows that I want to see you very much. 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 good and bad and choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.

Paul’s Troubles Help the Work

¹² Brothers, I want you to know that what has happened to me has helped to spread the Good News. ¹³ I am in prison because I am a believer in Christ. All the palace guards and everyone else knows this. ¹⁴ I am still in prison, but most of the believers feel better about it now. And so they are much braver about telling the Good News about Christ.

¹⁵ It is true that some preach about Christ because they are jealous and bitter. But others preach about Christ because they want to help. ¹⁶ They preach because they have love, and they know that God gave me the work of defending the Good News. ¹⁷ But others preach about Christ because they are selfish. Their reason for preaching is wrong. They want to make trouble for me in prison.

¹⁸ But I do not care if they make trouble for me. The important thing is that they are preaching about Christ. They should do it for the right reasons. But I am happy even if they do it for wrong reasons. And I will continue to be happy. ¹⁹ You are praying for me, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me. So I know that this trouble will bring my freedom. ²⁰ The thing I want and hope for is that I will not fail Christ in anything. I hope that I will have the courage now, as always, to show the greatness of Christ in my life here on earth. I want to do that if I die or if I live. ²¹ To me the only important thing about living is Christ. And even death would be profit for me. ²² If I continue living in the body, I will be able to work for the Lord. But what should I choose—living or dying? I do not know. ²³ It is hard to choose between the two. I want to leave this life and be with Christ. That is much better. ²⁴ But you need me here in my body. ²⁵ I know that you need me, and so I know that I will stay with you. I will help you grow and have joy in your faith. ²⁶ You will be very happy in Christ Jesus when I am with you again.

²⁷ Be sure that you live in a way that brings honor to the Good News of Christ. Then whether I come and visit you or am away from you, I will hear good things about you. I will hear that you continue strong with one purpose and that you work together as a team for the faith of the Good News. ²⁸ And you will not be afraid of those who are against you. All of these things are proof from God that you will be saved and that your enemies will be lost. ²⁹ God gave you the honor both of believing in Christ and suffering for Christ. Both these things bring glory to Christ. ³⁰ When I was with you, you saw the struggles I had. And you hear about the struggles I am having now. You yourselves are having the same kind of struggles.

2 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the Spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? ² If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. ³ When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. ⁴ Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.

Be Unselfish Like Christ

⁵ In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.

Be the People God Wants You to Be

¹² My dear friends, you have always obeyed. You obeyed God when I was with you. It is even more important that you obey now while I am not with you. Keep on working to complete your salvation, and do it with fear and trembling. ¹³ Yes, God is working in you to help you want to do what pleases him. Then he gives you the power to do it.

¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing. ¹⁵ Then you will be innocent and without anything wrong in you. You will be God’s children without fault. But you are living with crooked and mean people all around you. Among them you shine like stars in the dark world. ¹⁶ You offer to them the teaching that gives life. So when Christ comes again, I can be happy because my work was not wasted. I ran in the race and won.

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

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon. I will be happy to learn how you are. ²⁰ I have no other person like Timothy. He truly cares for you. ²¹ Other people are interested only in their own lives. They are not interested in the work of Christ Jesus. ²² You know the kind of person Timothy is. You know that he has served with me in telling the Good News, as a son serves his father. ²³ I plan to send him to you quickly when I know what will happen to me. ²⁴ I am sure that the Lord will help me to come to you soon.

²⁵ Epaphroditus is my brother in Christ. He works and serves with me in the army of Christ. When I needed help, you sent him to me. I think now that I must send him back to you ²⁶ because he wants very much to see all of you. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷ Yes, he was sick, and nearly died. But God helped him and me too, so that I would not have more sadness. 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.

The Importance of Christ

3 My brothers, be full of joy in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it will help you to be more ready. ² Be careful of those who do evil. They are like dogs. They demand to cut^[q] the body. ³ But we are the ones who are truly circumcised. We worship God through his Spirit. We are proud to be in Christ Jesus. And we do not trust in ourselves or anything we can do. ⁴ Even if I am able to trust in myself, still I do not. If anyone thinks that he has a reason to trust in himself, he should know that I have greater reason for trusting in myself. ⁵ I was circumcised eight days after my birth. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrews, and my parents were Hebrews. The law of Moses was very important to me. That is why I became a Pharisee. ⁶ I was so enthusiastic that I tried to hurt the church. 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 now I think those things are worth nothing because of Christ. ⁸ Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Christ, I have lost all those things. And now I know that all those things are worthless trash. This allows me to have Christ ⁹ and to belong to him. Now that I belong to Christ, I am right with God and this being right does not come from my following the law. It comes from God through faith. God uses my faith in Christ to make me right with him. ¹⁰ All I want is to know Christ and the power of his rising from death. I want to share in Christ’s sufferings and become like him in his death. ¹¹ If I have those things, then I have hope that I myself will be raised from death.

Continuing Toward Our Goal

¹² I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that. That is the reason Christ made me his. ¹³ Brothers, I know that I have not yet reached that goal. But there is one thing I always do: I forget the things that are past. I try as hard as I can to reach the goal that is before me. ¹⁴ I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize. That prize is mine because God called me through Christ to the life above.

¹⁵ All of us who have grown spiritually to be mature should think this way, too. And if there are things you do not agree with, God will make them clear to you. ¹⁶ But we should continue following the truth we already have.

¹⁷ Brothers, all of you should try to follow my example and to copy those who live the way we showed you. ¹⁸ Many people 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. Instead of serving God, they do whatever their bodies want. They do shameful things, and they are proud of it. They think only about earthly things. ²⁰ But our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. ²¹ He will change our humble bodies and make them like his own glorious body. Christ can do this by his power. With that power he is able to rule all things.

What the Christians Are to Do

4 My dear brothers, 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 I ask Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. ³ And because you serve faithfully with me, my friend, I ask you to help these women to do this. They served with me in telling people the Good News. They served together with Clement and others who worked with me. Their names are written in the book of life.^[r]

⁴ Be full of joy in the Lord always. I will say again, be full of joy.

⁵ Let all men see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon. ⁶ Do not worry about anything. But pray and ask God for everything you need. And when you pray, always give thanks. ⁷ And God’s peace will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace that God gives is so great that we cannot understand it.

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

Paul Thanks the Christians

¹⁰ I am very happy in the Lord that you have shown your care for me again. You continued to care about me, but there was no way for you to show it. ¹¹ I am telling you this, but it is not because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. ¹² I know how to live when I am poor. And I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens. I have learned to be happy when I have enough to eat and when I do not have enough to eat. I have learned to be happy when I have all that I need and when I do not have the things I need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ because he gives me strength.

¹⁴ But it was good that you helped me when I needed help. ¹⁵ You people in Philippi remember when I first preached 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 receive gifts from you. But I want you to have the good that comes from giving. ¹⁸ And now I have everything, and more. 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 wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need. ²⁰ Glory to our God and Father forever and ever! Amen.

²¹ Greet each of God’s people in Christ. God’s people who are with me send greetings to you. ²² All of God’s people greet you. And those believers from the palace of Caesar greet you, too.

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

Only Christ Can Save People

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

Also from Timothy, our brother.

² To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ that live in Colosse. Grace and peace from God our Father.^[s]

³ In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ We thank God because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people. ⁵ You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is saved for you in heaven. You learned about this hope when you heard the true teaching, the Good News ⁶ that was told to you. Everywhere in the world that Good News is bringing blessings and is growing. This has happened with you, too, since you heard the Good News and understood the truth about the grace of God. ⁷ You learned about God’s grace from Epaphras, whom we love. Epaphras works together with us and is a faithful servant of Christ for us.^{[t] 8} He also told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit.

⁹ Since the day we heard this about you, we have continued praying for you. We ask God that you will know fully what God wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things. ¹⁰ Then you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ Then God will strengthen you with his own great power. And you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. ¹² Then you will joyfully give thanks to the Father. He has made you^[u] able to have all that he has prepared for his 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 for our sins,^[v] and in him we have forgiveness.

The Importance of Christ

¹⁵ No one has seen God, but Jesus is exactly like him. Christ ranks higher than all the things that have been made. ¹⁶ Through his power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. ¹⁷ Christ was there before anything was made. And all things continue because of him. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body. (The body is the church.) Everything comes from him. And he is the first one who was raised from death. So in all things Jesus is most important. ¹⁹ God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ. ²⁰ And through Christ, God decided to bring all things back to himself again—things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace by using the blood of Christ’s death on the cross.

²¹ At one time you were separated from God. You were God’s enemies in your minds because the evil deeds you did were against God. ²² But now Christ has made you God’s friends again. He did this by his death while he was in the body, that he might bring you into God’s presence. He brings you before God as people who are holy, with no wrong in you, and with nothing that God can judge you guilty of. ²³ And Christ will do this if you continue to believe in the Good News you heard. You must continue strong and sure in your faith. You must not be moved away from the hope that Good News gave you. That same Good News has been told to everyone in the world. I, Paul, help in preaching that Good News.

Paul’s Work for the Church

²⁴ I am happy in my sufferings for you. There are many things that Christ must still suffer through his body, the church. I am accepting my part of these things that must be suffered. I accept these sufferings in my body. I suffer for his body, the church. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do that helps you. My work is to tell fully the teaching of God. ²⁶ This teaching is the secret truth that was hidden since the beginning of time. It was hidden from everyone, but now it is made known to God’s holy people. ²⁷ God decided to let his people know this rich and glorious truth which he has for all people. This truth is Christ himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory. ²⁸ So we continue to preach Christ to all men. We use all wisdom to warn and to teach everyone. We are trying to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature person in Christ. ²⁹ To do this, I work and struggle, using Christ’s great strength that works so powerfully in me.

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. I want them to be rich in the strong belief that comes from understanding. I mean I want you to know fully God’s secret truth. That truth is Christ himself. ³ And in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are safely kept.

⁴ I say this so that no one can fool you by arguments that seem good, but are false. ⁵ I am not there with you, but my heart is with you. I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.

Continue to Live in Christ

⁶ As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him. ⁷ Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught. And always be thankful.

⁸ Be sure that no one leads you away with false ideas and words that mean nothing. Those ideas come from men. They are the worthless ideas of this world. They are not from Christ. ⁹ All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth). ¹⁰ And in him you have a full and true life. He is ruler over all rulers and powers.

¹¹ In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision. That circumcision was not done by hands. I mean, 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 Christ because of your faith in God’s power. That 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 made you alive with Christ. And God forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ We owed a debt because we broke God’s laws. That debt listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us that debt. He took away that debt and nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ God defeated the spiritual rulers and powers. With the cross God won the victory and defeated them. He showed the world that they were powerless.

Don’t Follow People’s Rules

¹⁶ So do not let anyone make rules for you about eating and drinking or about a religious feast, a New Moon Festival, or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ In the past, these things were like a shadow of what was to come. But the new things that were coming are found in Christ. ¹⁸ Some enjoy acting as if they were humble and love to worship angels. They are always talking about the visions they have seen. Do not let them tell you that you are wrong. They are full of foolish pride because of their human way of thinking. ¹⁹ They do not keep themselves under the control of Christ, the head. The whole body depends on Christ. Because of him all the parts of the body care for each other and help each other. This strengthens the body and holds it together. And so the body grows in the way God wants.

²⁰ You died with Christ and were made free from the worthless rules of the world. So why do you act as if you still belong to this world? I mean, why do you follow rules like these: ²¹ “Don’t handle this,” “Don’t taste that,” “Don’t touch that thing”? ²² These rules are talking about earthly things that are gone as soon as they are used. They are only human commands and teachings. ²³ These rules seem to be wise. But they are only part of a human religion. They make people pretend not to be proud and make them punish their bodies. But they do not really control the evil desires of the sinful self.

Your New Life in Christ

3 You were raised from death with Christ. So aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. ² Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth. ³ Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. ⁴ Christ is your^[w] life. When he comes again, you will share in his glory.

⁵ So put all evil things out of your life. Get rid of sexual immorality and impure acts. Don’t let your feelings get out of control. Remove from your life all evil desires. Stop always wanting more and more. This really means living to serve a false god. ⁶ These things make God angry.^{[x] 7} In your evil life in the past, you also did these things.

⁸ But now put these things out of your life: anger, bad temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and using evil words when you talk. ⁹ Do not lie to each other. You have left your old sinful life and the things you did before. ¹⁰ You have begun to live the new life. In your new life you are being made new. You are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God. ¹¹ In the new life there is no difference between Greeks and Jews. There is no difference between those who are circumcised and those who are not circumcised, or people that are foreigners, or Scythians.^[y] There is no difference between slaves and free people. But Christ is in all believers. And Christ is all that is important.

¹² God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So always do these things: Show mercy to others; be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. ¹³ Do not be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, then forgive him. Forgive each other because the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ Do all these things; but most important, love each other. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking. You were all called together in one body^[z] to have peace. Always be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and strengthen each other. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ Everything you say and everything you do should all be done for Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.

Your New Life with Other People

¹⁸ Wives, be under the authority of your husbands. This is the right thing to do in the Lord.

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

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

²¹ Fathers, do not nag your children. If you are too hard to please, they may want to stop trying.

²² Slaves, obey your masters in all things. Do not obey just when they are watching you, to gain their favor. But serve them honestly, because you respect the Lord. ²³ In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were working for the Lord, not for men. ²⁴ Remember that you will receive your reward from the Lord, which he promised to his people. You are serving the Lord Christ. ²⁵ But remember that anyone who does wrong will be punished for that wrong. And the Lord treats everyone the same.

4 Masters, give the things that are good and fair to your slaves. Remember that you have a Master in heaven.

What the Christians Are to Do

² Continue praying and keep alert. And when you pray, always thank God. ³ Also pray for us. Pray that God will give us an opportunity to tell people his message. Pray that we can preach the secret truth that God has made known about Christ. I am in prison because I preach this truth. ⁴ Pray that I can speak in a way that will make it clear as I should.

⁵ Be wise in the way you act with people 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 the People with Paul

⁷ Tychicus is my dear brother in Christ. He is a faithful minister and servant with me in the Lord. He will tell you all the things that are happening to me. ⁸ That is why I am sending him. I want you to know how we are. I am sending him to encourage you. ⁹ I send him with Onesimus. Onesimus is a faithful and dear brother in Christ. He is one of your group. They will tell you all that has happened here.

¹⁰ Aristarchus greets you. He is a prisoner with me. And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, also greets you. (I have already told you what to do about Mark. If he comes, welcome him.) ¹¹ Jesus, who is called Justus, also greets you. These are the only Jewish believers who work with me for the kingdom of God. They have been a comfort to me.

¹² Epaphras also greets you. He is a servant of Jesus Christ. And he is from your group. He always prays for you. 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 Demas and our dear friend Luke, the doctor, greet you.

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

¹⁸ I, Paul, greet you and write this with my own hand. Remember me in prison. God’s grace be with you.