thoughts. For the state of which we are citizens is in the heavens and from there we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body we have in our low estate into the likeness of the body he has in glory by the power by which he can subject all things to himself.

IV

So, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, beloved. I beg Euodia and I beg Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, I ask you, true yokefellow, help them, since they struggled in spreading the good news along with me and Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Let your fairness be known to all men. The Lord is near. Do not worry, but in everything by prayer and entreaty with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

To conclude, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is dignified, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovable, whatever is highly spoken of if there is any virtue or any praise think of that. What you learned and accepted and heard and saw in me- practice that. And the God of peace will be with you.

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length your thoughtfulness for me had revived. You were thoughtful for me all along, but lacked opportunity. Not that I am speaking because of want; for I have learned how to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to live humbly and I know how to enjoy abundance. In each and every situation I have been initiated into the secret both of being well fed and of going hungry, both of having abundance and of bearing want. I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Yet you did nobly in sharing with me in my distress. You Philippians know that at the beginning of the good news, when I came away from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only, and that in

Thessalonica you sent once, yes, twice, for my need. Not that I am seeking for the gift, but I am seeking for the fruit that increases to your credit. I have enough of everything and more than enough. I am fully supplied since receiving from Epaphroditus the things from you, a fragrant odor, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. My God will supply every need of yours according to his wealth in glory in Christ Jesus.

To God our Father be glory for the ages of the ages! Amen. Greet every holy one in Christ Jesus. The brethren with me send greetings to you. All the holy send greetings to you, especially those of Cæsar's household.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits!

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS

I

PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ in Colossæ:

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father!

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in praying for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have to all the holy because of the hope laid up for us in heaven. Of this you have already heard in the true message of the good news which has come to you. Just as in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, so also it is among you since the day that you heard and learned of the grace of God in truth. So you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ in your behalf, and who has told us of your love in the Spirit.

For this reason we also, from the day we heard it, never cease praying for you and asking that you may have full knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual insight, and that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. May you bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all strength according to his glorious power, so as to have all patience and endurance. May you joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy in light. He has saved us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible, whether thrones or lordships or archangels or powers all things have been created through him and for him, and he is before all things and in him all things unite.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he may be first in all things, because it pleased God to have all his fullness dwell in him and to reconcile all things to himself through him, making peace through the blood of his cross all things, I say, whether on earth or in heaven. And you who were once alienated and enemies in your minds, living in wicked works, he has reconciled by his body of flesh through death, to present you holy and spotless and blameless before him, if you remain in the faith, firm and steadfast, never moving from the hope of the good news which you have heard and which has been proclaimed in all the creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a servant.

Now I rejoice in what I suffer for your sake, and in my turn am filling up in my flesh what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became a servant of the church according to the commission from God given to me for you, to deliver fully God's message, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made plain to his holy ones, to whom God willed to make known what is the glorious wealth of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory. And we are announcing him, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom in order that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this also I labor, wrestling with the energy of him who works powerfully within me.

II

FOR I wish you to know how I am wrestling for you and for those in Laodicea and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh, that your hearts may be encouraged and that joined together in love you may reach all the wealth of the full assurance of insight into the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ. In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden. I say this that no one may deceive you by plausible arguments. For even though I am absent in the flesh, yet in the spirit I am with you, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Since, then, you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, live in him, rooted and built up in him, growing strong in the faith as you have been taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving. Beware that no one carries you away captive by his philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary teachings of the world and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of God in bodily form, and you have been filled in him. He is the head of every archangel and authority. In him you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by hands, by laying aside your fleshly body in the circumcision of Christ. You were buried with him in baptism and raised again through faith in the inworking of God who raised him from the dead. You who were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh God has made alive with him, and has forgiven us all our sins. He erased the writing that was against us in the rules, the writing that was opposed to us. He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to his cross. He despoiled the archangels and authorities and fearlessly made an example of them when he triumphed over them on the cross.

Let no one then judge you in the matter of food or drink or in regard to a festival or new moon or Sabbath. These were a shadow of coming things, but the body is Christ's. Let no one as umpire defraud you of your prize, if he delights in excessive humility and ceremonial worship of the angels, searching into his own visions, emptily puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding to the Head, from whom the whole body, supplied and held together by joints and bands, grows as God gives it growth.

If you died with Christ to the elementary teachings of the world, why do you, as if still living in the world, have such rules as, "Do not touch," "Do not taste," "Do not handle" referring to things that perish when used? These rules follow the commandments and teachings of men. They have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed ceremonial and excessive humility and severity to the body, but have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.