4: 12. his best wishes. He is a slave of Christ Jesus who is always very earnest in his prayers for you. He prays that you may stand firm as mature followers of the Lord, and be fully assured of everything God desires you to do. For I am a witness to the deep interest he takes in you and in those in Laodicea and in those in Hierapolis. Luke our dear doctor sends you his best wishes, and so does Demas. Give my best wishes to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nymphas and the Church which is in their house. And when this letter has been read among you, see that it is also read in the Laodicean Church; and that you also read the letter from Laodicea. Say to Archippus: "See that you discharge to the best of your ability the work which you undertook as a follower of the Lord." I, Paul, send you my best wishes in my own handwriting. Remember my imprisonment. May the divine favor be with you. And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who blessed us once for all with every spiritual blessing In heaven and in Christ, Just as he once for all chose us in him Before the creation of the world, To be devoted to himself and blameless in his sight. For, in his love, he had once for all determined That we should become his sons through Jesus Christ, In fulfilment of the kindly purpose of his will, 1:5. For the majestic character of the favor It is in him and through his death we have deliverance, That is, the putting away of our offences. This is in harmony with the wealth of the divine favor Which God heaped on us, With every kind of wisdom and prudence, When he once for all made known to us The secret truth concerning his will. And it is also in harmony with the kindly pur pose, Which God formed once for all in him, To bring everything together again in the Christ, When the times are ripe for it, Everything in heaven and everything on earth: In the Christ, I say, in whom we became God's possession, To which we had already been appointed, In the intention of him who does everything Just as the deliberate purpose of his will determines, |