Philippians 3–4 · Colossians 1–2

1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

2Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

4though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

5circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

7However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

8Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith,

10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,

11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before,

14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

16Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.

17Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

18For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

20For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

1Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

2I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.

3Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!”

5Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

6In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

9Do the things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

10But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.

11Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.

12I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

13I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

14However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

15You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only.

16For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.

17Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account.

18But I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.

19My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

20Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

21Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.

22All the saints greet you, especially those who are of Caesar’s household.

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

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have toward all the saints,

5because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News

6which has come to you, even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth,

7even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf,

8who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

11strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,

12giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,

13who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,

14in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.

17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

18He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him,

20and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

21You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,

22yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,

23if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

25of which I was made a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you to fulfill the word of God,

26the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,

27to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

29for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

1For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

2that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,

3in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

4Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.

5For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

6As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,

7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

8Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elemental spirits of the world, and not after Christ.

9For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,

10and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.

11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

14wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

15Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,

17which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

18Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

19and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.

20If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

21“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”

22(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?

23These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body, but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.