Letters to the Churches

because in connection with him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through him and for him.

He existed before all things, and he holds everything together.

Also he is head of the Body, the Messianic Community — he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might hold first place in everything.

For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son

and through his Son to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through him, through having his Son shed his blood by being executed on a stake.

In other words, you, who at one time were separated from God and had a hostile attitude towards him because of your wicked deeds,

he has now reconciled in the Son’s physical body through his death; in order to present you holy and without defect or reproach before himself —

provided, of course, that you continue in your trusting, grounded and steady, and don’t let yourselves be moved away from the hope offered in the Good News you heard. This is the Good News that has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven; and I, Sha’ul, have become a servant of it.

I rejoice in my present sufferings on your behalf! Yes, I am completing in my own flesh what has been lacking of the Messiah’s afflictions, on behalf of his Body, the Messianic Community.

I became a servant of the Good News because God gave me this work to do for your benefit. The work is to make fully known the message from God,

the secret hidden for generations, for ages, but now made clear to the people he has set apart for himself.

To them God wanted to make known how great among the Gentiles is the glorious richness of this secret. And the secret is this: the Messiah is united with you people! In that rests your hope of glory!

We, for our part, proclaim him; we warn, confront and teach everyone in all wisdom; so that we may present everyone as having reached the goal, united with the Messiah.

It is for this that I toil, striving with all the energy that he stirs up in me so mightily.

For I want you to know how hard I work for you, for those in Laodicea, and for the rest of those who have not met me personally.

My purpose is that they may be encouraged, that they may be joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches derived from being assured of understanding and fully knowing God’s secret truth, which is — the Messiah!

It is in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

I say this so that no one will fool you with plausible but specious arguments.

For although I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see the disciplined and resolute firmness of your trust in the Messiah.

Therefore, just as you received the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, keep living your life united with him.

Remain deeply rooted in him; continue being built up in him and confirmed in your trust, the way you were taught, so that you overflow in thanksgiving.

Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah.

For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is.

And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority.

Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah,