Letters to the Churches

because in him were the all things created, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible, whether thrones, whether lordships, whether principalities, whether authorities; all things through him, and for him, have been created,

and himself is before all, and the all things in him have consisted.

And himself is the head of the body--the assembly--who is a beginning, a first-born out of the dead, that he might become in all things --himself--first,

because in him it did please all the fulness to tabernacle,

and through him to reconcile the all things to himself--having made peace through the blood of his cross--through him, whether the things upon the earth, whether the things in the heavens.

And you--once being alienated, and enemies in the mind, in the evil works, yet now did he reconcile,

in the body of his flesh through the death, to present you holy, and unblemished, and unblameable before himself,

if also ye remain in the faith, being founded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the good news, which ye heard, which was preached in all the creation that is under the heaven, of which I became--I Paul--a ministrant.

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,

of which I--I did become a ministrant according to the dispensation of God, that was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God,

the secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested to his saints,

to whom God did will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations--which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory,

whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,

for which also I labour, striving according to his working that is working in me in power.

For I wish you to know how great a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

that their hearts may be comforted, being united in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the full knowledge of the secret of the God and Father, and of the Christ,

in whom are all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge hid,

and this I say, that no one may beguile you in enticing words,

for if even in the flesh I am absent--yet in the spirit I am with you, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in regard to Christ;

as, then, ye did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk ye,

being rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as ye were taught--abounding in it in thanksgiving.

See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,

because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,

and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority,

in whom also ye were 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 the Christ,