The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need;

since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick:

for indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor:

because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision:

for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:

though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

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

as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, [even] that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:

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

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

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

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

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you:

only, whereunto we have attained, by that same [rule] let us walk.

Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample.

For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ:

whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and [whose] glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, [that it may be] conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.

Wherefore, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved.

I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Yea, I beseech thee also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice.

Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

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

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.

I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.

I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.

Howbeit ye did well that ye had fellowship with my affliction.

And ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye only;

for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my need.

Not that I seek for the gift; but I seek for the fruit that increaseth to your account.

But I have all things, and abound: I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things [that came] from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Now unto our God and Father [be] the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren that are with me salute you.

All the saints salute you, especially they that are of Cæsar’s household.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

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

to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ [that are] at Colossæ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

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

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

because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as [it doth] in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy;

giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;

in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:

who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him;

and he is before all things, and in him all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

For it was the good pleasure [of the Father] that in him should all the fulness dwell;

and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, [I say], whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.

And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,

yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him:

if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.

Now 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 church;

whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God,

[even] the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints,

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

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

whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, [even] Christ,

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

This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.

For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk in him,

rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:

for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,

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

in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;

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

And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, [I say], did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses;

having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;

having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day:

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

Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,

Handle not, nor taste, nor touch