Chapter One
1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus
Christ, through the Will of God, and the Grace of God and Timothy our
Brother.
2. The holy assembly of Laodicea
and all the faithful brothers in it, and the wise in the Spirit of God:
Grace be with you and the true peace from God, our Father, in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
3. We thank, extol, and praise God
at all times, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and bear much concern for
you; and we pray at all times for you to God.
4. We have come into the knowledge
through the Spirit of the Lord, and through our Brother Epaphras and through
Nymphas, that you have been backsliding in several things.
5. And that you have elected a
bishop and a clergy, and that you want to make an idol out of Christ; and
that you have selected a house, a day, and magnificent raiments.
6. Consequently, how it was the
custom to some extent among the heathens and among the Jews, when the
circumcision of the flesh was still valid before God, which He ordered under
father Abraham as a foretoken of the living circumcision of the Spirit
through Jesus Christ within you.
7. This I let you know now, so
that you learn to know what kind of a battle I have to suffer for your sake;
you have seen, and yet you have not seen, the flesh of my person,
8. And that you are being severely
admonished in your heart and that you may gather your love, wherein is
contained all the wealth of the conscientious reason in order to recognize
the great secret of God, the Father, in His Son, Jesus Christ,
9. Where within are concealed all
the treasures of wisdom and the living cognition in the Spirit.
10. I caution you for this reason:
That no one may entice you through reasonable and flowery speeches, and
through the philosophy of the heathens.
11. Even the animals call common
sense their own, just as it is with the philosophy of the heathens who offer
sacrifices to dead idols!
12. You, however, have been redeemed
through the death of the “ONE” to eternal life in God the Father. How can
you, since your heart has become the dwelling for the Holy Spirit, devote it
again to the spirit of the dead?!
13. Even though I am not with you in
the flesh, I am at all times with you in the Spirit, through the might of
Christ within me, and I see your belief and your works,
14. And I want to earnestly caution
you and show you, since so many of you, dear brothers, fell into great
foolishness; their pretexts I recognize and know, and what they wish to
accomplish.
15. But it should be, that you
follow Jesus Christ, as I handed over His Legacy to you and as you accepted
it from me; and you should also live in accordance with the Gospel, which I
preached to you faithfully,
16. In this you should grow firm
roots and be firm in your belief, as I have taught you in the Spirit of our
Lord, Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, Who rules at the right hand of
the Father of Eternity,
17. But, as you want to be and as
you wish to be now, you are adversaries of Christ and His Word!
18. What do you want? Do you want to
become again slaves and servants in bondage to the law, sin, and death, from
everything we have been delivered from through Jesus Christ?
19. Listen to me! I am telling you:
Be careful, that you will not be bewitched and robbed through your
world-wisdom, and through the loose teachings of those among you, who fear
the Romans and the blind Jews more than they do the Lord of Glory Who
delivered us, and through Whom we, heaven and earth and all things were
created!
20. When I was among you, your
world-wise asked me what the differences were between God and His Son,
Christ. That is when I took the word and said:
21. “Hear me Brothers! God is One,
and Christ is One; since there is only one God, therefore, there is only one
Christ. What differences should there be between God and Christ? — God is
Love, and Christ is the Wisdom in God, or the Light, the Truth, the Path,
and the Eternal Life!
22. “In Christ dwells personified
the whole fullness of the Deity, and we are perfect in Him; because He is
the reason and the Head of all Glory, all Might and Power, of all the
Authority of the World, and He is the Sovereign of all the Principalities on
Earth.”
23. As I, Paul, have spoken to you
about this matter in the Spirit and in Truth, how can you be deluded by the
teachings of human beings and world-statues (laws, Ed.)?!
24.
You have been circumcised (cleansed, Ed.) without a hand or a knife through the Holy Spirit, while you
casted off your sinful life, which was a mighty root in your body's flesh;
and that was a true and alive circumcision in Christ!
25. You have been buried to the
world in your sinful flesh with Christ through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, and through Christ again newly resurrected through living belief and
through the love for Him.
26. What do you want once again with
the old circumcision, which no longer should be practised; this ceremony is
now without value, because Christ was already here and has been resurrected
and we in Him. What will you do with the Sabbath, when Christ did His work
every day and still does, and through this He made every day a day of the
Lord, and He did not celebrate on the Sabbath?!
27. For I know you, that is why I
tell you: Christ as He is, wants to be poor in the world; but you want gold!
That is why you want to have a house of prayer, a feast-day, and magnificent
raiments!
28. You say that God, through
Christ, His Son, did nowhere abolish the laws of Moses, instead at the Last
Supper He confirmed them; therefore there should be a sacrifice-ceremony.
29. I, Paul, chosen by God as a true
Apostle of the Lord, filled with the Spirit of God — why is it then, that
the Spirit of God never informed me about these things, even though I was,
before my calling, a very keen temple servant much more so than you ever
were?!
30. I, however, want to tell you now
how the Spirit of God awoke me: When I was on the way to Damascus in
pursuance of a new Christian congregation, at first I looked — even in my
blindness — that the Lord in the Spirit and in truth wanted to be worshipped
and admired, however, eternal, but never in a ceremony!
31. God does not call someone into
His service after He blinded him. I, however, had to become blind before, so
that I would lose everything that is of the world, before I could become one
of His lowest servants!
32. But why was I to be blind first?
— Because my whole being was buried in the matter of the service of the
temple, and it had to be taken away from it in this manner!
33. Since the Lord called upon me in
my blindness without ceremony, how could I ever have made a ceremony out of
the Last Supper?!
34. Or, is it not so, as at all
times, how the Spirit of God teaches me?! Whosoever has the light of the
eyes looks at these ceremonies of the world, and is amused by them;
35. But for the blind person, the
whole world with its ceremonies is a matter of the past and so is the
temple-service with all its magnificent raiments!
36. Consequently, it is an eternal
truth: The Lord did not call me to establish a new ceremony; instead, he
called me for the uplifting of hearts, for which Satan forged his pitiless
chains for thousands of years;
37. And to preach to everyone the
freedom of the Spirit, the peace of the Soul, and therewith tear apart in
Christ, the Lord, the old, hard bonds of death.
38. But of what benefit would my
teachings be to me and to you; of what benefit would the Gospel of God be,
if you voluntarily enter again into the old death?!
39. I, however, ask you for the sake
of your eternal life: Desist from everything which the old imprisonment of
Babel left as a bitter inheritance to all Jews.
40. Behold: Babel, the great whore
of the world! The Lord destroyed her because she gave many nations death!
What will you gain, if it is your desire to raise out of Laodicea a new
Babel?! Therefore, desist from everything that could bring about anew the
atrocity of devastation which Daniel prophesied, when he stood in a holy
place!
41. However, Christ brought you to
life, since you were dead in your sins, and in the foreskin of your flesh;
He forgave you all the sins, which you ever committed in the temple, as you
did in your foreskin.
42. He eradicated the bloody
handwriting, which was against us all, which came into being through the
world-statutes; and our names were recorded in this handwriting in the book
of the world, in the book of justice, and in the book of death, by Him
nailing it to the cross.
43. Why do you want to tear down
again the handwriting in blood that God Himself eradicated, which was nailed
to the cross of justice, the cross of disgrace, the cross of malediction,
and the cross of death, and exchange your new names in Christ for the old
ones, which were written in blood in the book of justice?
44. Oh, you blind fools of all
folly! In Christ you became liberated, and now you want to become slaves
again and servants of sin, justice, and death! Did you not hear, that the
one who is nailed to the cross is cursed?!
45. Christ, however, took your
shame, your disgrace, your sin, your court, and your death upon Himself, and
let Himself be nailed to the cross as a damned, to obtain for all of you
freedom before God so that you can walk in honour. He took all your disgrace
and shame with Him to the cross.
46. Oh, what was it, that bewitched
you — those of you who became alive in Christ — that you now want to
surrender yourself again anew to death?!
47. With whom should I compare you,
that it should strike you as a good throw would a target? Yes, you are like
a blighted courtesan, who lives in the city, but is nevertheless the
daughter of a good family!
48. Listen to me and understand this
well. Of what benefit is it to the courtesan, that she comes from a good
family, when her flesh is more lecherous than the fat of a stuffed
scapegoat?!
49. Will she not walk to and fro in
her room because of her carnal desires, and then will lean with half her
body out of one and then another window, and she will look with her
lecherous eyes to all sides, to see if she cannot catch a glimpse of someone
who has what her lecherous and lustful flesh yearns for?
50. And when she catches sight of
him, she will show him through the loose fire of her eyes, what she yearns
for, and she will sin with him ten times more through her desire, than a
whore in her bed of shame with her paramour.
51. Oh look, you Laodiceans, there
you have a picture of yourselves! — Do you know however, what the sincere
and willing bridegroom of such a girl would do when he passes by her house,
and catches sight of her shameful lechery?
52. From that moment on, he will put
her out of his heart and immediately he will no longer look at her, even if
she should experience the greatest want!
53. That is what the Lord will do
with you, because He raised a new, living temple in your heart, while you
will be waiting for Him; but you scorn this temple, this holy chamber, and
you run, because of mere worldly lechery to the window of justice to be
wanton with the world, because of the gold, the reputation, and the lust for
power, since you lust for all those things!
54. But I say this to you: The Lord
will withdraw Himself and will let you pass over into all kinds of harlotry,
into the old justice, and into the old death, unless you turn around
immediately, and totally desist from the clergy — which you yourself elected
— from your temples, from your days of feast, and from your magnificent
raiments; all of this is an abomination before the Lord, just like a
lecherous courtesan, which is much more wicked in her heart, than ten whores
of Babel.
Chapter Two
1. Therefore, let no one influence
your conscience, not through a bishop and a priest (i.e. uncalled by God),
not through a day of feast, nor through the old Sabbath and new moon,
2. Nor through a temple, nor
through a sacrificial ceremony, nor magnificent raiments, and just as little
through food and drink!
3. Be moderate in eating and
drinking; that is good for the spirit, the soul, and the body and is
agreeable to the Lord;
4. But when someone says, teaches,
and desires: “This and that particular food should not be eaten, because
according to Moses it is unclean!”
5. Then I say in opposition to
that: Moses and the prophets are fulfilled and redeemed in Christ; the Lord
did not forbid us any food; He Himself ate and drank with sinners and
publicans.
6. And He exclaimed: “What you eat
does not defile you; but what comes out of your heart such as gossip, evil
desires, miserliness, envy, manslaughter, rage, gluttony, voracity,
fornication, adultery, and the like — that is what at all times defiles
human beings!”
7. Since we have such a Gospel
from Him, the sole Lord of all the Glory Himself, what great fools must we
be if we voluntarily let our ourselves be harnessed into the old evil yoke?!
8. Of what significance is at
present the shadow which, from Moses’ point-of-view, was a prophetic omen
pertaining to what happened in front of our eyes, for us, who have become
one body with Christ and in Christ.
9. I ask you, and even implore
you: Do not allow anyone to decide for you what your goal should be,
especially by one who on his own initiative, wanders around in all humility
and total spirituality of the angels of the heavens, but he himself has
never seen nor heard anything about it; because of this, he is conceited
about his own importance, but only in his carnal sense,
10. And he does not abide by the
head from whence comes the energy for the whole body through the members and
joints, which maintain each other, contain and grow to divine greatness,
11. But only according to his taste,
which is within itself full of dirt and filth, full of self-interest, full
of deceit and lies, full of lust for power, full of miserliness and envy!
12. This is how it is with the one
who poses as if he was called upon by the Lord and from me, and then
afterwards elected by you!
13. I point out now to all of you:
This one has the spirit of the devil in him, and walks among you like a wolf
in sheep's clothing and like a hungry, roaring lion endeavouring in a
diligent manner to devour you!
14. That is why you should drive him
away as fast as possible, and return again to Nymphas, whose house is the
true congregation of Christ!
15. All of you are dead to the world
with Christ, as far as the world and its statutes are concerned. For what
reason do you want to be caught again by the statues of the world? — You act
as if you are still living in it!
16. The house of my dear brother
Nymphas remained faithful in its freedom, as I gave it to him through Jesus
Christ, the Lord of Eternity.
17. Nymphas recognized the wolf, as
I recognized the wolf, through the Spirit of God, Who is within me and Who
prompts me at all times, moves and teaches in all the different things of
the only righteous wisdom before God, and that applies to brother Nymphas as
well.
18. That is why I admonish you with
the power of all righteous devotion in Christ, the Lord, that you go to
Nymphas and become again a congregation with his house.
19. And do not listen to those, who
say with a hypocritical, pious mien: “Do not touch that, and do not try
that, and do not hold onto that, and do this, but do not do that!” All this
consumes itself under their hands, and is nothing more than empty man-made
laws;
20. But listen to what I have to say
out of the Spirit of Christ, which is within me, so that you may become free
again, and become truthful co-heirs of Jesus Christ in God's Kingdom which
is alive within you!
21. Oh brothers, think of what
benefit will it be to those who have the appearance of wisdom, and through
themselves self-chosen, hypocritical and feigned spirituality and humility,
22. And those who say: “When you
look at a woman, you already have sinned; and if you eat unclean food
forbidden by Moses, then you are unclean for a whole day, and when you touch
a heathen and you speak more than three words to him, then you must tell the
priest of the temple, so that he cleanses you before God!”
23. In reality, they are full of
filth, miserliness, and whoredom, and carry on business in secret with all
the heathens, and do everything within their abilities that does not spoil
their secret friendship with them?!
24. I, however, say: “The body
requires what is his, just like the Spirit; he has his want and his need.
This is why you should give to him in the proper measure, whatever God has
intended for him, and he should enjoy what is available; because the
physical body requires its care, just as the Spirit requires his freedom.
Therefore, be free, and be not slaves to the fools of this world!”
25. How praise-worthy can someone be
of himself, even though he fasted with his stomach, but he filled his heart
with evil thoughts, wishes, and desires?!
26. Would it not have been much
wiser to fast in the heart, than in the stomach? How can you be such great
fools that someone can make you believe that it would be even pleasing unto
the Lord if you would eat fish marinated in oil, than to eat another meat
from a warm-blooded animal, and in fat instead of the oil?!
27. But I say to you: “Eat at all
time within reason, whatever you relish, and eat whatever is good for your
body's health, and drink wine with water, as I do, whenever it is available,
and do not let your conscience trouble you; then you act properly even in
this instance!”
28. The Lord derives no joy from
fasting of the stomach; He does, however, favour fasting of the heart. In
the heart, however, fast day and night, then you will fast in the Spirit and
in Truth!
29. But how can you fast in
accordance with the hypocritical teachings of the one who pretends to be
only with one foot on the earth, but everything else is already in heaven.
In accordance with that, all heathens fast as well; they eat on their days
of feast all kinds of delicacies, and are more lustful for those delicacies
than on the common days, when they eat their daily food.
30. Since you are now resurrected in
Christ, why do you heed what happens below on the world, and why do you seek
to satisfy the world's statutes which are the work of human beings?!
31. Seek what is above! There Christ
is sitting to the right of the Father; that would be more becoming to you
than all the totally valueless follies of the world!
32. If you have been awakened in the
Spirit and resurrected with Christ, then you are from above and not from
below; therefore, seek what is above and not what is below on the earth!
33. Because you are dead to the
world and your life is concealed with Christ in God.
34. However, if Christ, Who is now
your life, will reveal Himself, then you will be revealed with Him in Glory!
35. Put to death anew your world,
which is in many members on the earth, just as the members of your body with
which you carried on. And now you want to carry on again as you did before:
fornication, dishonesty, shameful lust, evil or carnal desires, avarice,
envy, miserliness. Within all these characteristics is contained at all
times the true idolatry of the heathens.
36. And of all things, avoid lies,
because they are the closest descendant of Satan! Undress the old human
being and dress the new one in Christ; whosoever renews, comes into the
recognition of the One, and into the harmony of the One Who created him!
Chapter Three
1. I, however, say: “Avoid lies,
which are the closest descendant of Satan,” because now to a great extent
you changed over to man's law, as I learned from Nymphas, and also through
the Spirit of Christ within me.
2. What is the temple? — Nothing
but man's law — a dead work by the hand of man; nothing but mere phantasy
that passes away as soon as you awaken from your sleep!
3. Since it is what it is, it is
therefore a lie, which you are getting into, to lie and to deceive yourself;
since you are of the opinion that therein you give God the honour, and to
God Himself you lie to, and you are of the opinion that you render Him an
important sacrifice!
4. You fools! What service do you
want to render the Almighty Who founded heaven and earth before you were
created?! What do you have now that you did not receive before; but since
you did receive it, why do you behave as if you did not receive it?!
5. Do you wish to render to the
Lord to some extent a pleasant service, that you build Him a temple by the
hand of man, and worship Him through ceremony and the burning of incense,
and through dead prayers on long or wide ribbons?!
6. Oh, look, how much you have
been bewitched by an Apostle of Satan! Was Christ not — in Whom dwells the
fullness of the Deity — in the flesh sentenced to death in the temple, and
at the time did He Himself not prophesy its total downfall!
7. How could He at this time find
pleasure in this, if He cautioned severely all of His disciples, as He did
us in the spirit, when He said: “Beware of the sourdough of the Pharisees
and high priests!” And now you want to set up the old “Court of Justice,”
which has become an abomination before God, as a dwelling for the Lord, so
that you may kill Him many times over!
8. How blind can you be and how
far must you have passed over into the world, that you did not notice such
an occurrence!
9. Is it not enough that Christ
died once for all of us, and now all of us with Him, so that we can be
resurrected with Him, while still in our flesh, to the true recognition of
His Spirit which is within us, and to the recognition of the Father, Who
loved us before the World existed?
10. How often do you want to kill
Christ? Him, the only eternal Living Being, Who once awakened all of us from
death to eternal life through His Glorious Resurrection!
11. But I, Paul, say this: “Go and
destroy the temple, erase all the designated days of feast in the calendars,
remove the false bishop and his servants from his office, just like those
from Jerusalem, who want to fatten themselves from the labour of your hands,
and they had made for themselves a big iron box to hold your saved-up gold
and silver!”
12. And burn the magnificent
raiments, which are an abomination before God. Through this, you render the
Lord a much more pleasing service, than if you would let yourself for
one-thousand years be killed (ie sacrifice, Ed.) in such a temple!
13. Should you absolutely want to
have in your midst a house pleasing unto God, build a hospital for the sick,
the paralysed, the ailing, the cripples, for the blind and the mute, and a
house for poor widows and orphans, and a house for homeless foreigners,
without exception, whosoever they might be!
14. Accommodate these human beings
joyfully and with compassion, and share all your blessings with them, like
our Lord, Jesus Christ, did on two occasions, when he fed with His abundance
of blessings thousands of hungry people; then you will do Him, the only Holy
One, a true and pleasing service for your own sanctification.
15. Because He Himself spoke about
this, when He said: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my
brethren, ye have done it unto Me!”
16. He spoke often and quite clearly
on the matter, and what He considered to be a pleasing service to Him. Then
why do you want something that is an atrocity, nauseating and disgusting,
and a pestilence to Him?!
17. A heart full of love is God, the
Lord in Christ, the only pleasing, living temple, and He loves that much
more, than a whole world full of Temples of Solomon, which are all dead.
Whereas, the heart is alive and can love God and all brothers! Therefore,
build this temple spiritually within yourself anew and at all times actively
sacrifice in this temple to the Lord!
18. Not the temple, not the
ceremony, not the priests and not the bishop, and not Paul and his
disciples; not the Jew, not the Greek, nor the circumcision of the Jews and
the foreskin, nor Solomon's temple; not even the original Greek, the
Scythian, the heathen, the freed-man, the servant; nor the Sabbath, nor the
new moon, nor the jubilee year is anything before God — only Christ alone is
the ALL-IN-ALL!
19. Be only drawn to Christ as God's
Elect, as His saints and as His loved ones, through the living belief,
through love, through heartfelt mercy for your brothers, through friendship,
friendliness, humility, gentleness, and through total patience.
20. In everything get along with one
another, and forgive each other from the heart, whatever it may be that one
has against the other; then I will forgive you and the Lord will too, as
soon as you have forgiven each other!
21. Do not sue each other at court,
as the heathens do; they have their own courts. Live in peace and tolerate
each other and settle matters in your heart. Then you will be better off
before the Lord, as if you conscientiously pay attention to all the laws of
Moses. They are very hard to remember, but even harder to keep, because the
laws of Moses are not pleasing to the Lord, but only a pure heart that truly
loves God and the brothers.
22. Above all draw from love,
because love alone is of any value before God, and it is the only fully
valid link of all completion and all perfection!
23. In love and through love reigns
the true, perfect peace of God in your hearts, and all of you alone are
called into this peace and to this peace in the One Body of Christ, the
Lord, and that is how you thank Him. That is why you thank Him for all times
and eternally in the Spirit and in Truth,
24. But not in a dead temple; before
God a temple is nothing. The Lord and Giver of Life looks only into the
heart and at the peace it contains!
25. Let the living word of Christ
dwell abundantly among you in all love and in true, perfect wisdom! Teach,
caution, and edify each other with all kinds of magnificent and spiritual
things and observations,
26. With psalms of love and other
songs of praise and spiritually delightful songs; but sing in your heart and
do not indulge in that empty bawling with your mouth. If you do so, you will
be more pleasing unto the Lord, than the conceited bawling of the pharisees,
Jews and heathens, who cause their lips a great problem because of the gold;
with all this mannerism, their hearts, however, remain colder than ice!
27. Everything you do, however, —
may it be with words or deeds — do it in the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
and through Him thank God, the Father for everything; because He is the
Mediator between God and us; in His Heart dwells the fullness of the Father!
28. Listen! You, the women
of Laodicea: That is how the Lord, our God of Eternity wants it to be — that
you be totally subservient to your men in Christ the Lord, because in the
man you have the Head of Christ.
29. You, men, however,
love your wives with the proper measure, and do not be hard against them,
but do not go too far with your love for your wives, that on account of it,
you forget the Lord, because the love of the Lord must remain unattached, as
if you would not have a wife.
30. And you, children,
obey your parents totally in everything, as long as it is not against
Christ; because that is His Will and it pleases Him.
31. You, parents, do
not make the hearts of your children bitter through harsh words and abuse,
so that they become timid towards you, thereby becoming cowards and
hypocrites; but an apparently stubborn child can be reared to be supple
through love, but a flatterer and a hypocrite is incorrigible.
32. Therefore, I say to you, the
servants of your masters: Obey them in all things, as long as
they are not against Christ, but not merely through eye-service to please
your master, but in the true simplicity of your hearts, and in the constant
fear of God.
33. Everything you carry out for
your master, carry it out as if you would serve Christ the Lord in all the
faithfulness of your heart — but not, as if you would serve a human being.
One day you will be overcome by the Lord with the reward of Glory.
34. Whosoever commits an injustice
against his master, does it likewise unto the Lord. The Lord does not
consider if someone is the master or if he is the servant; He only takes
into consideration the work and the reason for the work.
35. Whosoever commits an injustice,
one day He will give him his just reward. You may be able to deceive human
beings, but the Lord will not allow you to deceive Him; before Him your
hearts are always open.
36. But to you, employers, I say: Think about this well — that servants are also your brothers
before the Lord, therefore, grant them at all times, what is right before
God! Pay them what they are entitled to at the proper time with love in
Christ, and remember, that all of us have one Lord in heaven and this Lord
is Christ, God's Saint in eternity!
37. Do not abandon prayer, and pray
with thanksgiving without intermission, — not with the lips, but in the
Spirit and in Truth with all the simplicity of your hearts, and in the true
devotion in the love of Christ our Lord!
38. And pray at the same time for
me, so that the Lord may open the door to the living word for me at all
times, and that I may speak before you at all times and before all the
brothers in Christ about His Great Secret and that of His Kingdom: because I
am still bound to the world and I am still only a common man, one who is
only capable of prophesy, when the Lord opens the door of Grace for him.
39. Simple and wise shall be your
way of living for or against anyone — and against those, who are on the
outside, the Jews and heathens! You shall not judge anyone — may they be
Scythians, heathens, Jews, Greeks, or not Greeks, but conform wisely in
accordance with the times and circumstances.
40. Your speech should be at all
times seasoned with love, no matter who it may be, and should be full of
salt with the true wisdom from God. At all times you should take from this
wisdom, whatever you speak of to someone, so that he comes into the
knowledge how different divine wisdom is from the knowledge of the wise of
the world.
41. I, Paul, am now of the opinion
that I did not omit anything in order to show you what it is that is among
you, and that it is a poisonous weed; yes, a very harmful, poisonous tree,
whose breath suffocates everything; and now I have nothing against you any
more!
42. That, however, dear brothers,
should be at all times a true ceremony among you; that you in the Spirit and
in Truth give honour to God the Father in His Son; that at all times you
love Him above all in His Son, Who died out of love for us all on the cross
to return to us the kindred, which our fathers altogether forfeited since
the times of Adam.
43. I beg of you for God's sake, to
bring worthy fruit of a total conversion from your new heathendom into the
living church of God, which is within you, but does not dwell in the
temples, raiments, or in any kind of ceremony.
44. The love of God and the grace of
our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all the time and for eternity.
45. But how things will be with me
in Rome, our faithful brother Tychicus will let you know, which I now will
send to you and as well to the Colossians, who also have become just like
you, captivated by Satan.
46. Greetings to all my dear
brothers and Nymphas, and to the faithful congregation of his house of which
I attest to that he is righteous, as I at all times pray to God for your
sake.
47. Extend also my greetings to the
Colossians when you visit them, because there are some among them that you
know; those who are at all times just, and faithful in the belief and in the
love of God.
48. After the Colossians have read
their letter, then you should read it as well and I am asking you for God's
sake, that you should let the Colossians read this, your letter, as well!
49. Because this letter is as
important to them, as it is to you. After all of this has been said, I
admonish you in writing — as Tychicus will inform you of everything verbally
— that this letter should be read in all congregations, just as the one
addressed to the Colossians.
50. My Greetings written by my own
hand: Think of my love! — the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you!
Written from Rome by Tychicus and his
companion Onesimus, both have been sent to you and also to the Colossians.
