¹ For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

² That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

³ In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴ And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

⁵ For though I be 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.

⁶ As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

⁷ Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

⁸ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

⁹ For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

¹⁰ And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

¹¹ In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

¹² Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

¹³ And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

¹⁴ Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

¹⁵ And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

¹⁷ Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

¹⁸ Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹ And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

²⁰ Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

²¹ (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

²² Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

²³ Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

² May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

³ Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴ We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

⁹ knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

¹⁰ For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹² Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

¹³ Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

¹⁴ For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

¹⁶ Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.

¹⁸ Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹ What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²² But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.