Study Desk

So I, Paul, am a prisoner because I serve Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews.

His purpose was that all the rulers and powers in the heavenly places will now know the many different ways he shows his wisdom. They will know this because of the church.

In Christ we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ.

So I ask you not to be discouraged because of what is happening to me. My sufferings are for your benefit—for your honor and glory.

I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love.

So, as a prisoner for the Lord, I beg you to live the way God's people should live, because he chose you to be his.

They have no understanding, and they know nothing because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives.

You were taught to leave your old self. This means that you must stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self gets worse and worse, because people are fooled by the evil they want to do.

So you must stop telling lies. "You must always speak the truth to each other," because we all belong to each other in the same body.

But there must be no sexual sin among you. There must not be any kind of evil or selfishly wanting more and more, because such things are not right for God's holy people.

I mean that you should use every opportunity you have for doing good, because these are evil times.

because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church

because we are parts of his body.

Children, obey your parents the way the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do.

I know I am right to think like this about all of you because you are so close to my heart. This is because you have all played such an important part in God's grace to me—now, during this time that I am in prison, and whenever I am defending and proving the truth of the Good News.

Some people are telling the message about Christ because they are jealous and bitter. Others do it because they want to help.

But those others tell about Christ because of their selfish ambition. Their reason for doing it is wrong. They only do it because they think it will make trouble for me in prison.

because I know that your prayers and the help the Spirit of Jesus Christ gives me will cause this trouble to result in my freedom.

but now he wants very much to see all of you again. He is worried because you heard that he was sick.

He should be honored because he almost died for the work of Christ. He put his life in danger so that he could help me. This was help that you could not give me.