Study Desk

Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God.

I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly.

For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you.

And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it,

for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God.

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.

For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity

Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again.

and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles.

How we thank God for you! Because of you we have great joy as we enter God's presence.

Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.

And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.

For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

God's will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.

Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before.

But we don't need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another.