Colossians 2:19

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood—

I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another;

but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ,

from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

He must increase, but I must decrease.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Be of the same mind one toward another. Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don’t be wise in your own conceits.

Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.

I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me.

All who believed were together, and had all things in common.

and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment,

Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently,

as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow,

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another.

how the Christ must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.”

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;

As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,

Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;

I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts,

make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.

Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

“To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things:

Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.

Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Yahweh called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit.” With the noise of a great roar he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.

Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’

But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.

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

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.

for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ,

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.

But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another,

that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News,

because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

Five curtains shall be coupled together to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another.

“You shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

All the pins of the tabernacle, and around the court, were of bronze.

“The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it.”

Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.

How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.

Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.

that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree,

Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring”, which is Christ.

He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,

May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;

We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,

If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.