1. Let me tell you how hard I have worked for you and for the people in Laodicea and for all others who do not know me personally.
2. I do this in order that they may be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God's secret, which is Christ himself.
3. He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.
4. I tell you, then, do not let anyone deceive you with false arguments, no matter how good they seem to be.
5. For even though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I am glad as I see the resolute firmness with which you stand together in your faith in Christ.
6. Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him.
7. Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.
8. See to it, then, that no one enslaves you by means of the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.