I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account.

We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

You learned the gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave – a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf –

Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.

I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

So in all our distress and affliction, we were reassured about you, brothers and sisters, through your faith.

But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.

For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we are confident about you in the Lord that you are both doing – and will do – what we are commanding.

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is how I write in every letter.

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief,

Since I was confident that you would obey, I wrote to you, because I knew that you would do even more than what I am asking you to do.

For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end.

But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation.

“For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”

So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, bear with my message of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you briefly.

You should know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon, he will be with me when I see you.