If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits ¹  of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world?

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

You also lived your lives ¹  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.

I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ¹  Remember my chains. ²  Grace be with you. ³ 

For though ¹  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ²  your morale ³  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ²  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.