1 ²⁴ It is now my happiness to suffer for you. This is my way of helping to complete, in my poor human flesh, the full tale of Christ's afflictions still to be endured, for the sake of his body which is the church. 1 ²⁵ I became its servant by virtue of the task assigned to me by God for your benefit: to deliver his message in full; 1 ²⁶ to announce the secret hidden for long ages and through many generations, but now disclosed to God's people, 1 ²⁷ to whom it was his will to make it known?to make known how rich and glorious it is among all nations. The secret is this: Christ in Or: among. you, the hope of a glory to come. 1 ²⁸ He it is whom we proclaim. We admonish everyone without distinction, we instruct everyone in all the ways of wisdom, so as to present each one of you as a mature member of Christ's body. 1 ²⁹ To this end I am toiling strenuously with all the energy and power of Christ at work in me.

2 ¹ For I want you to know how strenuous are my exertions for you and the Laodiceans and all who have never set eyes on me. 2 ² I want them to continue in good heart and in the unity of love, and to come to the full wealth of conviction which understanding brings, and grasp God's secret. 2 ³ That secret is Christ himself; in him lie hidden all God's treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 2 ⁴ I tell you this to save you from being talked Or: What I mean is this: no one must talk you ... into error by specious arguments. 2 ⁵ For though absent in body, I am with you in spirit, and rejoice to see your orderly array and the firm front which your faith in Christ presents.