Absent in Body, Present in Spirit (Revelation 3:14–22)
1 CPDV For I want you to know the kind of solicitude that I have for you, and for those who are at Laodicea, as well as for those who have not seen my face in the flesh. BSB BSB: For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face,
2 CPDV May their hearts be consoled and instructed in charity, with all the riches of a plenitude of understanding, with knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus. BSB BSB: that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
3 CPDV For in him are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. BSB BSB: in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 CPDV Now I say this, so that no one may deceive you with grandiose words. BSB BSB: I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.
5 CPDV For though I may be absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit. And I rejoice as I gaze upon your order and its foundation, which is in Christ, your faith. BSB BSB: For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.
Alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:1–10)
6 CPDV Therefore, just as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, walk in him. BSB BSB: Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,
7 CPDV Be rooted and continually built up in Christ. And be confirmed in the faith, just as you have also learned it, increasing in him with acts of thanksgiving. BSB BSB: rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
9 CPDV For in him, all the fullness of the Divine Nature dwells bodily. BSB BSB: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.
10 CPDV And in him, you have been filled; for he is the head of all principality and power. BSB BSB: And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 CPDV In him also, you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, not by the despoiling of the body of flesh, but by the circumcision of Christ. BSB BSB: In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
12 CPDV You have been buried with him in baptism. In him also, you have risen again through faith, by the work of God, who raised him up from the dead. BSB BSB: And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 CPDV And when you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he enlivened you, together with him, forgiving you of all transgressions, BSB BSB: When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
14 CPDV and wiping away the handwriting of the decree which was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken this away from your midst, affixing it to the Cross. BSB BSB: having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
17 CPDV For these are a shadow of the future, but the body is of Christ. BSB BSB: These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.
18 CPDV Let no one seduce you, preferring base things and a religion of Angels, walking according to what he has not seen, being vainly inflated by the sensations of his flesh, BSB BSB: Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.
19 CPDV and not holding up the head, with which the whole body, by its underlying joints and ligaments, is joined together and grows with an increase that is of God. BSB BSB: He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
20 CPDV So then, if you have died with Christ to the influences of this world, why do you still make decisions as if you were living in the world? BSB BSB: If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
21 CPDV Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle these things, BSB BSB: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?
22 CPDV which all lead to destruction by their very use, in accord with the precepts and doctrines of men. BSB BSB: These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
23 CPDV Such ideas have at least an intention to attain to wisdom, but through superstition and debasement, not sparing the body, and they are without any honor in satiating the flesh. BSB BSB: Such restrictions indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-prescribed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body; but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.