in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, in order for the light of the good-news of the glory of the Christ (who is a likeness of God) not to shine forth to them.
And may the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus (after suffering a little while) himself thoroughly prepare you. He will establish, strengthen, and provide a foundation.
And God chose the common things of the world, and the disdained things, and the things that are not, so that he might make useless the things that are,
Epaphras, the bondman of Christ from you, salutes you, always striving for you in prayers, so that ye may stand perfect and made full in all the will of God.
in which ye once walked according to the era of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.
For our pride is this (the testimony from our conscience), that we behave in the world in the simplicity and purity of God, not by fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, and especially toward you.
Which things also we speak, not in things learned from mankind, in words of wisdom, but in things learned from Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
And his lord commended the unrighteous manager because he did shrewdly. Because the sons of this age are shrewder in their own generation than the sons of the light.
Jesus said to him, If thou want to be perfect, go, sell the things being possessed by thee, and give to the poor, and thou will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.
And that which was sown in the thorns, this is he who hears the word, and the care of this age, and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Therefore having left the word of the primacy of Christ, let us be brought forward to perfection, not again laying a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,