Absent in Body, Present in Spirit
(Revelation 3:14–22)

1For 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. 2May 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. 3For in him are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4Now I say this, so that no one may deceive you with grandiose words. 5For 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.

Alive with Christ
(Ephesians 2:1–10)

6Therefore, just as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, walk in him. 7Be 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.

8See to it that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty falsehoods, as found in the traditions of men, in accord with the influences of the world, and not in accord with Christ. 9For in him, all the fullness of the Divine Nature dwells bodily. 10And in him, you have been filled; for he is the head of all principality and power. 11In 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. 12You 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. 13And 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, 14and 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. 15And so, despoiling principalities and powers, he has led them away confidently and openly, triumphing over them in himself.

16Therefore, let no one judge you as concerns food or drink, or a particular feast day, or feast days of new moons, or of Sabbaths. 17For these are a shadow of the future, but the body is of Christ. 18Let 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, 19and 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.

20So 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? 21Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle these things, 22which all lead to destruction by their very use, in accord with the precepts and doctrines of men. 23Such 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.