Chapter Two

1. Therefore, let no one influence your conscience, not through a bishop and a priest, not through a day of feast, nor through the old Sabbath and new moon,

2. Nor through a temple, nor through a sacrificial ceremony, nor magnificent garments, and just as little through food and drink!

3. Be moderate in eating and drinking; that is good for the spirit, the soul, and the body and is agreeable to the Lord;

4. But when someone says, teaches, and desires: “This and that particular food should not be eaten, because according to Moses it is unclean!”

5. Then I say in opposition to that: Moses and the prophets are fulfilled and redeemed in Christ; the Lord did not forbid us any food; He Himself ate and drank with sinners and publicans.

6. And He exclaimed: “What you eat does not defile you; but what comes out of your heart such as gossip, evil desires, miserliness, envy, manslaughter, rage, gluttony, voracity, fornication, adultery, and the like — that is what at all times defiles human beings!”

7. Since we have such a Gospel from Him, the sole Lord of all the Glory Himself, what great fools must we be if we voluntarily let our ourselves be harnessed into the old evil yoke?!

8. Of what significance is at present the shadow which, from Moses’ point-of-view, was a prophetic omen pertaining to what happened in front of our eyes, for us, who have become one body with Christ and in Christ.

9. I ask you, and even implore you: Do not allow anyone to decide for you what your goal should be, especially by one who on his own initiative, wanders around in all humility and total spirituality of the angels of the heavens, but he himself has never seen nor heard anything about it; because of this, he is conceited about his own importance, but only in his carnal sense,

10. And he does not abide by the head from whence comes the energy for the whole body through the members and joints, which maintain each other, contain and grow to divine greatness,

11. But only according to his taste, which is within itself full of dirt and filth, full of self-interest, full of deceit and lies, full of lust for power, full of miserliness and envy!

12. This is how it is with the one who poses as if he was called upon by the Lord and from me, and then afterwards elected by you!

13. I point out now to all of you: This one has the spirit of the devil in him, and walks among you like a wolf in sheep’s clothing and like a hungry, roaring lion endeavoring in a diligent manner to devour you!

14. That is why you should drive him away as fast as possible, and return again to Nymphas, whose house is the true congregation of Christ!

15. All of you are dead to the world with Christ, as far as the world and its statutes are concerned. For what reason do you want to be caught again by the statues of the world? — You act as if you are still living in it!

16. The house of my dear brother Nymphas remained faithful in its freedom, as I gave it to him through Jesus Christ, the Lord of Eternity.

17. Nymphas recognized the wolf, as I recognized the wolf, through the Spirit of God, Who is within me and Who prompts me at all times, moves and teaches in all the different things of the only righteous wisdom before God, and that applies to brother Nymphas as well.

18. That is why I admonish you with the power of all righteous devotion in Christ, the Lord, that you go to Nymphas and become again a congregation with his house.

19. And do not listen to those, who say with a hypocritical, pious mien: “Do not touch that, and do not try that, and do not hold onto that, and do this, but do not do that!” All this consumes itself under their hands, and is nothing more than empty man-made laws;

20. But listen to what I have to say out of the Spirit of Christ, which is within me, so that you may become free again, and become truthful co-heirs of Jesus Christ in God’s Kingdom which is alive within you!

21. Oh brothers, think of what benefit will it be to those who have the appearance of wisdom, and through themselves self-chosen, hypocritical and feigned spirituality and humility,

22. And those who say: “When you look at a woman, you already have sinned; and if you eat unclean food forbidden by Moses, then you are unclean for a whole day, and when you touch a heathen and you speak more than three words to him, then you must tell the priest of the temple, so that he cleanses you before God!”

23. In reality, they are full of filth, miserliness, and whoredom, and carry on business in secret with all the heathens, and do everything within their abilities that does not spoil their secret friendship with them?!

24. I, however, say: “The body requires what is his, just like the Spirit; he has his want and his need. This is why you should give to him in the proper measure, whatever God has intended for him, and he should enjoy what is available; because the physical body requires its care, just as the Spirit requires his freedom. Therefore, be free, and be not slaves to the fools of this world!”

25. How praise-worthy can someone be of himself, even though he fasted with his stomach, but he filled his heart with evil thoughts, wishes, and desires?!

26. Would it not have been much wiser to fast in the heart, than in the stomach? How can you be such great fools that someone can make you believe that it would be even pleasing unto the Lord if you would eat fish marinated in oil, than to eat another meat from a warm-blooded animal, and in fat instead of the oil?!

27. But I say to you: “Eat at all time within reason, whatever you relish, and eat whatever is good for the health of your body, and drink wine with water, as I do, whenever it is available, and do not let your conscience trouble you; then you act properly even in this instance!”

28. The Lord derives no joy from fasting of the stomach; He does, however, favor fasting of the heart. In the heart, however, fast day and night, then you will fast in the Spirit and in Truth!

29. But how can you fast in accordance with the hypocritical teachings of the one who pretends to be only with one foot on the earth, but everything else is already in heaven. In accordance with that, all heathens fast as well; they eat on their days of feast all kinds of delicacies, and are more lustful for those delicacies than on the common days, when they eat their daily food.

30. Since you are now resurrected in Christ, why do you heed what happens below on the world, and why do you seek to satisfy the world’s statutes which are the work of human beings?!

31. Seek what is above! There Christ is sitting to the right of the Father; that would be more becoming to you than all the totally valueless follies of the world!

32. If you have been awakened in the Spirit and resurrected with Christ, then you are from above and not from below; therefore, seek what is above and not what is below on the earth!

33. Because you are dead to the world and your life is concealed with Christ in God.

34. However, if Christ, Who is now your life, will reveal Himself, then you will be revealed with Him in Glory!

35. Put to death anew your world, which is in many members on the earth, just as the members of your body with which you carried on. And now you want to carry on again as you did before: fornication, dishonesty, shameful lust, evil or carnal desires, avarice, envy, miserliness. Within all these characteristics is contained at all times the true idolatry of the heathens.

36. And of all things, avoid lies, because they are the closest descendant of Satan! Undress the old human being and dress the new one in Christ; whosoever renews (themselves in this way), comes into the recognition of the One, and into the harmony of the One Who created him!

Chapter Three

1. I, however, say: “Avoid lies, which are the closest descendant of Satan,” because now to a great extent you changed over to man’s law, as I learned from Nymphas, and also through the Spirit of Christ within me.

2. What is the temple? — Nothing but man’s law — a dead work by the hand of man; nothing but mere phantasy that passes away as soon as you awaken from your (Adamic) sleep!

3. Since it is what it is, it is therefore a lie, which you are getting into, to lie and to deceive yourself; since you are of the opinion that therein you give God the honor, and to God Himself you lie to, and you are of the opinion that you render Him an important sacrifice! (In hopes that He overlooks your folly?)

4. You fools! What service do you want to render to the Almighty, Who founded heaven and earth before you were created? What do you have now that you did not receive before; but since you did receive it, why do you behave as if you did not receive it?

5. Do you wish to render to the Lord to some extent a pleasant service, that you build Him a temple by the hand of man, and worship Him through ceremony and the burning of incense, and through dead prayers on long or wide ribbons (with beads on it)?

6. Oh, look, how much you have been bewitched by an Apostle of Satan! Was Christ not (the one) in Whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead body in the flesh sentenced to death in the temple, and at that time did He Himself not prophesy the temples total downfall! (Till not one stone shall be left upon another)?

7. How then could He at this time find pleasure in that type of temple again, if He cautioned severely to all of His disciples, as He did us in the spirit, when He (spoke the parable) saying: “Beware of the sourdough of the Pharisees and high priests!” And now you want to set up the old “Court of Justice,” which had become an abomination before God, as a (suitable) dwelling for the Lord, so that you may kill Him many times over (through the continuance of the old procedures)?

8. How blind can you be and how far must you have (digressed and) passed (back) over into the world, as if to not notice such an occurrence? (You’re folling yourself!)

9. Is it not enough that Christ died once for all of us, and now all of us with Him, so that we can be resurrected with Him, while still in our flesh, to the true recognition of His Spirit which is within us, and to the recognition of the Father, Who loved us before the World existed?

10. How often do you want to kill Christ? Him, the only eternal Living Being, Who once awakened all of us from death to eternal life through His Glorious Resurrection!

11. But I, Paul, say this: “Go and destroy the temple, erase all the designated days of feast in the calendars, remove the false bishop and his servants from his office, just like those from Jerusalem, who want to fatten themselves from the labor of your hands, and they had made for themselves a big iron (safet) box to hold your saved-up gold and silver (earnings?)

12. And (also) burn the magnificent garments, which are an abomination before God. Through this, you render the Lord a much more pleasing service, than if you would let yourself for one-thousand years be sacrificed in such a (blasphemous) temple!

13. Should you absolutely want to have in your midst a house pleasing unto God, build a hospital for the sick, the paralyzed, the ailing, the cripples, for the blind and the mute, and a house for poor widows and orphans, and a house for homeless foreigners, without exception, whosoever they might be!

14. Accommodate these people joyfully and with compassion, and share all your blessings with them, like our Lord and Christ, did on two occasions, when he fed with His abundance of blessings thousands of hungry people; then you will do Him, the only Holy One, a true and pleasing service for your own sanctification.

15. Because He Himself spoke about this, when He said: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto Me!”

16. He spoke often and quite clearly on the matter, and what He considered to be a pleasing service to Him. Then why do you want something that is an atrocity, nauseating and disgusting, and a pestilence to Him?!

17. A heart full of love is God, the Lord in Christ, the only pleasing, living temple, and He loves that much more, than a whole world full of Temples of Solomon, which are all dead. Whereas, the heart is alive and can love God and all brothers! Therefore, build this temple spiritually within yourself anew and at all times actively sacrifice in this temple to God.

18. Not the (manmade) temple, not the ceremony, not the priests and not the bishop, and not Paul and his disciples; not the Jew, not the Greek, nor the circumcision of the Jews and the foreskin, nor Solomon’s temple; not even the original Greek, the Scythian, the heathen, the freed-man, the servant; nor the Sabbath, nor the new moon, nor the jubilee year is anything before God — only Christ alone is the ALL-IN-ALL!

19. Be drawn only to Christ as God’s Elect, as His saints and as His loved ones, through the living belief, through love, through heartfelt mercy for your brothers, through friendship, friendliness, humility, gentleness, and through total patience.

20. In everything get along with one another, and forgive each other from the heart, whatever it may be that one has against the other; then I will forgive you and the Lord will too, as soon as you have forgiven each other!

21. Do not sue each other at court, as the heathens do; they have their own courts. Live in peace and tolerate each other and settle matters in your heart. Then you will be better off before the Lord, as if you conscientiously pay attention to all the laws of Moses. They are very hard to remember, but even harder to keep, because the laws of Moses are not pleasing to the Lord, but only a pure heart that truly loves God and the brothers.

22. Above all draw from love, because love alone is of any value before God, and it is the only fully valid link of all completion and all perfection!

23. In love and through love reigns the true, perfect peace of God in your hearts, and all of you alone are called into this peace and to this peace in the One Body of Christ, the Lord, and that is how you thank Him. That is why you thank Him for all times and eternally in the Spirit and in Truth,

24. But not in a dead (brick) temple; before God a temple is nothing. The Lord and Giver of Life looks only into the heart and at the peace it contains!

25. Let the living word of Christ dwell abundantly among you in all love and in true, perfect wisdom! Teach, caution, and edify each other with all kinds of magnificent and spiritual things and observations,

26. With psalms of love and other songs of praise and spiritually delightful songs; but sing in your heart and do not indulge in that empty bawling with your mouth. If you do so, you will be more pleasing unto the Lord, than the conceited bawling of the Pharisees, Jews and heathens, who cause their lips a great problem because of the gold; with all this mannerism, their hearts, however, remain colder than ice!

27. Everything you do, however, — may it be with words or deeds — do it in the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and through Him thank God, the Father for everything; because He is the Mediator between God and us; in His Heart dwells the fullness of the Father!

28. Listen! You, the women of Laodicea: That is how the Lord, our God of Eternity wants it to be — that you be totally subservient to your men in Christ the Lord, because in the man you have the Head of Christ.

29. You, men, however, love your wives with the proper measure, and do not be hard against them, but do not go too far with your love for your wives, that on account of it, you forget the Lord, because the love of the Lord must remain unattached, as if you would not have a wife.

30. And you, children, obey your parents totally in everything, as long as it is not against Christ; because that is His Will and it pleases Him.

31. You, parents, do not make the hearts of your children bitter through harsh words and abuse, so that they become timid towards you, thereby becoming cowards and hypocrites; but an apparently stubborn child can be reared to be supple through love, but a flatterer and a hypocrite is incorrigible.

32. Therefore, I say to you, the servants of your masters: Obey them in all things, as long as they are not against Christ, but not merely through eye-service to please your master, but in the true simplicity of your hearts, and in the constant fear of God.

33. Everything you carry out for your master, carry it out as if you would serve Christ the Lord in all the faithfulness of your heart — but not, as if you would serve a human being. One day you will be overcome by God with the reward of Glory.

34. Whosoever commits an injustice against his master, does it likewise unto the Lord. The Lord does not consider if someone is the master or if he is the servant; He only takes into consideration the work and the reason for the work.

35. Whosoever commits an injustice, one day He will give him his just reward. You may be able to deceive human beings, but the Lord will not allow you to deceive Him; before Him your hearts are always open.

36. But to you, employers, I say: Think about this well — that servants are also your brothers before the Lord, therefore, grant them at all times, what is right before God! Pay them what they are entitled to at the proper time with love in Christ, and remember, that all of us have one Lord in heaven and this Lord is Christ, God’s Saint in eternity!

37. Do not abandon prayer, and pray with thanksgiving without intermission, — not with the lips, but in the Spirit and in Truth with all the simplicity of your hearts, and in the true devotion in the love of Christ our Lord!

38. And pray at the same time for me, so that the Lord may open the door to the living word for me at all times, and that I may speak before you at all times and before all the brothers in Christ about His Great Secret and that of His Kingdom: because I am still bound to the world and I am still only a common man, one who is only capable of prophesy, when the Lord opens the door of Grace for him.

39. Simple and wise shall be your way of living for or against anyone — and against those, who are on the outside, the Jews and heathens! You shall not judge anyone — may they be Scythians, heathens, Jews, Greeks, or not Greeks, but conform wisely in accordance with the times and circumstances.

40. Your speech should be at all times seasoned with love, no matter who it may be, and should be full of salt with the true wisdom from God. At all times you should take from this wisdom, whatever you speak of to someone, so that he comes into the knowledge how different divine wisdom is from the knowledge of the wise of the world.

41. I, Paul, am now of the opinion that I did not omit anything in order to show you what it is that is among you, and that it is a poisonous weed; yes, a very harmful, poisonous tree, whose breath suffocates everything; and now I have nothing against you any more!

42. That, however, dear brothers, should be at all times a true ceremony among you; that you in the Spirit and in Truth give honor to God the Father in His Son; that at all times you love Him above all in His Son, Who died out of love for us all on the cross to return to us the kindred, which our fathers altogether forfeited since the times of Adam.

43. I beg of you for God’s sake, to bring worthy fruit of a total conversion from your new heathendom into the living church of God, which is within you, but does not dwell in the temples, garments, or in any kind of ceremony.

44. The love of God and the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all the time and for eternity.

45. But how things will be with me in Rome, our faithful brother Tychicus will let you know, which I now will send to you and as well to the Colossians, who also have become just like you, captivated by Satan.

46. Greetings to all my dear brothers and Nymphas, and to the faithful congregation of his house of which I attest to that he is righteous, as I at all times pray to God for your sake.

47. Extend also my greetings to the Colossians when you visit them, because there are some among them that you know; those who are at all times just, and faithful in the belief and in the love of God.

48. After the Colossians have read their letter, then you should read it as well and I am asking you for God’s sake, that you should let the Colossians read this, your letter, as well!

49. Because this letter is as important to them, as it is to you. After all of this has been said, I admonish you in writing — as Tychicus will inform you of everything verbally — that this letter should be read in all congregations, just as the one addressed to the Colossians.

50. My Greetings written by my own hand: Think of my love! — the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you!

Written from Rome by Tychicus and his companion Onesimus, both have been sent to you and also to the Colossians.