Greeting
1 Paul,
1an apostle of Christ Jesus
2by the will of God, and Timothy
3our brother,
2
To the
4saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
5Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 6We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4
since we heard of
7your faith in Christ Jesus and of
8the love that you have for all the saints,
5
because of
9the hope
10laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in
11the word of the truth, the gospel,
6
which has come to you, as indeed
12in the whole world it is
13bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you
14heard it and understood
15the grace of God in truth,
7
just as you learned it from
16Epaphras our beloved
17fellow servant. He is
18a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8
and has made known to us your
19love in the Spirit.
9
And so,
20from the day we heard,
21we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that
22you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
23spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10
so as
24to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
25fully pleasing to him,
26bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
11
27May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for
28all endurance and patience
29with joy,
12
30giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in
31the inheritance of the saints in light.
13
He
32has delivered us from
33the domain of darkness and transferred us to
34the kingdom of
35his beloved Son,
14
36in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Preeminence of Christ
15 37He is the image of
38the invisible God,
39the firstborn of all creation.
16
For by him all things were created,
40in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
41thrones or
42dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created
43through him and for him.
17
And
44he is before all things, and in him all things
45hold together.
18
And
46he is the head of the body, the church. He is
47the beginning,
48the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19
For
49in him all the
50fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20
and
51through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,
52making peace
53by the blood of his cross.
21
54And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind,
55doing evil deeds,
22
he has now reconciled
56in his body of flesh by his death,
57in order to present you holy and blameless and
58above reproach before him,
23
59if indeed you continue in the faith,
60stable and steadfast, not shifting from
61the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed
62in all creation under heaven,
63and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Paul's Ministry to the Church
24 Now
64I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh
65I am filling up
66what is lacking in Christ's afflictions
67for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
25
68of which I became a minister according to
69the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
26
70the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
27
71To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are
72the riches of the glory of
73this mystery, which is Christ in you,
74the hope of glory.
28
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that
75we may present everyone
76mature in Christ.
29
For this
77I toil,
78struggling
79with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.