Parallel Bible results for "colossians 1"

Colossians 1

Good News Translation GNT

1 From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy -

2 To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful friends in union with Christ: May God our Father give you grace and peace.

3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people.

5 When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven.

6 The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.

7 You learned of God's grace from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is Christ's faithful worker on our behalf.

8 He has told us of the love that the Spirit has given you.

9 For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives.

10 Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God.

11 May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light.

13 He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son,

14 by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.

15 Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things.

16 For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him.

17 Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.

18 He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things.

19 For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God.

20 Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.

21 At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought.

22 But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence.

23 You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant - this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.

24 And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

25 And I have been made a servant of the church by God, who gave me this task to perform for your good. It is the task of fully proclaiming his message,

26 which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people.

27 God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God.

28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God's presence as a mature individual in union with Christ.

29 To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me.

World English Bible WEB

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ [who are] at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,

5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

6 which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and increasing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

7 even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don't cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, to all patience and perseverance with joy;

13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;

14 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins;

15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and to him.

17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;

20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens.

21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,

22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him,

23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the assembly;

25 of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,

26 the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,

27 to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;

28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

29 for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.