Colossians 1

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

² to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's holy people,

⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven, which you already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel

⁶ that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so also it has been among you from the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf

⁸ and who told us about your love in the Spirit.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives,

¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and

¹² with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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

¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

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

¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death, to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a servant.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the full word of God,

²⁶ the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to his holy people.

²⁷ To them God chose to make known the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

²⁹ To this end I labor, struggling with all the energy he so powerfully works in me.