Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy
our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we
pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of
the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid
up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of
the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the
whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does
among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of
God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved
fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for
you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in
every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being
strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for
all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in
light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might
be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to
dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether
on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in
order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before
him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not
shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been
proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul,
became a minister.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I
am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake
of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister
according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you,
to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages
and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose
to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the
glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all
wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I
toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works
within me.
