Colossians 1

Greeting

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, ^a and Timothy ^b our brother:

²To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father. ^c

Thanksgiving

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints ⁵because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, ^d the gospel ⁶that has come to you. It is bearing fruit ^e and growing all over the world, ^f just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate ^g God’s grace. ^h,^{i 7}You learned this from Epaphras, ^j our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ ^k on your ^l behalf, ⁸and he has told us about your love in the Spirit. ^m

Prayer for Spiritual Growth

⁹For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking ⁿ that you may be filled with the knowledge ^o of his will ^p in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ^{q 10}so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work ^r and growing in the knowledge of God, ^{s 11}being strengthened ^t with all power, ^u according to his glorious ^v might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you ^w to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. ^{x 13}He has rescued ^y us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom ^z of the Son ^aa he loves. ^{ab 14}In him we have redemption, ^ac the forgiveness of sins.

The Centrality of Christ

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, ^ad

the firstborn over all creation. ^ae

¹⁶For everything was created by him, ^af

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities —

all things have been created through him and for him. ^ag

¹⁷He is before all things, ^ah

and by him all things ^ai hold together.

¹⁸He is also the head of the body, the church;

he is the beginning, ^aj

the firstborn from the dead, ^ak

so that he might come to have

first place in everything.

¹⁹For God was pleased to have

all his fullness ^al dwell in him, ^am

²⁰and through him to reconcile

everything to himself,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

by making peace ^an

through his blood, ^ao shed on the cross. ^ap,^aq

²¹Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. ²²But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, ^ar to present you holy, faultless, ^as and blameless before him ^at #— # ²³if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith ^au and are not shifted away from the hope ^av of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation ^aw under heaven, ^ax and I, Paul, ^ay have become a servant of it.

Paul’s Ministry

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings ^az for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, ^ba that is, the church. ²⁵I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ ^bb in you, the hope ^bc of glory. ²⁸We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹I labor for this, striving ^bd with his strength that works powerfully in me. ^be