Colossians 1

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

to God's holy and faithful people in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

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

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

the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven, which you've already heard about in the true message of the gospel

that's come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it's been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace for what it really is.

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who's a faithful worker for Christ on our behalf,

and who told us about the love you have in the Spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we haven't stopped praying for you. We keep asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives,

so that you'll 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,

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

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

He's rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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

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

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
and the firstborn from among the dead,
so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

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

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

Once you were separated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.

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

if you go on in your faith, settled and steady, not shifted from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel you heard and that's been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Now I'm glad in what I'm suffering for you, and I fill up in my own body what's still lacking in the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

I've become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness —

the mystery that's been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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

To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.