Colossians 1

Salutation

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

²to the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you from God our Father!

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

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

⁴since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

⁵Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel

⁶that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

⁷You learned the gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave – a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf –

⁸who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

⁹For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

¹²giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

¹³He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves,

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

The Supremacy of Christ

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

¹⁶for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

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

¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things.

¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son

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

Paul’s Goal in Ministry

²¹And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds,

²²but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

²³if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

²⁵I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God – given to me for you – in order to complete the word of God,

²⁶that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.

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

²⁸We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ.

²⁹Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.