Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will, and Timothy the brother,
to the saints in Colosse and faithful brethren in Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually praying for you,
having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which ye have unto all the saints,
on account of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
which is come unto you, even as in all the world it is producing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day that ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
even as ye learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-bondman, who is for you a faithful servant of Christ,
that has also manifested to us your love in [the] Spirit.
On this account we also, from the day that we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye might be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit, and increasing in the full knowledge of God,
in all power empowered according to the might of his glory, unto all endurance and long-suffering with joy;
giving thanks to the Father that qualified us for sharing the inheritance of the saints in light;
who delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love:
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins;
who is [the] image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;
for by him was created the universe, the things in the heavens and those on the earth, the seen and the unseen, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities. The universe has been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and the universe in him subsisteth.
And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is [the] beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might be in all things pre-eminent:
for in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell;
and by him to reconcile the universe unto him, having made peace by the blood of his cross(by him, whether the things on the earth or those in the heavens.
And you [who] once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, and unblamable, and irreproachable before him,
if indeed ye abide in the faith grounded and firm, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel (which ye heard, that was preached in the whole creation under the heaven), of which I, Paul, became servant;
who now rejoice in sufferings for you, and fill up what is wanting of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,
of which I became servant, according to the stewardship of God that was given me for you, to complete the word of God,
the mystery that was hidden from ages and from generations, but now hath been manifested to his saints;
to whom God wished to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
whom we preach, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ,
whereunto also I toil in conflict according to his working that worketh in me in power.