Colossians 1
1
Greetings from Paul
1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.
2We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters#1:2 Greek faithful brothers. in Christ.
May God our Father give you grace and peace.
Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer
3We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
6This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
7You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.#1:7 Or he is ministering on your behalf; some manuscripts read he is ministering on our behalf. 8He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,#1:11 Or all the patience and endurance you need with joy. 12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14who purchased our freedom#1:14 Some manuscripts add with his blood. and forgave our sins.
Christ Is Supreme
15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,#1:15 Or He is the firstborn of all creation.
16for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.#1:18 Or the firstborn from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
Paul’s Work for the Church
24I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. 25God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. 26This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. 27For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
28So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect#1:28 Or mature. in their relationship to Christ. 29That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.
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Colossians 1: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Colossians 1
1
1From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy —
2To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful brothers and sisters in union with Christ:
May God our Father give you grace and peace.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
3We always give thanks to 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 your love for all God's people. 5When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. 6The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is. 7#Col 4.12; Phlm 23You learnt of God's grace from Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is Christ's faithful worker on our#1.7 our; some manuscripts have your. behalf. 8He has told us of the love that the Spirit has given you.
9For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. 10Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God. 11-12May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to#1.11–12 with patience. And with joy give thanks to; or with patience and joy. And give thanks to. the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light. 13He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, 14#Eph 1.7by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.
The Person and Work of Christ
15Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the firstborn Son, superior to all created things. 16For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. 17Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. 18#Eph 1.22–23He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the firstborn Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. 19For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. 20#Eph 2.16Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood#1.20 his Son's blood; or his Son's sacrificial death. on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.
21At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought. 22But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. 23You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant — this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.
Paul's Work as a Servant of the Church
24And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church. 25And I have been made a servant of the church by God, who gave me this task to perform for your good. It is the task of fully proclaiming his message, 26which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all the human race but has now revealed to his people. 27God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God's presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. 29To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.