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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Qolasim (Colossians) 1
1
1Sha’ul, an emissary of יהושע Messiah by the desire of Elohim, and Timotiyos our brother,
2to the set-apart ones in Colosse, and true brothers in Messiah: Favour to you and peace from Elohim our Father and the Master יהושע Messiah.
3We give thanks to the Elohim and Father of our Master יהושע Messiah, praying always for you,
4having heard of your belief in Messiah יהושע and of your love for all the set-apart ones,
5because of the expectation that is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,
6which has come to you, as also in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, as also among you, since the day you heard and knew the favour of Elohim in truth,
7as you also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a true servant of Messiah on your behalf,
8who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9That is also why we, from the day we heard, have not ceased praying for you, and asking that you be filled with the knowledge of His desire in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10to walk worthily of the Master, pleasing all, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of Elohim,
11being empowered with all power, according to the might of His esteem, for all endurance and patience with joy,
12giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit to share in the inheritance of the set-apart ones in the light,
13who has delivered us from the authority of darkness#See Luke 11:35; John 8:12; John 12:46-50; Acts 26:18; Eph. 5:8 and transferred us into the reign of the Son of His love,
14in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
15who is the likeness of the invisible Elohim, the first-born of all creation.#See Heb. 1:6; Rev. 3:14
16Because in Him were created all that are in the heavens and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulerships or principalities or authorities – all have been created through Him and for Him.#See John 1:3
17And He is before all, and in Him all hold together.
18And He is the Head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that He might become the One who is first in all.
19Because in Him all the completeness was well pleased to dwell,
20and through Him to completely restore to favour all unto Himself, whether on earth or in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of His stake.
21And you, who once were estranged and enemies in the mind by wicked works, but now He has completely restored to favour
22in the body of His flesh through death, to present you set-apart, and blameless, and unreprovable before Him,
23if indeed you continue in the belief, founded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the expectation of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed to every creature under the heaven, of which I, Sha’ul, became a servant,
24who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the assembly,
25of which I became a servant according to the administration of Elohim which was given to me for you, to fill the word of Elohim,
26the secret which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His set-apart ones,
27to whom Elohim desired to make known what are the riches of the esteem of this secret among the nations: which is Messiah in you, the expectancy of esteem,
28whom we announce, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order to present every man perfect in Messiah יהושע,
29for which I also labour, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.
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