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. 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.
Colossians 1
1
Salutation
1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colos´sae:
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, 5for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 6which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: 7#Col 4.12; Phlm 23. as ye also learned of#1.7 of or from. Ep´aphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; 8who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,#1.10 unto all pleasing or unto all that is pleasing. being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; 12giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
Reconciliation through Christ's Death
14 #
Eph 1.7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17and he is before all things, and by him all things consist: 18#Eph 1.22,23. and he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20#Eph 2.16. and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Paul's Ministry to the Church
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight: 23if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; 24who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: 25whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.