Colossians 1:1-20

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will,  and Timothy  our brother: To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth,  the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit  and growing all over the world,  just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate  God’s grace.  , You learned this from Epaphras,  our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ  on your  behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.  For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking  that you may be filled with the knowledge  of his will  in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,  so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work  and growing in the knowledge of God,  being strengthened  with all power,  according to his glorious  might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you  to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.  He has rescued  us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom  of the Son  he loves.  In him we have redemption,  the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God,  the firstborn over all creation.  For everything was created by him,  in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things,  and by him all things  hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning,  the firstborn from the dead,  so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness  dwell in him,  and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace  through his blood,  shed on the cross.