Epistle to the Colossians - The New Testament

¹ From Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy

² to God's holy people in Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³ We give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually in our prayers,

⁴ ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God's holy people

⁵ because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. News of this hope reached you not long ago through the word of truth, the gospel

⁶ that came to you in the same way as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world. It has had the same effect among you, ever since you heard about the grace of God and recognised it for what it truly is.

⁷ This you learnt from Epaphras, our very dear fellow-worker and a trustworthy deputy for us as Christ's servant,

⁸ and it was he who also told us all about your love in the Spirit.

⁹ That is why, ever since the day he told us, we have never failed to remember you in our prayers and ask that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will

¹⁰ and so be able to lead a life worthy of the Lord, a life acceptable to him in all its aspects, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in knowledge of God,

¹¹ fortified, in accordance with his glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure,

¹² giving thanks with joy to the Father who has made you able to share the lot of God's holy people and with them to inherit the light.

¹³ Because that is what he has done. It is he who has rescued us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son that he loves,

¹⁴ and in him we enjoy our freedom, the forgiveness of sin.

¹⁵ He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation,

¹⁶ for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers -- all things were created through him and for him.

¹⁷ He exists before all things and in him all things hold together,

¹⁸ and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way;

¹⁹ because God wanted all fullness to be found in him

²⁰ and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.

²¹ You were once estranged and of hostile intent through your evil behaviour;

²² now he has reconciled you, by his death and in that mortal body, to bring you before himself holy, faultless and irreproachable-

²³ as long as you persevere and stand firm on the solid base of the faith, never letting yourselves drift away from the hope promised by the gospel, which you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become the servant.

²⁴ It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church,

²⁵ of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God's message,

²⁶ the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people.

²⁷ It was God's purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory:

²⁸ this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ.

²⁹ And it is for this reason that I labour, striving with his energy which works in me mightily.