1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ which are at Colosse: divine power for righteousness, holiness, and redemption be to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 Since we heard of your supernatural belief and trust through Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints,
5 For the divinely inspired expectation which is reserved for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the utterance of the truth of the gospel;
6 Which has come into you, as it is in all the world and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it and knew the divine power for righteousness, holiness, and redemption of God in truth: *
7 As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful servant of Christ;
8 Who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you might be completely supplied with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That you might walk worthy of the Lord into all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, into all patience and uncomplaining patience with joyfulness;
12 Giving thanks to the Father, Who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Mature Son:
14 In whom we have release from bondage to [sin] through His Blood, even the release from bondage to, and pardon from sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him, and into Him:
17 And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
18 And He is the Head of the Body, the Church, Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead so that, in all things, He might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the Blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things into Himself. By Him, I say, whether they are things in Earth or things in Heaven.
21 And you, who were at some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22 In the Body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless in His sight: *
23 If you continue grounded and settled in the supernatural belief and trust, and don't be moved away from the divinely inspired expectation of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed to every created thing under Heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant; *
24 Who 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:
25 Whereof I am made a servant according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the utterance of God;
26 Even the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made visible to His saints:
27 To whom God intended to make the glorious riches of this mystery known in the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the divinely inspired expectation of glory.
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man totally complete and mature in Christ Jesus:
29 Whereto I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. *