Colossians 1

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

to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

for we heard of your trust in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the holy ones

because of the hope that is being stored up for you in heaven, which you have already heard about in the message of truth, that is, the good news

that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it is also doing that among you from the day you heard it and understood the grace of God for what it truly is.

You learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,

who also told us about your love in the spirit.

Because of this, from the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of his will along with all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

so that you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God;

being empowered with all power by means of his glorious might, so that you will have all endurance and patience;

giving thanks with joy to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in the kingdom of light.

He rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,

because in connection with him all things were created 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,

and he is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he would come to have first place in everything.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

And you were once alienated from God and enemies in your mind as shown by your evil works.

But now, by his body of flesh, he has reconciled you through his death to present you holy and without blemish and blameless in his presence,

if indeed you continue in the faith, established and steadfast, and not shifting away from the hope of the good news that you heard, which was preached to all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and am taking my turn to complete in my flesh what is lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ. I do this for the sake of his body, which is the church,

of which I became a minister in accordance with the administration of God that was given to me for you, in order to make fully known the word of God—

the sacred secret—that has been hidden for ages and generations, but now has been revealed to his holy ones.

God wanted to make known to them what is the riches of the glory of this sacred secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim him, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we can present everyone mature in Christ.

And I am laboring for that goal, striving in accord with his working that works powerfully in me.