1 Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother,
2 to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying at all times concerning you,
4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bearing fruit, as it does also among you, since the day you heard and came to know the grace of God in truth;
7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,
8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all endurance and longsuffering with joy;
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 transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,
14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For all the fullness was pleased to make its home in him,
20 and through him to reconcile all things to him, making peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now he has reconciled
22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and irreproachable in his sight,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister;
24 who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery that had been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now has been manifested to his saints;
27 to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
28 whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
29 to which end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.