Colossians PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother,

ABU⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, ² to the saints in Colosse, and faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴ having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; ⁶ which is come to you, as also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit and increasing also in you, since the day ye heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth; ⁷ as ye learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, ⁸ who also made known 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 ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, bringing forth fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all strength, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who made us meet for the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light; ¹³ who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; ¹⁴ in whom we have the redemption, the remission of our sins; ¹⁵ who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, ¹⁶ because in him were all things created, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created by him, and for him; ¹⁷ and he is before all things, and in him all things subsist. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that he may become in all things pre-eminent. ¹⁹ For He was pleased, that in him should all the fullness dwell; ²⁰ and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens. ²¹ And you also, being in time past alienated, and enemies in your mind in wicked works, yet now has he reconciled ²² in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and unaccused before him; ²³ if indeed ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye heard, which was preached in the whole creation which is under heaven; of which I Paul was made a minister. ²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the church; ²⁵ of which I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶ the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been manifested to his saints; ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; ²⁸ whom we announce, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; ²⁹ to which end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me with power.