Colossians

BLB^{(i) 1} Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, ² To the saints in Colossae and faithful brothers in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. ³ We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying continually for you, ⁴ having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have toward all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope being laid up for you in the heavens, which you heard of before in the word of truth, the gospel, ⁶ the one being present unto you, just as also in all the world it is bearing fruit and increasing, just as also among you from the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, ⁷ just as you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on behalf of us, ⁸ the one also having made known to us your love in the Spirit. ⁹ Because of this also, we from the day we heard, do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding ¹⁰ to walk worthily of the Lord: pleasing in all, bringing forth fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, unto all endurance and patience with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, the One having qualified you for the share of the inheritance of the saints in light, ¹³ who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. ¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, ¹⁶ because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, firstborn out from the dead, so that He might be holding preeminence in all things, ¹⁹ because all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of His cross through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens. ²¹ And you, being once alienated and hostile in mind, in the evil deeds, ²² but now He has reconciled in His body of flesh through death, to present you holy and unblemished and blameless before Him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, established and firm, and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, having been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I Paul have become a minister. ²⁴ Now I rejoice in the sufferings for you, and I am filling up in my flesh that which is lacking of the tribulations of Christ for His body, which is the church, ²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the administration of God having been given me toward you, to complete the word of God, ²⁶ the mystery having been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now having been manifested to His saints, ²⁷ to whom God has 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 preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ. ²⁹ Unto this also I toil, striving according to His energy, working in me in power.