Colossians

WPNT(i) 1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and brother Timothy, 2 to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 We always give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you 4 (having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love toward all the saints), 5 because of the hope that is being reserved for you in the heavens, of which you have already heard through the Word of the Truth 6 (the Gospel that has come to you just as also in all the world, where it is producing fruit and growing just as also among you, from the day in which you heard about and truly understood God’s grace), 7 even as you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also reported to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this very reason, since the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the real knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 in order for you to walk worthily of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, being fruitful in every good work and growing into the real knowledge of God; 11 being enabled with all capability according to the strength that resides in His glory, for all endurance and steadfastness. 12 Nor have we stopped giving thanks joyfully to the Father who has qualified us for the share in the inheritance of the saints in the Light; 13 who delivered us out of the dominion of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins. 15 He is the visible representation of the invisible God, ‘Firstborn’ over all creation, 16 because by Him all things were created —those in the heavens and those on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 Yes, He is before all, and in Him all things subsist. 18 Also, He is the Head of the body, the Church. He is Beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that He may be preeminent in everything, 19 because in Him all the Fullness was pleased to dwell 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross —through Him, whether things on the earth or things on the heavens. 21 So now He has reconciled you as well (you who once were alienated and hostile in your mind because of your wicked works), 22 by His physical body through His death, so as to present you before Him holy and blameless and above reproach — 23 if, that is, you continue in the faith established and firm, not drifting away from the hope of the Gospel, that you heard and that was proclaimed in all the creation under the heaven, of which I, Paul, became a servant. 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and supplement in my flesh the things lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the Church, 25 of which I became a servant according to the stewardship from God that was given to me towards you, to complete the Word of God, 26 the mystery that has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints; 27 to whom God resolved to make known who is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the nations, namely Christ in you, the hope of glory; 28 whom we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ. 29 It is to this end that I labor, striving according to His working that works through me with power.