Colossians 1

Greeting

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the saints in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in the Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we pray for you, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard of this hope in the true message of the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world, so it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly came to know the grace of God. 7This is what you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave. He is a faithful minister of the Christ on your behalf, 8and it was he who told us of your love in the Spirit.

Growing in the knowledge of God

9For this reason, ever since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10so that you may walk worthily of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for great endurance and patience, 12and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The hymn: supreme over all creation

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have first place. 19For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21And you, who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled 22in his body of flesh through death, to present you holy, faultless, and beyond reproach before him— 23if indeed you continue in the faith, established and firm, not shifting from the hope of the gospel you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and I, Paul, became a minister of it.

Paul’s labor for the church

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my own flesh I am completing what is still lacking in the afflictions of the Christ, for the sake of his body, the church. 25I became a minister of the church according to the commission God gave me for you, to make the word of God fully known— 26the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints, 27to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations—which is the Christ in you, the hope of the glory. 28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in the Christ. 29To this end I labor, striving with all the energy that he so powerfully works in me.