Colossians 1

1 Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

From Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and from Timothy, our Brother.

2 To them which are at Colosse, Saintes and faithfull brethren in Christ: Grace bee with you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Iesus Christ.

To Christ’s People at Colossae — the Brothers who are faithful to him: May God, our Father, bless you and give you peace.

3 We giue thankes to God euen ye Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, alway praying for you:

Whenever we pray, we never fail to thank God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, about you,

4 Since wee heard of your faith in Christ Iesus, and of your loue toward all Saintes,

now that we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all his People,

5 For the hopes sake, which is laide vp for you in heauen, whereof yee haue heard before by the word of trueth, which is the Gospel,

on account of the hope which awaits its fulfilment in Heaven. Of this hope you heard long ago in the true Message of the Good News which reached you —

6 Which is come vnto you, eue as it is vnto al the world, and is fruitful, as it is also amog you, from ye day that ye heard and truely knew ye grace of God,

Bearing fruit and growing, as it does, through all the world, just as it did among you, from the very day that you heard of God’s loving-kindness, and understood what that loving-kindness really is.

7 As yee also learned of Epaphras our deare fellowe seruaunt, which is for you a faithfull minister of Christ:

It is just what you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who, as a minister of the Christ, faithfully represents us,

8 Who hath also declared vnto vs your loue in the Spirit.

and who told us of the love with which the Spirit has inspired you.

9 For this cause wee also, since the day wee heard of it, cease not to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be fulfilled with knowledge of his will in all wisdome, and spirituall vnderstanding,

And therefore we, from the very day that we heard this, have never ceased praying for you, or asking that you may possess that deeper knowledge of the will of God, which comes through all true spiritual wisdom and insight.

10 That ye might walke worthy of the Lord, and please him in all things, being fruitefull in all good workes, and increasing in the knowledge of God,

Then you will live lives worthy of the Master, and so please God in every way. Your lives will be fruitful in every kind of good action, and your characters will grow through a fuller knowledge of God;

11 Strengthened with all might through his glorious power, vnto all patience, and long suffering with ioyfulnesse,

you will be made strong at all points with a strength worthy of the power manifested in his Glory — strong to endure with patience, and even with gladness, whatever may befall you;

12 Giuing thankes vnto the Father, which hath made vs meete to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saintes in light,

and you will give thanks to the Father who made you fit to share the lot which awaits Christ’s People in the realms of Light.

13 Who hath deliuered vs from the power of darkenesse, and hath translated vs into the kingdome of his deare Sonne,

For God has rescued us from the tyranny of Darkness, and has removed us into the Kingdom of his Son, who is the embodiment of his love,

14 In whome we haue redemption through his blood, that is, the forgiuenesse of sinnes,

and through whom we have found deliverance in the forgiveness of our sins.

15 Who is the image of the inuisible God, the first begotten of euery creature.

For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God — First-born and Head of all creation;

16 For by him were all things created, which are in heauen, and which are in earth, thinges visible and inuisible: whether they be Thrones or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created by him, and for him,

for in him was created all that is in Heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible — Angels and Archangels and all the Powers of Heaven.

17 And hee is before all things, and in him all things consist.

All has been created through him and for him. He was before all things, and all things unite in him;

18 And hee is the head of the body of the Church: he is the beginning, and the first begotten of the dead, that in all thinges hee might haue the preeminence.

and he is the Head of the Church, which is his Body. The First-born from the dead, he is to the Church the Source of its Life, that he, in all things, may stand first.

19 For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulnesse dwell,

For it pleased the Father that in him the divine nature in all its fulness should dwell,

20 And through peace made by that blood of that his crosse, to reconcile to himselfe through him, through him, I say, all thinges, both which are in earth, and which are in heauen.

and through him to reconcile all things to himself (making peace by the shedding of Christ’s blood offered upon the cross) — whether on earth or in Heaven.

21 And you which were in times past strangers and enemies, because your mindes were set in euill workes, hath he nowe also reconciled,

And it pleased God that you, once estranged from him and hostile towards him in your thoughts, intent only on wickedness —

22 In that body of his flesh through death, to make you holy, and vnblameable and without fault in his sight,

But now he has reconciled you to himself by the sacrifice of Christ’s earthly body in death — it has pleased God that you should stand in his presence holy, pure, and blameless,

23 If ye continue, grounded and stablished in the faith, and be not moued away from the hope of the Gospel, whereof ye haue heard, and which hath bene preached to euery creature which is vnder heauen, whereof I Paul am a minister.

if only you remain true to your Faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the Good News to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

24 Now reioyce I in my suffrings for you, and fulfill the rest of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake, which is the Church,

Now at last I can rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and in my own person I supplement the afflictions endured by the Christ, for the sake of his Body, the Church;

25 Whereof I am a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is giuen mee vnto you ward, to fulfill the word of God,

of which I myself became a minister in virtue of the office with which God entrusted me for your benefit, to declare the Message of God in all its fulness —

26 Which is the mysterie hid since the world began, and from all ages, but nowe is made manifest to his Saintes, (aiōn g165)

That Truth which has been hidden from former ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to God’s People, (aiōn g165)

27 To whome God woulde make knowen what is the riches of his glorious mysterie among the Gentiles, which riches is Christ in you, the hope of glory,

to whom it was his pleasure to make known the surpassing glory of that hidden Truth when proclaimed among the Gentiles — ‘Christ among you! Your Hope of glory!’

28 Whome we preache, admonishing euery man, and teaching euery man in all wisdome, that we may present euery man perfect in Christ Iesus,

This is the Christ whom we proclaim, warning every one, and instructing every one, with all the wisdom that we possess, in the hope of bringing every one into God’s presence perfected by union with Christ.

29 Whereunto I also labour and striue, according to his working which worketh in me mightily.

It is for that I toil, struggling with all the energy which he inspires and which works powerfully within me.