< Colossians 1 >
1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God,
2 and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse: grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always in our prayers for you:
4 (having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love to all the saints: )
5 for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which ye have heard before in the word of truth, that is the gospel;
6 which is come unto you, even as in all the world, and is fruitful; as it hath been also among you, from the day in which ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth.
7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you;
8 who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this cause we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to request 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, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy;
12 giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet for a portion of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son:
14 in whom we have redemption by his blood, even the remission of sins.
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of the whole creation:
16 for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all were created by Him, and for Him.
17 He is before all, and by Him all things subsist.
18 And He is the head of the body, which is the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.
19 For it pleased the Father, that all fulness should dwell in Him;
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of his cross; by Him only, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you that were formerly alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
22 yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight:
23 if so be ye continue grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved from the gospel, which ye have heard, and which hath been preached throughout the whole creation, of which I Paul am a minister.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
25 Of which I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I might fully declare the word of God:
26 even that mystery which was hid from former ages and generations, but is now manifested to his saints: (aiōn )
27 to whom God would make known the rich glory of this mystery, among the gentiles; which is this, that Christ is in you the hope of glory:
28 whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29 in order to which I also labour, striving earnestly according to his energy which operates in me with power.
