1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will, and Timothy, our brother.
2 To God's people and faithful brethren in Christ, who are at Colossae. May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving for the Colossians
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for you every time we pray,
4 having heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and of [your] love for all of God's people,
5 because of the hope kept in heaven for you that you heard about previously in the Word of Truth--the Gospel,
6 which has come to you just like it has to all the world. It bears fruit just like it does in you also, from the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.
7 You also learned [this] from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you.
8 Who also told us about your love in the Spirit.
Prayer for the Colossians
9 Also for this reason, since we heard, we don't stop praying for you and asking that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10 so that you may walk in a worthy manner pleasing in every way for the Lord, being fruitful in every good deed, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
11 May you be made stronger with all strength according to His glorious power for patience and long suffering with joy.
12 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance for God's people in light.
13 [The Father] who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has moved us into the kingdom of His dear Son
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood--the forgiveness of sins.
Christ Is Preeminent in Creation
15 His son is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
16 For through Him all things were created that are in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominion, principalities, or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things are held together.
18 He is the head of the body--the church, He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that in everything He might have the pre-eminence.
Christ Is Preeminent in Redemption
19 For it pleased [God] that all [God's] fullness lived in Him,
20 and having made peace through the blood of His cross, to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or in heaven.
21 You at one time were alienated and enemies in your mind because of wicked deeds, yet he has now reconciled,
22 in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy, unblamable, and above reproach in His sight.
23 If you continue in the faith, fixed on the foundation, and steadfast, not drifting away from the hope of the Gospel, which you heard and was preached to all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Christ Is Preeminent in the Church
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church.
25 I became a minister [of the church] according to the stewardship from God which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages past and generations [of people], but now is revealed to His people.
27 God would make known to these what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.
28 We preach [Christ] warning every one and teaching every one in all wisdom, so that we may present every one complete in Christ Jesus.
29 That's the reason I also work hard, struggling according to the energy which he works in me mightily.