Colossians 1

1Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the holy and faithful brothers in Messiah at Colossae: grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, when we pray for you,

4having heard of your faith in Messiah Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints,

5because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, which you heard before in the word of truth, the gospel

6which has come to you, just as also in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, just as also among you, from the day you heard and came to know the grace of God in truth.

7just as you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of the Messiah on our behalf,

8and who also made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9For this reason, we also, from the day we heard, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10so as to walk worthily of the Lord, to all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,

11being strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and patience with joy,

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for the share of the inheritance of the saints in the light,

13who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,

14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16For in him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might become preeminent in all things,

19For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,

20and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross—through him—whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind in evil deeds—

22But now he has reconciled you in his body of flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach before him,

23if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a servant.

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of the Messiah for the sake of his body, which is the church,

25of which I became a servant according to the stewardship from God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

26the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations—but now revealed to his saints,

27To them God chose to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory.

28Him we proclaim, warning every person and teaching every person with all wisdom, so that we may present every person mature in Messiah.

29For this I also labor, striving according to his working, which is working in me in power.