Colossians 1

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Also from Timothy, our brother.

2 To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that live in Colossae:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,4 because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people.5 You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven. You learned about this hope when you heard the message about the truth, the Good News6 that was told to you. Everywhere in the world that Good News is bringing blessings and is growing. This has happened with you, too, since you heard the Good News and understood the truth about the grace of God.7 You learned about God’s grace from Epaphras, whom we love. He works together with us and is a faithful servant of Christ for us. 

8 He also told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit.
9 Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we have continued praying for you, asking God that you will know fully what he wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things10 so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.11 God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient.12 And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you 13 God has freed us from the power of darkness, and he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son.14 The Son paid for our sins, 

The Importance of Christ

15 No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. He ranks higher than everything that has been made.16 Through his power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ.17 He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him.18 He is the head of the body, which is the church. Everything comes from him. He is the first one who was raised from the dead. So in all things Jesus has first place.19 God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ.

20 And through Christ, God has brought all things back to himself again—things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace through the blood of Christ’s death on the cross.
21 At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God.22 But now God has made you his friends again. He did this through Christ’s death in the body so that he might bring you into God’s presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God can judge you guilty.

23 This will happen if you continue strong and sure in your faith. You must not be moved away from the hope brought to you by the Good News that you heard. That same Good News has been told to everyone in the world, and I, Paul, help in preaching that Good News.

Paul’s Work for the Church

24 I am happy in my sufferings for you. There are things that Christ must still suffer through his body, the church. I am accepting, in my body, my part of these things that must be suffered.25 I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do that helps you, and that work is to tell fully the message of God.26 This message is the secret that was hidden from everyone since the beginning of time, but now it is made known to God’s holy people.27 God decided to let his people know this rich and glorious secret which he has for all people. This secret is Christ himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory.28 So we continue to preach Christ to each person, using all wisdom to warn and to teach everyone, in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature person in Christ.29 To do this, I work and struggle, using Christ’s great strength that works so powerfully in me.

Colossians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ that are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints,5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,6 which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;7 even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,8 who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,10 to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy;12 giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;16 for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him;17 and he is before all things, and in him all things consist.18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.19 For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell;20 and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.21 And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,22 yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him:23 if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church;25 whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God,26 even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints,27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ;29 whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.