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

2 to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 We give thanks to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

5 because of the hope being laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the Truth of the gospel,

6 which has come to you, as in all the world, and is bearing fruit, as it is also among you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

7 even as you also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,

8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the full true knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing into the full true knowledge of God;

11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

13 who has delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins.

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

16 For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for 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 out from the dead, that in all things He may be preeminent.

19 For it is good that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

20 and by Him making peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in the heavens.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled

22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and without blemish, and above reproach in His sight;

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under Heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, on behalf of His body, which is the church,

25 of which I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God,

26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ Jesus.

29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.