1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy the brother,
2To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you,
4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints,
5because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of 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 Christ on your behalf,
8who also made clear 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 wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10so as to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God,
11being strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory, unto all endurance and patience, with joy
12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share in 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 the redemption, the forgiveness of sins;
15who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,
16because in him all things were created, in the heavens and upon 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 himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together,
18and he himself 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,
19because 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, once being alienated and enemies in mind, in your evil works,
22but now he has reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach before him,
23if indeed you continue in the faith, founded and steadfast and not shifting away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church,
25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26the mystery that has been hidden from the ages and from the generations—but now was revealed to his saints,
27to whom God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
28whom we proclaim, admonishing every person and teaching every person in all wisdom, so that we may present every person mature in Christ;
29for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works powerfully in me.
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