Colossians 1
1Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,
2To
the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
3We give thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
5For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel;
6Which
is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it,
and knew the grace of God in truth:
7As ye
also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;
8Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray
for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11Strengthened
with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins:
15Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature:
16For
by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18And 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.
19For
it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20And,
having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they
be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21And
you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreproveable in his sight:
23If ye continue
in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
25Whereof
I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints:
27To
whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory:
28Whom we preach, warning every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh
in me mightily
