Colossians Chapter 1

Intro

1 Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God’s will, and Timothy our brother. 2 To the holy and faithful brothers (and sisters) in Christ at Colossae. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, always praying for you, 4 having heard about your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love that you have for all the Holy Ones, 5 And because of the hope that is stored up for you in the heavens, which you heard about in the True Word - The Gospel, 6 which has come to you. This Gospel is bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world, just as it is among you, since they day you heard and truly understood God's grace. 7 You heard it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ, on your behalf. 8 He has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, ever since we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will (with complete wisdom and spiritual understanding,) 10 so you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord: totally delighting him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being powerfully strengthened, by his glorious might, for complete patience and joyful endurance, 12 giving thanks to the Father who has made us qualified for the holy one's share of inheritance in the light.

Hymn of Praise to Christ

13 He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ 14 in whom we have redemption - the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the unseen God, and the Firstborn of all creation. 16 All things were created by him – in the heavens and on the earth; both the seen, and the unseen. Whether thrones, or dominions, rulers or authorities, all things were created by him, and for him.  17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18 He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, and Firstborn from among the dead, so that he might hold pre-eminence in all things. 19 because in him, God was pleased in all His fullness to dwell. 20 and by him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace by the blood of his cross - both on earth and in the heavens.

21 Once you lived, alienated and mentally opposed (to God,) in your evil deeds, 22 but now he has reconciled you in his physical body - through death, to present you before Him (God), holy, spotless, and irreproachable, 23 if indeed you persist in the faith, being grounded and standing firm, not being removed from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which, I Paul, have become a minister.

Paul’s Labor

24 Now I rejoice in suffering for you, and I am filling up, in my flesh, that which is lacking of Christ's tribulations, for his body - which is the church. 25 I have become its minister, by God's commission, for your sake, to complete God's Word, - 26 the mystery hidden from ages, and generations, but now made manifest to His holy ones, 27 To whom God desired to reveal the riches of this glorious mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ you - the hope of glory 28 whom we proclaim, admonishing each person, and teaching every person in all wisdom, so that we might present each person complete in Christ. 29 Toward this I work exhaustively, striving according to his divine power working powerfully within me.