Introduction

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 to the holy ones in Colossae, and the faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving for the Colossians

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you,
4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the holy ones,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, which you heard of previously in the word of the truth of the good news,
6 which has come to you, just as in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, even as among you from the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth,
7 just as you also learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,
8 who also made clear to us your love in the Spirit.

Prayer for Spiritual Maturity

9 Therefore we also, from the day we heard, do not cease to pray and ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10 so that you may walk worthily of the Lord, pleasing him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11 being strengthened with all power, according to the glorious might of his, for all endurance and patience with joy,
12 giving thanks to the Father who made you qualified to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light,
13 who rescued us out of the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,
14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;
16 because in him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, whether dominions, whether rulers, whether authorities, all things through him and for him have been created.
17 And he is before all things, and all things in him hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the assembly; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things he might become first.
19 Because it pleased the Father that in him should dwell all the fullness,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things,  whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The Work of Christ

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblemished and beyond reproach before him,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the good news which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I Paul became a minister.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the assembly,
25 of which I became a minister according to the dispensation of God which was given to me for you to fulfil the word of God,
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints,
27 to whom God willed 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 complete in Christ;
29 for which also I labour, striving according to his working which works in me mightily.