Colossians 1

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ because God wanted it, and Timothy our brother.

2To God's holy people in Colosse, our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: May God our Father give you grace and peace.

3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

4We thank him because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and about your love for all God's people.

5Your faith and love come from the hope that is kept safe for you in heaven. You already heard about this hope when you heard the true message, the good news.

6This good news came to you, and it is spreading all over the world, growing and changing lives — just as it has done in you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace as it really is.

7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. He is a faithful worker for Christ on our behalf,

8and he told us about the love the Spirit has given you.

9So, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants, and with all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives.

10Then you will live in a way that honors the Lord and pleases him in every way: doing all kinds of good, and getting to know God better and better.

11We pray that God will make you strong with his own glorious power, so that you will have great patience and not give up, and so that you will be full of joy.

12And we pray that you will thank the Father, who has made you able to share in what he has kept for his people in the kingdom of light.

13God rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

14Through the Son we are set free; our sins are forgiven.

15The Son is the image of God, whom no one can see. The Son is over all creation.

16For through the Son, God made everything: things in heaven and on earth, things you can see and things you cannot see, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. God made everything through the Son and for the Son.

17The Son was there before anything else, and the Son holds everything together.

18And the Son is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning, the first to rise from death, so that in everything he would be first.

19For God was pleased to have all of himself live in the Son.

20And through the Son, God chose to bring everything back to himself — things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace through the blood of Christ on the cross.

21At one time you were far away from God. In your minds you were his enemies because of the evil things you did.

22But now God has brought you back to himself through Christ's death, through the body of Christ. He did this to bring you into his presence holy, with no fault and nothing against you —

23if you keep going in the faith, firm and steady, and do not move away from the hope you found in the good news. This is the good news you heard, the news that has been preached to everyone under heaven. And I, Paul, have become a servant of this good news.

24Now I am glad about what I suffer for you. In my own body I am completing what is still needed of Christ's sufferings, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

25I became a servant of the church when God gave me the job of bringing his full message to you.

26This message is the secret that was hidden for ages and generations, but now is made known to God's people.

27God wanted them to know how rich and glorious this secret is for all peoples. And the secret is this: Christ lives in you. He is your hope of glory.

28So we tell everyone about Christ. We warn each person and teach each person with all wisdom, so that we can bring each person to God fully grown in Christ.

29This is the work I am doing. I work hard at it, with all the strength that Christ powerfully gives me.