Colossians 1

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and from Timothy, also a follower of the Lord.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God--and Timothy our brother:

2 To Christ’s people at Colossae – the followers who are faithful to him: May God, our Father, bless you and give you peace.

To the people of God and the believing brethren at Colossae who are in Christ. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father.

3 Whenever we pray we never fail to thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for you,

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly praying for you as we do,

4 now that we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all his people,

because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you cherish towards all God's people,

5 because of the hope which is kept safe for you in heaven. Of this hope you heard long ago in the true message of the good news which reached you,

on account of the hope treasured up for you in Heaven. Of this hope you have already heard in the Message of the truth of the Good News.

6 bearing fruit and growing, as it does, through all the world, just as it did among you from the very day that you heard of God’s loving kindness, and understood what that loving kindness really is.

For it has reached you, and remains with you, just as it has also spread through the whole world, yielding fruit there and increasing, as it has done among you from the day when first you heard it and came really to know the grace of God,

7 It is just what you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who, as a minister of the Christ, faithfully represents us,

as you learned it from Epaphras our dearly-loved fellow servant. He is to you a faithful minister of Christ in our stead,

8 and who told us of the love with which the Spirit has inspired you.

and moreover he has informed us of your love, which is inspired by the Spirit.

9 And therefore we, from the very day that we heard this, have never ceased praying for you, or asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, which comes through all true spiritual wisdom and insight.

For this reason we also, from the day we first received these tidings, have never ceased to pray for you and to entreat that you may be filled with a clear knowledge of His will accompanied by thorough wisdom and discernment in spiritual things;

10 Then you will live lives worthy of the Master, and so please God in every way. Your lives will be fruitful in every kind of good action, and grow into a fuller knowledge of God;

so that your lives may be worthy of the Lord and perfectly pleasing to Him, while you exhibit the results of right action of every sort and grow into a fuller knowledge of God.

11 you will be made strong at all points with a strength worthy of the power manifested in his glory – strong to endure with patience, and even with gladness, whatever may happen to you;

Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and long-suffering;

12 and you will give thanks to the Father who made you fit to share the lot which awaits Christ’s people in the realms of light.

and give thanks to the Father who has made us fit to receive our share of the inheritance of God's people in Light.

13 For God has rescued us from the tyranny of darkness, and has removed us into the kingdom of his Son, who is the embodiment of his love,

It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son,

14 and through whom we have found deliverance in the forgiveness of our sins.

in whom we have our redemption--the forgiveness of our sins.

15 For Christ is the incarnation of the invisible God – firstborn and head of all creation;

Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God, the Firstborn and Lord of all creation.

16 for in him was created all that is in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible – angels and archangels and all the powers of heaven.

For in Him was created the universe of things in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers--all were created, and exist through and for Him.

17 All has been created through him and for him. He was before all things, and all things unite in him;

And HE IS before all things and in and through Him the universe is a harmonious whole.

18 and he is the head of the church, which is his body. The firstborn from the dead, he is to the church the source of its life, that he, in all things, may stand first.

Moreover He is the Head of His Body, the Church. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, in order that He Himself may in all things occupy the foremost place.

19 For it pleased the Father that in him the divine nature in all its fulness should live,

For it was the Father's gracious will that the whole of the divine perfections should dwell in Him.

20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself (making peace by the shedding of Christ’s blood offered on the cross) – whether on earth or in heaven.

And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to Himself, making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross--to reconcile to Himself through Him, I say, things on earth and things in Heaven.

21 And it pleased God that you, once estranged from him and hostile towards him in your thoughts, intent only on wickedness –

And you, estranged as you once were and even hostile in your minds, amidst your evil deeds,

22 but now he has reconciled you to himself by the sacrifice of Christ’s earthly body in death – it has pleased God that you should stand in his presence holy, pure, and blameless,

He has now, in His human body, reconciled to God by His death, to bring you, holy and faultless and irreproachable, into His presence;

23 if only you remain true to your faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made an assistant.

if, indeed, you are still firmly holding to faith as your foundation, without ever shifting from your hope that rests on the Good News that you have heard, which has been proclaimed in the whole creation under Heaven, and in which I Paul have been appointed to serve.

24 Now at last I can rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and in my own person I supplement the afflictions endured by the Christ, for the sake of his body, the church;

Now I can find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions on behalf of His Body, the Church.

25 of which I myself became a minister in virtue of the office with which God entrusted me for your benefit, to declare the message of God in all its fulness –

I have been appointed to serve the Church in the position of responsibility entrusted to me by God for your benefit, so that I may fully deliver God's Message--

26 that truth which has been hidden from former ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to God’s people, (aiōn g165)

the truth which has been kept secret from all ages and generations, but has now been revealed to His people, (aiōn g165)

27 to whom it was his pleasure to make known the surpassing glory of that hidden truth when proclaimed among the Gentiles – ‘Christ among you! Your hope of glory!’

to whom it was His will to make known how vast a wealth of glory for the Gentile world is implied in this truth--the truth that 'Christ is in you, the hope of glory.'

28 This is the Christ whom we proclaim, warning everyone, and instructing everyone, with all the wisdom that we possess, in the hope of bringing everyone into God’s presence perfected by union with Christ.

Him we preach, admonishing every one and instructing every one, with all possible wisdom, so that we may bring every one into God's presence, made perfect through Christ.

29 It is for that I toil, struggling with all the energy which he inspires and which works powerfully within me.

To this end, like an earnest wrestler, I exert all my strength in reliance upon the power of Him who is mightily at work within me.