< Colossians 1 >
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy my brother, —
2 Unto the holy and faithful brethren in Christ that are, in Colosse, favour unto you, and peace, from our God and Father.
3 We are giving thanks unto God, the Father of our Lord Jesus [Christ], always, for you, offering prayer, —
4 Having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have unto all the saints, —
5 Because of the hope that is lying by for you in the heavens, of which ye heard before, in the word of the truth of the glad-message,
6 When it presented itself unto you; even as, in all the world also, it is bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day when ye heard, and came personally to know the favour of God in truth,
7 Even as ye learned [it] from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is faithful in our behalf, as a minister of the Christ,
8 Who also hath made evident unto us your love in spirit.
9 For this cause, we also, from the day when we heard [of you], cease not, in your behalf, praying and asking—that ye may be filled unto the personal knowledge of his will, in all spiritual wisdom and discernment,
10 So as to walk worthily of the Lord, unto all pleasing, in every good work, bearing fruit, and growing in the personal knowledge of God,
11 With all power, being empowered, according to the grasp of his glory, unto all endurance and long-suffering with joy,
12 Giving thanks unto the Father that hath made you sufficient for your share in the inheritance of the saints in the light,
13 Who hath rescued us out of the authority of the darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love;
14 In whom, we have our redemption—the remission of our sins, —
15 Who, is an image of the unseen God, Firstborn of all creation, —
16 Because, in him, were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the things seen and the things unseen, whether thrones or lordships or principalities or authorities, —they all, through him and for him, have been created,
17 And, he, is before all, and, they all, in him, hold together;
18 And, he, is the head of the body, the assembly, Who is the beginning, Firstborn from among the dead, in order that, he, might become, in all things, himself, pre-eminent; —
19 Because, in him, was all the fullness well pleased to dwell,
20 And, through him, fully to reconcile all things unto him, making peace through the blood of his cross, —[through him]—whether the things upon the earth or the things in the heavens;
21 And, you, who at one time were estranged and enemies in your mind in your wicked works, yet, now, hath he fully reconciled,
22 In his body of flesh, through means of his death, to present you holy and blameless and unaccusable before him, —
23 If, at least, ye are abiding still in the faith, founded and firm, and not to be moved away from the hope of the glad-message which ye have heard, which hath been proclaimed in all creation which is under heaven, —of which, I Paul, have become minister.
24 Now, am I rejoicing in the sufferings on your behalf, and am filling up the things that lack of the tribulations of the Christ, in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the assembly,
25 Of which, I, have become minister—according to the administration of God which hath been given unto me to you-ward, to fill up the word of God,
26 The sacred secret which had been hidden away from the ages and from the generations, but, now, hath been made manifest unto his saints— (aiōn )
27 Unto whom God hath been pleased to make known what is the glorious wealth of this sacred secret among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory, —
28 Whom we are declaring, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, in order that we may present every man complete in Christ;
29 Unto which I am even toiling, contending according to his energy which is energising itself in me with power.
