Colossians 1

1 From Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and from Timothy, our Brother.

Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God,

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

and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse: grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always in our prayers for you:

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

(having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love to all the saints: )

5 on account of the hope which awaits its fulfilment in Heaven. Of this hope you heard long ago in the true Message of the Good News which reached you —

for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which ye have heard before in the word of truth, that is the gospel;

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.

which is come unto you, even as in all the world, and is fruitful; as it hath been also among you, from the day in which ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

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

As ye also learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you;

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

who also declared unto us your love in 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 possess that deeper knowledge of the will of God, which comes through all true spiritual wisdom and insight.

For this cause we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to request that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding:

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 your characters will grow through a fuller knowledge of God;

that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the 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 befall you;

strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy;

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.

giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet for a portion of the inheritance of the saints 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,

who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son:

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

in whom we have redemption by his blood, even the remission of sins.

15 For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God — First-born and Head of all creation;

Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of the whole 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 by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all were created by Him, and for Him.

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

He is before all, and by Him all things subsist.

18 and he is the Head of the Church, which is his Body. The First-born from the dead, he is to the Church the Source of its Life, that he, in all things, may stand first.

And He is the head of the body, which is the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.

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

For it pleased the Father, that all fulness should dwell in Him;

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

and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of his cross; by Him only, whether they be things on earth, or 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 that were formerly alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works,

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,

yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight:

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 a minister.

if so be ye continue grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved from the gospel, which ye have heard, and which hath been preached throughout the whole creation, of which I Paul am a minister.

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 rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for the sake of his body, which is 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 —

Of which I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I might fully declare the word of God:

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

even that mystery which was hid from former ages and generations, but is now manifested to his saints: (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 God would make known the rich glory of this mystery, among the gentiles; which is this, that Christ is in you the hope of glory:

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

whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

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

in order to which I also labour, striving earnestly according to his energy which operates in me with power.