Colossians 1:9-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s^[a] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,^{(A) 10} so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.^{(B) 11} May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully^{(C) 12} giving thanks to the Father,^[b] who has enabled^[c] you^[d] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,^{(D) 14} in whom we have redemption,^[e] the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,^{(E) 16} for in^[f] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in^[g] him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.^{(F) 19} For in him all the fullness of God^[h] was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.^(G)

²¹ And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled^[i] in his fleshly body^[j] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,^{(H) 23} provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature^[k] under heaven. I, Paul, became a minister of this gospel.^(I)