Colossians 1
Living Bible
1 From: Paul, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger, and from Brother Timothy.
2 To: The faithful Christian brothers—God’s people—in the city of Colosse.
May God our Father shower you with blessings and fill you with his great peace.
3 Whenever we pray for you, we always begin by giving thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard how much you trust the Lord, and how much you love his people. 5 And you are looking forward to the joys of heaven, and have been ever since the Gospel first was preached to you. 6 The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world and changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard it and understood about God’s great kindness to sinners.
7 Epaphras, our much-loved fellow worker, was the one who brought you this Good News. He is Jesus Christ’s faithful slave, here to help us in your place. 8 And he is the one who has told us about the great love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9 So ever since we first heard about you we have kept on praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things; 10 and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him, so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better.
11 We are praying, too, that you will be filled with his mighty, glorious strength so that you can keep going no matter what happens—always full of the joy of the Lord, 12 and always thankful to the Father who has made us fit to share all the wonderful things that belong to those who live in the Kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.
15 Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all,[a] and, in fact, 16 Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. 17 He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together. 18 He is the Head of the body made up of his people—that is, his Church—which he began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead,[b] so that he is first in everything; 19 for God wanted all of himself to be in his Son.
20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. 21 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. 22 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for; 23 the only condition is that you fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now spreading all over the world. And I, Paul, have the joy of telling it to others.
24 But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of Christ’s sufferings for his body, the Church.
25 God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles. 26-27 He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
28 So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. 29 This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me.
Footnotes
- Colossians 1:15 He existed before God made anything at all, literally, “He is the firstborn of all creation.”
- Colossians 1:18 he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead, literally, “he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
Colossians 1
American Standard Version
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy [a]our brother, 2 [b]to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ that are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints, 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the [c]gospel, 6 which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on [d]our behalf, 8 who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 to walk worthily of the Lord [e]unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing [f]in the knowledge of God; 11 [g]strengthened [h]with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all [i]patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks unto the Father, who made [j]us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; 13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; 14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: 15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; 17 and he is before all things, and in him all things [k]consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; [l]that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 [m]For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; 20 and through him to reconcile all things [n]unto [o]himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. 21 And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, 22 yet now [p]hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: 23 if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the [q]gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church; 25 whereof I was made a minister, according to the [r]dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God, 26 even the mystery which hath been hid [s]for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints, 27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; 29 whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me [t]mightily.
Footnotes
- Colossians 1:1 Greek the brother.
- Colossians 1:2 Or, to those that are at Colossae, holy and faithful brethren in Christ
- Colossians 1:5 Greek good tidings: and so elsewhere. See marginal note on Mt. 4:23.
- Colossians 1:7 Many ancient authorities read your.
- Colossians 1:10 Or, unto all pleasing, in every good work, bearing fruit and increasing etc.
- Colossians 1:10 Or, by
- Colossians 1:11 Greek made powerful.
- Colossians 1:11 Or, in
- Colossians 1:11 Or, stedfastness
- Colossians 1:12 Some ancient authorities read you.
- Colossians 1:17 That is, hold together.
- Colossians 1:18 Or, that among all he might have etc.
- Colossians 1:19 Or, For the whole fulness of God was pleased to dwell in him
- Colossians 1:20 Or, into him
- Colossians 1:20 Or, him
- Colossians 1:22 Some ancient authorities read ye have been reconciled.
- Colossians 1:23 Greek good tidings. See verse 1.
- Colossians 1:25 Or, stewardship. See 1 Cor. 9:17.
- Colossians 1:26 Or, from all ages etc. Greek from the ages and from the generations.
- Colossians 1:29 Or, in power
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