Colossians 1:3-14

GOD’S WORD Translation

Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in our prayers for you. ⁴ We thank God because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. ⁵ You have these because of the hope which is kept safe for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope in the Good News which is the message of truth. ⁶ This Good News is present with you now. It is producing results and spreading all over the world as it did among you from the first day you heard it. At that time you came to know what God’s kindness ^[a] truly means. ⁷ You learned about this Good News from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. He is taking your place here as a trustworthy deacon for Christ ⁸ and has told us about the love that the Spirit has given you.

⁹ For this reason we have not stopped praying for you since the day we heard about you. We ask ⌞God⌟ to fill you with the knowledge of his will through every kind of spiritual wisdom and insight. ¹⁰ We ask this so that you will live the kind of lives that prove you belong to the Lord. Then you will want to please him in every way as you grow in producing every kind of good work by this knowledge about God. ¹¹ We ask him to strengthen you by his glorious might with all the power you need to patiently endure everything with joy. ¹² You will also thank the Father, who has made you able to share the light, which is what God’s people inherit.

What God Has Done Through Christ

¹³ God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. ¹⁴ His Son paid the price to free us, which means that our sins are forgiven.