Colossians 1:3-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Paul Thanks God for the Colossians

³ In our prayers for you we always thank God, the^[a] Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,^{(A) 4} for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,^{(B) 5} because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel^{(C) 6} that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.^{(D) 7} This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our^[b] behalf,^{(E) 8} and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

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^[c] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,^{(F) 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.^{(G) 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^{(H) 12} giving thanks to the Father,^[d] who has enabled^[e] you^[f] 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,^{(I) 14} in whom we have redemption,^[g] the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,^{(J) 16} for in^[h] 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^[i] 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.^{(K) 19} For in him all the fullness of God^[j] 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.^(L)