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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
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To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
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Thanksgiving and Prayer
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
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because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—
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that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.
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For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
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so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
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being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
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and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
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The Supremacy of the Son of God
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
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For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
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For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
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and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
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Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
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But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
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Paul’s Labor for the Church
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
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I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—
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To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
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My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
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having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
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When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
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And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
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They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
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Living as Those Made Alive in Christ
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
