Book of Common Prayer

He gives thanks to God for their faith, love, and hope, and prays for their increase. He explains how we are the kingdom of God won by Christ, who is the head of the congregation.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and brother Timothy.

² To the saints who are at Colosse and brethren who believe in Christ.

Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you ⁴ since we heard of the faith that you have in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you bear to all the saints, ⁵ for the sake of the hope that is laid up in store for you in heaven – of which hope you heard before by the true word of the gospel, ⁶ which has come to you in the same way as it has into all the world, and is fruitful among you in the same way since the first day you heard it and had experience of the grace of God in the truth, ⁷ when you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. He is for you a faithful minister of Christ. ⁸ He also described to us the love that you have in the Spirit.

⁹ For this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, have not ceased praying for you, and asking that you be fulfilled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ¹⁰ so that you may walk worthy of the Lord in all things that please him, being fruitful in all good works and increasing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ strengthened with all might through his glorious power to have all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, ¹² and giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through his blood; that is to say, the forgiveness of sins.

³⁰ They said to him, What sign will you show then, so that we can see and believe you? What work do you do? ³¹ Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

³² Jesus said to them, Truly truly I say to you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

⁴⁸ I am that bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness but are dead. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am that living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.