Shared Word Translation
Colossians 1
Greeting
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the holy ones, because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, which you heard beforehand in the word of truth, the good news,
which has come to you, just as in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you from the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
For this reason also, from the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.
He has rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Supremacy of Christ
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross.
Reconciliation and Ministry
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, in order to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach before him—
if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the good news that you heard.
This good news has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, became a servant of it.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a servant according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I labor, striving according to his working that works in me in power.