Colossians 1

Thomson^{(i) 1} Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, ² to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse: favour be to you, and peace, from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ We give thanks to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you, ⁴ [having heard of your belief in Christ Jesus, and of your love for all the saints] ⁵ on account of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before by the true word of the gospel, ⁶ which is come to you as it hath also to all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it doth among you, from the day you heard and acknowledged the favour of God in truth, ⁷ as you learned it from Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of the Christ, ⁸ and the person who informed us of your love in spirit. ⁹ For this cause, we indeed, from the day we heard of it do not cease praying for you, and requesting, in order that you may be filled, in respect to the acknowledgment of his will ¹⁰ with all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, to all well pleasing. By every good work we bear fruit, and grow up for the acknowledgment of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all might according to the power of his glory for all patience and long suffering we with joy ¹² give thanks to the Father who hath fitted us for a portion of the inheritance of the saints in light; ¹³ who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and removed us into the kingdom of his beloved son, ¹⁴ by whom we have this redemption, even the remission of our sins by the blood of him ¹⁵ who is an image of the invisible God, a first born of the whole creation. ¹⁶ Because all the things which are in the heavens and which are on the earth were created by him, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, they were all created by him, and for him; ¹⁷ therefore he is before all, and they are all kept in consistence by him, ¹⁸ and he is the head of the body, namely of the congregation. He who is the beginning is a first born from the dead that in all things he might be pre-eminent. ¹⁹ Because all the plenitude was pleased to dwell in him, and by him to reconcile all to himself, ²⁰ he having by the blood of his cross"by himself, brought them to be at peace, [whether they be the things on earth or the things in heaven,] ²¹ hath now therefore brought you, who were for a time alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works, to a state of reconcilement ²² by the body of his flesh by his death, to present you holy and without blemish, and exempt from accusation in his sight, ²³ provided you continue in this belief, grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the glad tidings which you have heard, which have been proclaimed to this whole creation under heaven, of which I Paul was made a minister. ²⁴ Now I rejoice in these sufferings of mine for you, and am in my turn making up in my flesh the remainders of the sufferings of the Christ, for his body, namely, the congregation ²⁵ of which I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was committed to me for you, to confirm the word of God ²⁶ the mystery which was hidden from the ages and from the generations, but is now manifested to his saints; ²⁷ to whom God hath been pleased to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations: namely Christ in you the hope of Glory, ²⁸ whom we proclaim, admonishing every man, and teaching every man with all wisdom; that we may present every one a full grown man in Christ Jesus; ²⁹ for which I indeed labour, and struggle with all my might, according to that energy of his which operateth in me with power.