1Paul, [an] apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother, 2to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from [the] Lord Jesus Christ. 3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love [you have] to all the saints, 5for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, 6which has come to you as [it has] also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit, even also among you, since the day you heard and fully knew the grace of God in truth, 7even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, 8he also having shown your love in [the] Spirit to us. 9For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled [with] the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11being empowered with all power, according to the might of His glory, to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, 12giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. 13[For He] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated [us] into the kingdom of His dear Son; 14in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. 15who is [the] image of the invisible God, [the] First-born of all creation. 16For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. 18And He is [the] Head of the body, the church, who is [the] Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. 19For it pleased [the Father] that in Him all fullness should dwell. 20And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. 21And you, who were once alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight, 23if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [are] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard [and] which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister, 24who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and I fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which [is] the church; 25of which I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; 26the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27[For to them] God would make known what [are] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, 28whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.