Colossians 1

Thanksgiving and Prayer

1 This is Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and my bro Timothy,

2 writing to God’s people in Colossae, the faithful fam in Christ. Grace and peace to you all from God our Father.

3 Every time we pray for you, we thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 Because we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you got for all God’s people.

5 This comes from the hope stored up for you in heaven, the hope you all heard about in the Word of truth, the gospel.

6 This gospel’s spreading all over the world, bearing fruit and growing, just like it has been doing among you all since the day you first heard it and understood God’s grace.

7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear bro and faithful servant of Christ for you all.

8 He also told us about the love you all got through the Spirit.

9 So since the day we heard about you all, we have not stopped praying for you. We are asking God to fill you up with knowledge of His will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

10 That way, you all can live a life worthy of the Lord, making Him proud, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in your knowledge of God.

11 He is going to strengthen you with His power, so you will have endurance and patience, and you will be able to stay joyful.

12 Give thanks to the Father, who has hooked us up with a share in the inheritance of His people in the light.

13 He snatched us out of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His Son, whom He loves.

14 In Him, we got redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

15 Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16 Everything was created through Him and for Him, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities.

17 He existed before everything, and everything holds together in Him.

18 He is the head of the church, His body. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so He is first in everything.

19 God was pleased to have all His fullness live in Him,

20 and through Him, He brought peace by the blood of His cross, reconciling everything to Himself, things on earth and in heaven.

Reconciled Through Christ

21 You all used to be far from God, enemies in your minds because of your evil actions.

22 But now, through Christ’s body and His death, He has brought you back into the fam, holy and blameless in His sight.

23 Just stay grounded in your faith, do not drift away from the hope of the gospel you heard, the same gospel preached to everybody under heaven. And I, Paul, am a servant of it.

24 Now I am glad to suffer for you all, because through my troubles, I am filling in what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the church, His body.

25 God made me a servant of this church to fully deliver His Word to you.

26 This message was a mystery hidden for ages but is now revealed to God’s people.

27 God wanted to show the riches of His glory to the Gentiles. And what is that mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 We preach Christ, warning and teaching everyone with wisdom so we can present everyone fully mature in Him.

29 That is why I work so hard, struggling with all the strength Christ gives me.