1 P aul, apostle of Christ Jesus, by God's will, and Timotheus the brother,

This letter is from Paul, a missionary for Jesus Christ. God wanted me to work for Him. This letter is from brother Timothy also.

2 t o the holy and faithful brethren in Christ which in Colosse. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

I am writing to you who belong to Christ in the city of Colossae. May all the Christian brothers there have loving-favor and peace from God our Father.

3 W e give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ continually praying for you,

We always pray and give thanks to God for you. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 h aving heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have towards all the saints,

We give thanks to God for you because we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. We thank God for your love for all those who belong to Christ.

5 o n account of the hope which laid up for you in the heavens; of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the glad tidings,

We thank God for the hope that is being kept for you in heaven. You first heard about this hope through the Good News which is the Word of Truth.

6 w hich are come to you, as in all the world, are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day ye heard and knew indeed the grace of God, in truth:

The Good News came to you the same as it is now going out to all the world. Lives are being changed, just as your life was changed the day you heard the Good News. You understood the truth about God’s loving-kindness.

7 e ven as ye learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-bondman, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,

You heard the Good News through our much-loved brother Epaphras who is taking my place. He is a faithful servant of Christ.

8 w ho has also manifested to us your love in Spirit.

He told us that the Holy Spirit had given you much love.

9 F or this reason we also, from the day we heard, do not cease praying and asking for you, to the end that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

This is why I have never stopped praying for you since I heard about you. I ask God that you may know what He wants you to do. I ask God to fill you with the wisdom and understanding the Holy Spirit gives.

10 t o walk worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God;

Then your lives will please the Lord. You will do every kind of good work, and you will know more about God.

11 s trengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy;

I pray that God’s great power will make you strong, and that you will have joy as you wait and do not give up.

12 g iving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light,

I pray that you will be giving thanks to the Father. He has made it so you could share the good things given to those who belong to Christ who are in the light.

13 w ho has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of his love:

God took us out of a life of darkness. He has put us in the holy nation of His much-loved Son.

14 i n whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins;

We have been bought by His blood and made free. Our sins are forgiven through Him.

15 w ho is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;

Christ is as God is. God cannot be seen. Christ lived before anything was made.

16 b ecause by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by him and for him.

Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen. He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him.

17 A nd he is before all, and all things subsist together by him.

Christ was before all things. All things are held together by Him.

18 A nd he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things:

Christ is the head of the church which is His body. He is the beginning of all things. He is the first to be raised from the dead. He is to have first place in everything.

19 f or in him all the fulness was pleased to dwell,

God the Father was pleased to have everything made perfect by Christ, His Son.

20 a nd by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross—by him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

Everything in heaven and on earth can come to God because of Christ’s death on the cross. Christ’s blood has made peace.

21 A nd you, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it reconciled

At one time you were strangers to God and your minds were at war with Him. Your thoughts and actions were wrong.

22 i n the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it,

But Christ has brought you back to God by His death on the cross. In this way, Christ can bring you to God, holy and pure and without blame.

23 i f indeed ye abide in the faith founded and firm, and not moved away from the hope of the glad tidings, which ye have heard, which have been proclaimed in the whole creation which under heaven, of which I Paul became minister.

This is for you if you keep the faith. You must not change from what you believe now. You must not leave the hope of the Good News you received. The Good News was preached to you and to all the world. And I, Paul, am one of Christ’s missionaries. Paul Is Sent by God to Preach

24 N ow, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly;

Now I am full of joy to be suffering for you. In my own body I am doing my share of what has to be done to make Christ’s sufferings complete. This is for His body which is the Church.

25 o f which I became minister, according to the dispensation of God which given me towards you to complete the word of God,

I became a preacher in His church for your good. In the plan of God I am to preach the Good News.

26 t he mystery which hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints;

This great secret was hidden to the people of times past, but it is now made known to those who belong to Christ.

27 t o whom 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:

God wants these great riches of the hidden truth to be made known to the people who are not Jews. The secret is this: Christ in you brings hope of all the great things to come.

28 w hom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

We preach Christ. We tell every man how he must live. We use wisdom in teaching every man. We do this so every man will be complete in Christ.

29 W hereunto also I toil, combating according to his working, which works in me in power.

This is the reason I am working. God’s great power is working in me.