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

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 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.

to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 W e 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.

having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,

5 W e 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.

because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,

6 T he 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.

which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

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

even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

8 H e told us that the Holy Spirit had given you much love.

who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 T his 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.

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

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

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 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.

strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;

12 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.

giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

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

who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;

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

in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;

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

who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 C hrist 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.

For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

17 C hrist was before all things. All things are held together by Him.

He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

18 C hrist 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.

He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 G od the Father was pleased to have everything made perfect by Christ, His Son.

For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;

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

and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

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

You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,

22 B ut 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.

yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,

23 T his 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

if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

24 N ow 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.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly;

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

of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,

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

the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,

27 G od 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.

to whom God was pleased 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;

28 W e 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.

whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

29 T his is the reason I am working. God’s great power is working in me.

for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.