1 P aul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, 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 saints in Colossae, and to the faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

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, always 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 of the love that to 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 b ecause of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, which ye heard of before in the word of the truth of the good news,

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 is present to you, as also in all the world, and is bearing fruit, as also in you, from the day in which ye heard, and knew 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 a s ye also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful ministrant of the Christ,

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 also did declare to us your love in the Spirit.

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

9 B ecause of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking 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 your walking worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the 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 i n all might being made mighty according to the power of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering 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 did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the 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 did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate into the reign 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 the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of the sins,

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

15 w ho is the image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation,

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

16 b ecause in him were the all things created, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible, whether thrones, whether lordships, whether principalities, whether authorities; all things through him, and for him, have been created,

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 himself is before all, and the all things in him have consisted.

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

18 A nd himself is the head of the body -- the assembly -- who is a beginning, a first-born out of the dead, that he might become in all -- himself -- first,

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 b ecause in him it did please all the fulness to tabernacle,

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

20 a nd through him to reconcile the all things to himself -- having made peace through the blood of his cross -- through him, whether the things upon the earth, whether 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 -- once being alienated, and enemies in the mind, in the evil works, yet now did he reconcile,

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 the death, to present you holy, and unblemished, and unblameable before himself,

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 also ye remain in the faith, being founded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the good news, which ye heard, which was preached in all the creation that under the heaven, of which I became -- I Paul -- a ministrant.

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 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the 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 -- I did become a ministrant according to the dispensation of God, that was given to me for you, to fulfil 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 secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested 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 did will to make known what the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations -- which is Christ in you, the hope of the 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 proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,

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 f or which also I labour, striving according to his working that is working in me in power.

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