1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ [that are] at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

1:3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

1:4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints,

1:5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

1:6 which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as [it doth] in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

1:7 even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

1:8 who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

1:10 to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

1:11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy;

1:12 giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

1:13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;

1:14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:

1:15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

1:16 for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him;

1:17 and he is before all things, and in him all things consist.

1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

1:19 For it was the good pleasure [of the Father] that in him should all the fulness dwell;

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, [I say], whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.

1:21 And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,

1:22 yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him:

1:23 if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.

1:24 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 church;

1:25 whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God,

1:26 [even] the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints,

1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

1:28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ;