PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 TO the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

5 Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

6 Which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among  you since  the day you head and knew the grace of God in truth;

7 As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant , who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,

8 Who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ;

10 That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasng Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11Strengthened with all might, accordng to His glorious power, for all patience and longsufering with joy;

12 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

14 In who we hae redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

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

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginnng, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

20And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on earth or things n heaven, aving  made peace through the blood of His cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has rconciled.

22 In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blamless, and above reproach in His sight -

23 If ndeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hoe of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, become a minister.

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up  in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.

25 Of which I became minister according to the stewadship form God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

26 The mystery which has been hiden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

27 To them God willed to make what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching everyman in all wisdom, that we may present everyman perfect in Christ Jesus.

29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1