Colossians 1

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

1This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus because that is what God wanted, and from our brother Timothy.

2to the saints and faithful brethren in Christthat areat Colossæ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

2We are writing to God’s holy and faithful people who belong to Christ in the city of Colossae. May God our Father give you grace and peace.

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

3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

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

4We thank him because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people.

5because 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,

5Your faith and love come from the hope of what is kept safe for you in heaven. You first heard about this hope through the message of truth, which is the Good News.

6which 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;

6This Good News has come to you, and it is spreading and producing fruit all over the world. It has been doing the same among you since the day you first heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

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

7You learned this from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. He is a faithful worker for Christ on our behalf.

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

8He is also the one who told us about the love the Holy Spirit has given you.

9For 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,

9For this reason, from the day we first heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants, giving you all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

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

10Then you will live in a way that honors the Lord and pleases him in every way. You will produce good fruit in every kind of good work, and you will grow to know God better and better.

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

11We pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so that you can endure everything with patience and joy.

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

12Always give thanks to the Father. He has made you fit to share in the inheritance that belongs to his holy people who live in the light.

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

13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

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

14Through his Son, our freedom was purchased and our sins were forgiven.碎

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

15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He was born before anything was created and is superior to all creation.

16for 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;

16Through him, God created everything in heaven and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything was created through him and for him.

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

17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

18And 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.

18Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, the first to be raised from the dead, so that he would be first in everything.

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

19For God was pleased to have all of himself live in Christ.

20and 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.

20Through Christ, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

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

21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

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

22But now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ’s physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy, blameless, and without any fault in his eyes.

23if 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.

23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the hope promised by the Good News you heard. This Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have become a servant of this message.

24Now 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;

24I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.

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

25I became a servant of the church because God gave me the special job of presenting his entire message to you.

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

26This message is the secret that was hidden from everyone for ages and generations, but now it has been revealed to God’s holy people.

27to 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:

27God wanted his people to know that the riches and glory of this secret are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you the assurance of sharing his glory.

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

28So we tell everyone about Christ. We warn everyone and teach everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present every person to God as perfect because of their relationship with Christ.

29whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

29That is why I work so hard, using all the mighty energy that Christ works within me.