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1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 to God's holy people and faithful brothers in Christ who are at Colossae. May grace be to you, and peace from God our Father. [[ Some important and ancient Greek copies add, " and the Lord Jesus Christ " . ]]
3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we always pray for you.
4 We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all God's holy people.
5 You have this love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You heard about this hope before in the word of truth, the gospel,
6 which has come to you. This gospel is bearing fruit and is growing in all the world. It has been doing this in you also from the day you heard it and learned about the grace of God in truth.
7 This is the gospel as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf. [[ Some important and ancient Greek copies read, " on our behalf " . ]]
8 Epaphras has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9 Because of this love, from the day we heard this we have not stopped praying for you. We pray that you will be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10 so that you will walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord and that pleases him in every way: by bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,
11 by being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and by joyfully
12 giving thanks to the Father, who made you able [[ Some ancient Greek copies read, " who made us able " . ]] to have a share in the inheritance of God's holy people in light.
13 He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [[ Some ancient Greek copies read, " in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins " , it may be a reference to Ephesians 1:7. ]]
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For in him all things were created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, the visible and the invisible things. Whether thrones or dominions or governments or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so he has first place among all things.
19 For God was pleased that all his fullness should live in him,
20 and to reconcile through the Son all things to himself. God made peace through the blood of his cross. God reconciled all things to himself, whether the things on the earth or the things in heaven.
21 At one time you also were alienated and hostile in mind and in evil deeds.
22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death. He did this in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach before him,
23 if you continue in the faith, established and firm, not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This is the gospel that was proclaimed to every person created under heaven. This is the gospel of which I, Paul, became a servant.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.
25 It is of this church that I am a servant, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.
26 This is the mystery that was hidden for ages and for generations but now has been revealed to God's holy people.
27 It is to them that God wanted to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present every person mature in Christ.
29 For this I labor and strive according to his energy that is at work in me in power.