Colossians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy, the brother, 2 to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ in Colosse: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father. 3 We give thanks to God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in Heaven, of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, 6 which is present among you, even as it is in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 even as ye learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is for us a faithful minister of Christ, 8 who also made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard , cease not praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 to walk worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, Who made us meet for the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light; 13 Who delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love; 14 in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins; 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, Primal Source of all creation; 16 because in Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powersâall things have been created through Him, and for Him; 17 and He is before all things, and in Him all things have held together. 18 And He is the Head of the body, the assembly; Who is Beginning, First-born from the dead, that in all things He may be preeminent; 19 because it was pleasing that in Him all the fulness should dwell; 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens. 21 And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in mind in evil works, 22 yet now did He reconcile in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and without blemish, and irreproachable, before Him; 23 if, at least, ye continue in the faith, founded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under the heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a minister. 24 Now I rejoice in sufferings in your behalf, and fill up in turn the deficiencies of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh for the sake of His body, which is the assembly; 25 of which I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but was now made manifest to His saints; 27 to whom God willed to make known what the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; 28 Whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; 29 to which I am toiling also, striving according to His working, which is working in me with power.