Col Colossians, chapter Epistle to the Colossians, chapter 1
Apostolic Greeting
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s sovereign will, and Timothy our brother,
To God’s consecrated people and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Colossae:
May grace or unmerited favour and peace be yours from God our Father.
Pauline Thanksgiving and Prayer
We continually express gratitude to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we pray for you at all times,
since we have received reports about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you demonstrate towards all of God’s people,
on account of the hope that is being kept safe for you in heaven, about which you previously heard when the message of truth—the gospel—was proclaimed to you.
This gospel has reached you just as it is producing fruit and growing throughout the entire world—and it has been doing the same among you from the day you first heard and truly understood God’s grace,
exactly as you were taught by Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who serves as a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
and who has informed us about your love that flows from the Spirit.
For this reason, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will through complete wisdom and spiritual comprehension,
so that you may conduct your lives in a manner that honours the Lord and pleases Him in every respect—bearing fruit through every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,
being empowered with complete strength according to His magnificent might, enabling you to attain total endurance and patience accompanied by joy,
giving thanks to the Father, who has made you qualified to receive your share of the inheritance belonging to God’s people in the realm of light.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,
The Preeminence of Christ in Redemption and Creation
in whom we possess redemption, which is the forgiveness of our sins.
He is the visible representation of the invisible God, the firstborn or the supreme One of and over all creation,
for in Him all things were brought into existence—things in heaven and things on earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him.
He exists prior to all things, and in Him all things hold together in unity.
He is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the origin, the firstborn or the supreme One from among the dead, so that He might occupy first place in everything.
For it pleased God that all His fullness would take up residence in Him,
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself—having established peace through the blood of His cross—yes, through Him—whether things on earth or things in heaven.
And you, who were once estranged and hostile in your thinking through wicked actions,
He has now reconciled through His physical body by means of death, in order to present you holy and without blemish and above reproach before Him,
provided that you remain in the faith, firmly established and unshaken, not shifting away from the hope proclaimed in the gospel you heard, which has been announced to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Purpose of the Sufferings and Ministry of Paul
Now I find joy in the sufferings I endure for your benefit, and I am completing in my physical body what remains of Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.
I became a servant of the church according to the responsibility God gave me for your benefit: to bring God’s word to its full expression,
the mystery that was concealed throughout past ages and generations but has now been revealed to His consecrated people.
God determined to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery—which is Christ dwelling in you, your confident hope of glory.
We proclaim Him, warning every person and instructing every person with complete wisdom, so that we may present every person as perfect or fully mature in Christ.
For this purpose I labour strenuously, contending according to His power that works mightily within me.