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Greeting

¹Paul, ⚓an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
²To 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.

Their Faith in 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; ⁵because 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, ⁶which 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 heard and knew ⚓the grace of God in truth; ⁷as you also learned from ⚓Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is ⚓a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, ⁸who also declared to us your ⚓love in the Spirit.

Preeminence of Christ

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 pleasing Him,⚓being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the ⚓knowledge of God; ¹¹⚓strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, ⚓for all patience and longsuffering ⚓with joy; ¹²⚓giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of ⚓the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has delivered us from ⚓the power of darkness ⚓and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴⚓in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
¹⁵He is ⚓the image of the invisible God, ⚓the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For ⚓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. ¹⁸And ⚓He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, ⚓the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Reconciled in Christ

¹⁹For 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 in heaven, ⚓having made peace through the blood of His cross.
²¹And you, ⚓who once were alienated and enemies in your mind ⚓by wicked works, yet now He has ⚓reconciled ²²⚓in the body of His flesh through death, ⚓to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— ²³if indeed you continue ⚓in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are ⚓not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, ⚓which was preached to every creature under heaven, ⚓of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Sacrificial Service for Christ

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, ²⁵of which I became a minister according to ⚓the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶⚓the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, ⚓but now has been revealed to His saints. ²⁷⚓To them God willed to make known what are ⚓the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is ⚓Christ in you, ⚓the hope of glory. ²⁸Him we preach, ⚓warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, ⚓that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. ²⁹To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me ⚓mightily.