Colossians 1 ISV NLT Parallel

◄ Colossians 1 ►

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1From: Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.

1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.

2To: The holy and faithful brothers in Colossae who are in union with the Messiah. May grace and peace from God our Father be yours!

2We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer

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

3We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4because we have heard about your faith in the Messiah Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints,

4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,

5based on the hope laid up for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope through the word of truth, the gospel

5which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and spreading all over the world, so it has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.

6This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

7You learned about this gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf.

7You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.

8He has told us about your love in the Spirit.

8He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

9For this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God's will with respect to all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

9So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

10so that you might live in a manner worthy of the Lord and be fully pleasing to him as you bear fruit while doing all kinds of good things and growing in the full knowledge of God.

10Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

11You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might patiently endure everything with joy

11We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,

12and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.

12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

13God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves,

13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

14through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

14who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Christ Is Supreme

15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16For by him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.

16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

17He himself existed before anything else did, and he holds all things together.

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

18He is also the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might have first place in everything.

18Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.

19For God was pleased to have all of his divine essence inhabit him.

19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

20Through the Son, God also reconciled all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, thereby making peace through the blood of his cross.

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

21You who were once alienated with a hostile attitude, doing evil,

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

22he has now reconciled by the death of his physical body, so that he may present you holy, blameless, and without fault before him.

22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

23However, you must remain firmly established and steadfast in the faith, without being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it. Paul’s Work for the Church

24Now I am rejoicing while suffering for you as I complete in my flesh whatever remains of the Messiah's sufferings on behalf of his body, 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.

25I became its servant as God commissioned me to work for you, so that I may complete my ministry of the word of God.

25God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.

26This secret was hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints,

26This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.

27to whom God wanted to make known the glorious riches of this secret among the gentiles—which is the Messiah in you, our glorious hope.

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

28It is he whom we proclaim as we admonish and wisely teach everyone, so that we may present everyone mature in the Messiah.

28So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.

29I work hard and struggle to do this, using the energy that he powerfully provides in me.

29That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

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