New Living Translation

English Standard Version

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

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

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

2To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

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

3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

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

4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

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.

5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

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.

6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

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.

7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

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

8and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

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.

9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

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.

10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

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,

11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

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

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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

13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

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

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

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

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

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.

16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

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

17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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.

18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

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

19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

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.

20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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

21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

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.

22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

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

23if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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.

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

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

25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

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

26the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.

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.

27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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.

28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

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

29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.