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

²To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

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

⁴because we’ve heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people.

⁵Your faith and love come from the hope that’s stored up for you in heaven. You’ve already heard about it in the true message of the good news

⁶that has come to you. In the same way, the good news is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

⁷You heard the good news from Epaphras, our dear friend who faithfully serves Christ with us.

⁸He has told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit.

⁹For this reason, we’ve been praying for you since the day we heard about you. We keep asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

¹⁰Then you’ll be able to lead a life that is worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. You’ll bear fruit in every good thing you do, you’ll get to know God better,

¹¹and you’ll be strong, in keeping with his glorious power. You’ll be patient and never give up.

¹²You’ll give thanks joyfully to the Father, who has entitled you to share in what he’ll give to all his holy people in the kingdom of light.

¹³He has saved us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

¹⁴Because of what the Son has done, we’ve been set free and all our sins have been forgiven.

¹⁵The Son is the exact likeness of God, who can’t be seen. The Son is the first, and he’s over all creation.

¹⁶All things were created in him: everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, all kings, powers, rulers, and authorities; all things have been created by him and for him.

¹⁷Before anything was created, he was already there. He holds everything together,

¹⁸and he is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning, the first to be raised from the dead. That happened so that he would be far above everything.

¹⁹God was pleased to have his whole fullness living in Christ

²⁰and to bring all things back to himself through what Christ has done, everything on earth and in heaven. God made peace through Christ’s blood, by his death on the cross.

²¹At one time you were separated from God. In your minds, you were his enemies, because of your wrong ways.

²²But through Christ’s death, God has brought you back to himself and made you holy in his own sight. So now you don’t have any flaws and you’re free from blame.

²³But you must keep your faith steady and firm and not move away from the hope that the good news is offering you. This is the good news that you heard. It has been preached to every creature under heaven and I, Paul, am its servant.

²⁴I’m joyful because of what I’m suffering for you. My suffering continues the sufferings of Christ for his body, which is the church.

²⁵God appointed me to serve the church and bring the entire word of God to you.

²⁶It contains the mystery that has been hidden for many ages but that has now been made known to the Lord’s people.

²⁷God has chosen to make known to them the glorious riches of that mystery among the Gentiles. And here’s what it is: Christ is in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸Christ is the one we preach about. With all the wisdom we have, we warn and teach everyone so that when we bring them to God, they will be like Christ. We want them to be mature in Christ.

²⁹I work hard for that with all the strength of Christ that works powerfully within me.