Colossians 1

CHAPTER 1

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

²to them that be at Colosse, holy and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

³We do thankings to God, and to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, evermore praying for you,

⁴hearing your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love that ye have to all holy men,

⁵for the hope that is kept to you in heavens. Which ye heard in the word of truth of the gospel,

⁶that came to you, as also it is in all the world, and maketh fruit, and waxeth, as [it is] in you, from that day in which ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

⁷As ye learned of Epaphras, our fellow [or our even-servant] , most dearworthy, which is a true minister of Jesus Christ for you;

⁸which also showed to us your loving in Spirit.

⁹And therefore we from the day in which we heard, cease not to pray for you, and to ask, that ye be filled with the knowing of his will in all wisdom and ghostly understanding;

¹⁰that ye walk worthily to God pleasing by all things, and make fruit in all good work, and wax in the science of God,

¹¹and be comforted in all virtue, by the might of his clearness, in all patience and long abiding with joy,

¹²that ye do thankings to God and to the Father [or doing thankings to God the Father] , which made you worthy into the part of heritage of holy men in light.

¹³Which delivered us from the power of darknesses, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his loving,

¹⁴in whom we have again-buying, and remission of sins.

¹⁵Which is the image of God invisible, the first begotten of each creature.

¹⁶For in him all things be made, in heavens and in earth, visible and invisible, either thrones, either dominations, either princehoods, either powers, all things be made of nought by him, and in him,

¹⁷and he is before all, and all things be in him.

¹⁸And he is head of the body of the church; which is the beginning, [or the first of all] , and the first begotten of dead men , that he hold the first dignity [or primacy] , in all things.

¹⁹For in him it pleased all plenty to inhabit,

²⁰and by him all things to be reconciled into him, and made peace by the blood of his cross, those things that be in earths, either that be in heavens.

²¹And when ye were sometime aliened [or made strangers] , and enemies by wit, in evil works, now he hath reconciled you

²²in the body of his flesh by death, to have you holy, and unwemmed, and without reproof before him.

²³If nevertheless ye dwell in the faith, founded, and stable, and unmoveable from the hope of the gospel that ye have heard, which is preached in all creature that is under heaven. Of which I, Paul, am made a minister,

²⁴and now I have joy in passion for you, and I [ful] fill those things that fail of the passions of Christ in my flesh, for his body, that is the church.

²⁵Of which I Paul am made minister [or a servant] by the dispensation of God, that is given to me in you, that I [ful] fill the word of God,

²⁶the private [or the mystery] that was hid from worlds and generations. But now it is showed to his saints,

²⁷to whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this sacrament in heathen men, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸Whom we show, reproving each man, and teaching each man in all wisdom, that we offer each man perfect in Christ Jesus.

²⁹In which thing also I travail, in striving by the working of him, that he worketh in me in virtue.