Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Timotheus the brother,

to the saints in Colossae, and to the faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

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

having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that is to all the saints,

as ye also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful ministrant of the Christ,

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,

to whom God did will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations -- which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory,

whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,

that their hearts may be comforted, being united in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the full knowledge of the secret of the God and Father, and of the Christ,

for if even in the flesh I am absent -- yet in the spirit I am with you, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in regard to Christ;

as, then, ye did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk ye,

See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,

in whom also ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ,

which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body is of the Christ;

If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?

If, then, ye were raised with the Christ, the things above seek ye, where the Christ is, on the right hand of God seated,

for ye did die, and your life hath been hid with the Christ in God;

when the Christ -- our life -- may be manifested, then also we with him shall be manifested in glory.

where there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, servant, freeman -- but the all and in all -- Christ.

forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any one with any one may have a quarrel, as also the Christ did forgive you -- so also ye;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing each other, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, in grace singing in your hearts to the Lord;

having known that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance -- for the Lord Christ ye serve;

praying at the same time also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the secret of the Christ, because of which also I have been bound,

Salute you doth Epaphras, who is of you, a servant of Christ, always striving for you in the prayers, that ye may stand perfect and made full in all the will of God,