Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy,

to the devoted and steadfast Christian brothers in Colossae; God our Father bless you and give you peace.

We never pray for you without thanking God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

for what we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all God's people,

came among you, to thrive and bear its fruit among you, as it does all over the world, from the time when you first heard about the mercy of God,

That is why, from the day I first heard of it, I have never given up praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full spiritual wisdom and insight, with a clear knowledge of what his will is,

so that the lives you live may be worthy of your Master and wholly pleasing to him, and you may be fruitful in all kinds of good deeds, and may grow into fuller knowledge of God.

and you will thank the Father who has entitled you to share the lot of God's people in the realm of light.

He is a likeness of the unseen God, born before any creature,

and through him to reconcile to God all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through his blood shed on the cross.

through dying in his human body) in holiness, and free from reproach or blame, into God's presence??23 if at least you continue firm and steadfast in the exercise of faith, and never shift from the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been preached all over the world, and for which I, Paul, became a worker.

In it, by divine appointment, I became a worker, that I might preach among you the message of God in its fulness??26 that secret, hidden from the ages and generations, but now disclosed to those who are consecrated to him,

to whom God has chosen to make known among the heathen how glorious this mystery of Christ in you, the promise of glorification, really is.

For it is in him that all the fulness of God's nature lives embodied,

when in your baptism you were buried with him, and raised to life with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Yes, you who were dead through your misdeeds and physically uncircumcised, God raised to life with Christ. He forgave us all our misdeeds,

If, then, you have been raised to life with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are where Christ is, above, seated at God's right hand.

For you have died, and your life now lies hidden with Christ in God.

It is on account of these things that God's anger is coming.

As persons chosen by God, then, consecrated and dearly loved, you must clothe yourselves with tenderness of heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance.

Let the message of Christ live in your hearts in all its wealth of wisdom. Teach it to one another and train one another in it with thankfulness, with psalms, hymns, and sacred songs, and sing to God with all your hearts.

And whatever you have to say or do, do it all as followers of the Lord Jesus, and offer your thanksgiving to God the Father through him.

Pray for me too, that God may give me an opening for the message, and let me tell the secret of Christ on account of which I am kept in prison

So also does Jesus who is called Justus. They are the only ones among the converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the reign of God who have proved a comfort to me.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always standing up for you in his prayers that you may stand fast, like men of mature convictions, whatever God's will for you may be.

This farewell is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am in prison. God bless you.