PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy the brother,

to the saints in Colosse and the faithful brothers in Christ. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father.

We thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

which is present with you as also in all the world, and is fruitful and increases, as also with you, from the day that you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

that you may walk worthily of the Lord in all that is pleasing [to him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

who is the likeness of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation,

for in him [God] was well pleased that all fullness should dwell,

of which I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God given me for you, to complete the word of God,

to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,

that your hearts may be comforted, being united in love and [raised] to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God,

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you have also been raised together through the effectual faith of God who raised him from the dead;

and not holding the head, from which all the body being supplied and compacted by means of joints and tendons grows with an increase of God.

IF you, therefore, have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God;

For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God;

for which comes the wrath of God.

Put on, therefore, as elect and beloved saints of God, hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching with all wisdom, and admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God,

and whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God [and] Father through him.

praying also at the same time for us, that God will open to us a door of utterance to declare the mystery of Christ, for which also I am bound,

Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner salutes you, and Mark the nephew of Barnabas,??oncerning whom you received commandments, if he comes to you receive him,??11 and Jesus called Justus, who are of the circumcision; these are the only co-laborers for the kingdom of God who have been a comfort to me.

Epaphras, who is of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, salutes you, always striving for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.