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

to the consecrated and faithful brothers at Colossae who are in union with Christ: spiritual blessing and peace to you from God our Father.

Every time we pray for you we thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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

because of your hope of what is laid up for you in heaven. Long ago you heard of this hope through the message of the good news

which reached you, and since it is bearing fruit and growing among you, just as it is all over the world, from the day you first heard of God's favor and in reality came to know it,

This is why, ever since I heard of it, I have never ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full wisdom and spiritual insight, with a clear knowledge of His will,

so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord to His full satisfaction, by perennially bearing fruit in every good enterprise and by a steady growth in fuller knowledge of God;

It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of His dearly loved Son,

Yes, He is the exact likeness of the unseen God, His first-born Son who existed before any created thing,

if indeed you continue well grounded and firm in faith and never shift from the hope inspired by the good news you heard, which has been preached all over the world, and of which I, Paul, have been made a minister.

In it I have been made a minister in accordance with the trusteeship God entrusted to me for you, that I might prove among you the universal message of God,

the open secret, covered up from the people of former ages and generations, but now uncovered to God's people,

to whom God has chosen to make known how glorious are the riches of this open secret among the heathen, namely, Christ in you the hope of your glorification.

We are proclaiming Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with ample wisdom, in order to present to God everyone mature through union with Christ.

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

Yes, although you were dead through your shortcomings and were physically uncircumcised, God made you live again through fellowship with Christ. He graciously forgave us all our shortcomings,

Such a person is not continuing in connection with the Head, from which the whole body, when supplied and united through its joints and sinews, grows with a growth that God produces.

So if you have been raised to life in fellowship with Christ, keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

for you have died, and your life is now hidden in God through your fellowship with Christ.

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

So as God's own chosen people, consecrated and dearly loved, you must once for all clothe yourselves with tenderheartedness, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; you must keep on

Let the message of Christ continue to live in you in all its wealth of wisdom; keep on teaching it to one another and training one another in it with thankfulness, in your hearts singing praise to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

And whatever you say or do, let it all be done with reference to the Lord Jesus, and through Him continue to give thanks to God the Father.

for you know that it is from the Lord that you are going to get your pay in the form of an inheritance; so keep on serving Christ the Lord.

At the same time keep on praying for me too, that God may open the door of opportunity for the message, so that I may tell the open secret about Christ, for the sake of which I am held a prisoner,

So does Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only converts from Judaism that are fellow-workers with me here for the kingdom of God, who have proved a real comfort to me.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.