and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse: grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

which is come unto you, even as in all the world, and is fruitful; as it hath been also among you, from the day in which ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

For this cause we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to request that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding:

who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son:

And He is the head of the body, which is the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.

if so be ye continue grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved from the gospel, which ye have heard, and which hath been preached throughout the whole creation, of which I Paul am a minister.

even that mystery which was hid from former ages and generations, but is now manifested to his saints:

being buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are raised together with Him, through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

and not adhering to the head, from which all the body, being supplied and held together as by joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.

If therefore ye be dead with Christ from the elements of the world; why, as if living in the world, are ye subject to ceremonial ordinances,

knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ;

And when this letter has been read amongst you, cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; that ye may also read that from Laodicea.