Thematic Bible
Colossians 1:1 (show verse)
From: Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.
Colossians 1:2 (show verse)
To: The holy and faithful brothers in Colossae who are in union with the Messiah. May grace and peace from God our Father be yours!
Colossians 1:3 (show verse)
We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, praying always for you,
Colossians 1:4 (show verse)
because we have heard about your faith in the Messiah Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints,
Colossians 1:5 (show verse)
based on the hope laid up for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope through the word of truth, the gospel
Colossians 1:6 (show verse)
that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and spreading all over the world, so it has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.
Colossians 1:7 (show verse)
You learned about this gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf.
Colossians 1:8 (show verse)
He has told us about your love in the Spirit.
Colossians 1:9 (show verse)
For this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God's will with respect to all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Colossians 1:10 (show verse)
so that you might live in a manner worthy of the Lord and be fully pleasing to him as you bear fruit while doing all kinds of good things and growing in the full knowledge of God.
Colossians 1:11 (show verse)
You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might patiently endure everything with joy
Colossians 1:12 (show verse)
and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.
Colossians 1:13 (show verse)
God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves,
Colossians 1:14 (show verse)
through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:15 (show verse)
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Colossians 1:16 (show verse)
For by him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:17 (show verse)
He himself existed before anything else did, and he holds all things together.
Colossians 1:18 (show verse)
He is also the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:19 (show verse)
For God was pleased to have all of his divine essence inhabit him.
Colossians 1:20 (show verse)
Through the Son, God also reconciled all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, thereby making peace through the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:21 (show verse)
You who were once alienated with a hostile attitude, doing evil,
Colossians 1:22 (show verse)
he has now reconciled by the death of his physical body, so that he may present you holy, blameless, and without fault before him.
Colossians 1:23 (show verse)
However, you must remain firmly established and steadfast in the faith, without being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Colossians 1:24 (show verse)
Now I am rejoicing while suffering for you as I complete in my flesh whatever remains of the Messiah's sufferings on behalf of his body, which is the church.
Colossians 1:25 (show verse)
I became its servant as God commissioned me to work for you, so that I may complete my ministry of the word of God.
Colossians 1:26 (show verse)
This secret was hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints,
Colossians 1:27 (show verse)
to whom God wanted to make known the glorious riches of this secret among the gentiles which is the Messiah in you, our glorious hope.
Colossians 1:28 (show verse)
It is he whom we proclaim as we admonish and wisely teach everyone, so that we may present everyone mature in the Messiah.
Colossians 1:29 (show verse)
I work hard and struggle to do this, using the energy that he powerfully provides in me.