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Greeting

¹From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and from Timothy our brother, ²to God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.^a

Thanks for their faith and love

³Every time we pray for you, we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s holy people. ⁵That faith and love spring from the hope kept safe for you in heaven, the hope you first heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁶that has reached you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, and it has done the same among you from the day you heard it and came to know God’s grace in all its truth. ⁷You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who serves Christ faithfully on our behalf. ⁸He is also the one who told us about your love in the Spirit.^b

Paul’s prayer, and the Son above all creation

⁹That is why, from the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives, ¹⁰so that you may live in a way worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in the knowledge of God. ¹¹We ask that you be made strong with all power by his glorious might, so that you may endure everything with patience and joy, ¹²and give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of God’s holy people in the light. ¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. ¹⁴In him we have redemption, which is the forgiveness of our sins.^{cde 15}The Son is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn who stands above all creation. ¹⁶For in him everything in heaven and on earth was created, the seen and the unseen, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him.^{f 17}He exists before all things, and all things are held together in him. ¹⁸He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first to be born from among the dead, so that he would come to hold first place in everything. ¹⁹For God in all his fullness was pleased to dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross: all things through him, on earth and in heaven alike.^{gh 21}Once you were estranged from God, hostile to him in your thinking, as your evil deeds showed. ²²But now you have been reconciled by Christ’s death in his physical body, so that God may bring you into his presence holy, without blemish, and free from any charge, ²³provided that you stay in the faith, firm on your foundation and steady, not drifting away from the hope held out in the gospel you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.ⁱ

Paul toils to make the mystery known

²⁴Now I am glad to suffer for your sake. In my own body I am completing what is still lacking in Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, the church. ²⁵I became its servant by the task God gave me for your benefit: to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery that was kept hidden through all past ages and generations but has now been revealed to his holy people. ²⁷God chose to make known to them how rich and glorious this mystery is among the Gentiles. The mystery is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory.^{jk 28}Christ is the one we proclaim. We warn every person and teach every person with all wisdom, so that we may bring every person before God mature in Christ. ²⁹This is the goal I toil for, struggling by his energy, which is powerfully at work in me.