New Living Translation

New King James Version

Greetings from Paul

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.

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Greeting

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

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We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sistersa in Christ.
May God our Father give you grace and peace.

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To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father [a]and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Their Faith in Christ

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

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

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since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

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which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

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because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

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This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

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which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth [b]fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

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You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.b

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as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,

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He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

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who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

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So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

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Preeminence of Christ

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

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Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

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that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

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We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,c

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strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

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always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

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giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

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For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and [c]conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

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who purchased our freedomd and forgave our sins.
Christ Is Supreme

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in whom we have redemption [d]through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

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Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,e

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

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for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see —
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.

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For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [e]principalities or [f]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

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He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.

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And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

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Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.f
So he is first in everything.

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And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

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For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,

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Reconciled in Christ

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

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and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

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and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

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This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

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And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled

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Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

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in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight —

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But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

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if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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Paul’s Work for the Church

I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.

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Sacrificial Service for Christ

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,

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God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.

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of which I became a minister according to the [g]stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

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This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.

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the [h]mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

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For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

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To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: [i]which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfectg in their relationship to Christ.

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Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

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That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

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To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

Parallel

New Living Translation

New King James Version

Colossians 1

Colossians 1