ULT COL chapter 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.[fn]

3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you, 4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope that is being reserved for you in the heavens, which you heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, 6 which being present among you just as also in all the world, is bearing fruit and growing, just as also in you, from the day you heard it and learned about the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,[fn] 8 and the one having made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 Because of this, from the day we heard this, we also have not stopped praying for you and asking that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 to walk worthily of the Lord in every pleasing way, bearing fruit in every good deed and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to the power of his glory to all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, the one having made you able to share the inheritance of the saints in the light.[fn] 13 He rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.[fn] 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For in him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or governments or authorities, all things have been created though him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself might become first among all things. 19 For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, 20 and to reconcile through him all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens. 21 At one time you also were alienated and enemies in thought, in evil deeds. 22 But now you have been reconciled by the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, founded and firm and not being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, the one having been proclaimed to every creature that is under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a servant.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh the lack of the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a servant according to the stewardship of God, the one having been given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery that had been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now having been revealed to his saints, 27 to whom God desired to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this also I labor, striving according to his working, the one working in me in power.

Some early copies leave out and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some versions read, on your behalf.

Some versions read, the one having made us able to have a share.

Some versions read, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Demonstration version—prototype quality only—still in development

ULT COL Chapter 1