OET-RV COL Chapter 1

3 We thank God the father of our master Yeshua Messiah as we continually pray for you all, 4 after having heard about your faith in Messiah Yeshua and the love that you have for all godly people 5 which arose because of your hope in a heavenly reward. You all previously heard about that in the message of the truth—the good message 6 that’s in you and that is bearing fruit in the world and growing, just like it did among all of you from the day that you heard it and knew about the grace of God in truth. 7 [ref]You all learnt that from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave and who is our faithful servant of the messiah, 8 and he is the one who made your love in the spirit evident to us.

9 It’s because of that that we haven’t stopped praying from the time that we heard it, and requesting that you all would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual insight, 10 to live worthily of the master—pleasing him in every kind of good and productive work. We pray that you all will grow in the knowledge of God 11 and be strengthened with all power, according to his great power, leading to endurance and patience with contentment. 12 Then you’ll all be thanking the father, the one who qualified you all for a part of the inheritance of godly people who live in the light. 13 The father rescued us from the power of darkness and redirected us into the kingdom of his dear son— 14 [ref]the one who buys us out of slavery and forgives our sins.

15 The son is the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation 16 because it was him who created everything in the heavens and on the earth, both visible and invisible, including all authorities such as kingdoms and governments. Yes, everything was created by him and for him. 17 He came before everything and everything still only exists because of him. 18 [ref]He is the head of the body which is the assembly. He is the beginning, the first of the dead to come back to life, so that he would be the first in everything, 19 because God was pleased to live in him in all totality 20 [ref]and to reconcile everything to himself through him—both things on earth and things in the heavens. God made peace through him by means of the blood at the execution stake.

21 Once all of you were alienated from God—your thinking was that of an enemy and your actions were evil, 22 but now you all have been reconciled by means of the death of Yeshua’s physical body. He’s able to present you as pure and blameless in front of God—unable to be charged for any infraction 23 if indeed you continue on in your established and firm faith. Don’t let anyone drive away the hope that comes from the good message that you all heard and which has been proclaimed throughout the whole world—it’s that good message that I’ve become a servant of.

24 So now I’m happy to be suffering for you all, and I’m catching up in my body to the tribulations of the messiah in his body, which is the assembly. 25 I became a servant of the assembly under God’s supervision when he gave me the work of fulfilling God’s message— 26 the mystery which had been hidden away from the generations over the ages, but which was recently revealed to his chosen people. 27 God wanted them to explain the riches of the this incredible mystery among the pagans: the messiah in you all bringing the hope of reaching God. 28 Yes, Messiah who we are telling everyone about as we teach and recommend to everyone, so they we might present every person made perfect in Messiah. 29 That’s what I’m working hard towards according to his work as well—working in me with power.