Colossians 1 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Thankfulness for Spiritual Attainments

1Paul, an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed) by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the saints and faithful believers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we pray always for you,

4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints (God’s people);

5because of the hope which is reserved and waiting for you in heaven. You previously heard of this hope in the message of truth, the gospel

6which has come to you. Indeed, just as in the whole world the gospel is constantly bearing fruit and spreading, just as it has been doing among you ever since the day you first heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.

7You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf

8and he also has told us of your love in the Spirit.

9For this reason, since the day we heard about it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom, and in understanding,

10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing in the knowledge of God;

11[we pray that you may be] strengthened and invigorated with all power, according to His glorious might, to attain every kind of endurance and patience with joy;

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (God’s people) in the Light.

The Incomparable Christ

13For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

14in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of our sins.

15He is the exact living image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.

16For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him and for Him.

17And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

18He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will occupy the first place in everything.

19For it pleased the Father for all the fullness to dwell in Him (the Son),

20and through the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

21And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded, participating in evil things,

22yet Christ has now reconciled you in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

23[and He will do this] if you continue in the faith, well-grounded and steadfast, and not shifting away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf. And with my own body I supplement whatever is lacking of Christ’s afflictions, on behalf of His body, which is the church.

25In this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship which God entrusted to me for your sake, so that I might make the word of God fully known—

26that is, the mystery which was hidden for ages and generations, but has now been revealed to His saints (God’s people).

27God chose to make known to them how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in and among you, the hope and guarantee of glory.

28We proclaim Him, warning and instructing everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Christ.

29For this I labor, striving with His power and energy, which so greatly works within me.