New Living Translation

King James Bible

1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

2We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer

2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,

4Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5which 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.

5For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

6This 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.

6Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

7You 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.

7As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

8He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

8Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

9So 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.

9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10Then 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.

10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11We 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,

11Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Christ Is Supreme

14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16for 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.

16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.

18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20and 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.

20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22Yet 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.

22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

23But 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. Paul’s Work for the Church

23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

24I 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.

24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

25God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.

25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.

26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27For 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.

27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

28So 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, perfect in their relationship to Christ.

28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

29That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com.