Greetings
1 Paul, an emissary of Messiah Yeshua by God’s will, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the kedoshim, the faithful brothers and sisters in Messiah, who are at Colossae:
Grace and shalom to you from God our Father![a]
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, whenever we pray for you. 4 For we heard of your trust in Messiah Yeshua and the love you have for all the kedoshim 5 because of the hope stored up for you in heaven. You heard before about this hope in the true message of the Good News 6 that has come to you. In all the world this Good News is bearing fruit and growing,[b] just as it has in you since you first heard it and came to truly know God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras—our dearly loved fellow slave, who is a faithful servant of Messiah on our behalf. 8 He also made clear to us your love in the Ruach.
9 For this reason also, ever since we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking God that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding— 10 to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. 11 We pray that you may be strengthened with all the power that comes from His glorious might, for you to have all kinds of patience and steadfastness. With joy 12 we give thanks to the Father, who qualified you to share in the inheritance of the kedoshim in the light. 13 He rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom He loves. 14 In Him we have redemption—the release of sins.
Ben-Elohim Is Supreme
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created—
in heaven and on earth,
the seen and the unseen,
whether thrones or angelic powers
or rulers or authorities.
All was created through Him and for Him.
17 He exists before everything,
and in Him all holds together.
18 He is the head of the body, His community.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead—
so that He might come to have first place in all things.
19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him[c]
20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself,
making peace through the blood of His cross—
whether things on earth or things in heaven!
21 Once you were alienated from God and hostile in your attitude by wicked deeds. 22 But now He has reconciled you in Messiah’s physical body through death, in order to present you holy, spotless and blameless in His eyes— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, established and firm, not budging from the hope of the Good News that you have heard. This Good News has been proclaimed throughout all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.
The Mystery Revealed
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my physical body—for the sake of His body, Messiah’s community—I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Messiah. 25 I became its servant according to God’s commission, given to me for you, in order to declare His message in full— 26 the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His kedoshim. 27 God chose to make known to them this glorious mystery regarding the Gentiles—which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory! 28 We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete[d] in Messiah. 29 To this end I labor, striving with all His strength which is powerfully at work in me.
Footnotes
- Colossians 1:2 Some mss. add: and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
- Colossians 1:6 cf. Gen. 1:28; 9:1, 7; 17:2; 22:17; 28:3; 35:11.
- Colossians 1:19 cf. Isa. 6:3; Ezek. 43:5; 44:4.
- Colossians 1:28 cf. 1 Ki. 8:61; 11:4.