Colossians 1-2

Colossians 1

¹Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the purpose of God, and Timothy our brother,

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

³We give praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, making prayer for you at all times,

⁴After hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints,

⁵Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news,

⁶Which has come to you; and which in all the world is giving fruit and increase, as it has done in you from the day when it came to your ears and you had true knowledge of the grace of God;

⁷As it was given to you by Epaphras, our well-loved helper, who is a true servant of Christ for us,

⁸And who, himself, made clear to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this reason, we, from the day when we had word of it, keep on in prayer for you, that you may be full of the knowledge of his purpose, with all wisdom and experience of the Spirit,

¹⁰Living uprightly in the approval of the Lord, giving fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

¹¹Full of strength in the measure of the great power of his glory, so that you may undergo all troubles with joy;

¹²Giving praise to the Father who has given us a part in the heritage of the saints in light;

¹³Who has made us free from the power of evil and given us a place in the kingdom of the Son of his love;

¹⁴In whom we have our salvation, the forgiveness of sins:

¹⁵Who is the image of the unseen God coming into existence before all living things;

¹⁶For by him all things were made, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, authorities, lords, rulers, and powers; all things were made by him and for him;

¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things have being.

¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church: the starting point of all things, the first to come again from the dead; so that in all things he might have the chief place.

¹⁹For God in full measure was pleased to be in him;

²⁰Through him uniting all things with himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, uniting all things which are on earth or in heaven.

²¹And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one

²²In the body of his flesh through death, so that you might be holy and without sin and free from all evil before him:

²³If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

²⁴Now I have joy in my pain because of you, and in my flesh I undergo whatever is still needed to make the sorrows of Christ complete, for the salvation of his body, the church;

²⁵Of which I became a servant by the purpose of God which was given to me for you, to give effect to the word of God,

²⁶The secret which has been kept from all times and generations, but has now been made clear to his saints,

²⁷To whom God was pleased to give knowledge of the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

²⁸Whom we are preaching; guiding and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that every man may be complete in Christ;

²⁹And for this purpose I am working, using all my strength by the help of his power which is working in me strongly.

Colossians 2

¹For it is my desire to give you news of the great fight I am making for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh;

²So that their hearts may be comforted, and that being joined together in love, they may come to the full wealth of the certain knowledge of the secret of God, even Christ,

³In whom are all the secret stores of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this so that you may not be turned away by any deceit of words.

⁵For though I am not present in the flesh, still I am with you in the spirit, seeing with joy your order, and your unchanging faith in Christ.

⁶As, then, you took Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on in him,

⁷Rooted and based together in him, strong in the faith which the teaching gave you, giving praise to God at all times.

⁸Take care that no one takes you away by force, through man's wisdom and deceit, going after the beliefs of men and the theories of the world, and not after Christ:

⁹For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form,

¹⁰And you are complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority:

¹¹In whom you had a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;

¹²Having been put to death with him in baptism, by which you came to life again with him, through faith in the working of God, who made him come back from the dead.

¹³And you, being dead through your sins and the evil condition of your flesh, to you, I say, he gave life together with him, and forgiveness of all our sins;

¹⁴Having put an end to the handwriting of the law which was against us, taking it out of the way by nailing it to his cross;

¹⁵Having made himself free from the rule of authorities and powers, he put them openly to shame, glorying over them in it.

¹⁶For this reason let no man be your judge in any question of food or drink or feast days or new moons or Sabbaths:

¹⁷For these are an image of the things which are to come; but the body is Christ's.

¹⁸Let no man take your reward from you by consciously making little of himself and giving worship to angels; having his thoughts fixed on the things which he has seen, being foolishly lifted up in his natural mind,

¹⁹And not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God.

²⁰If you were made free, by your death with Christ, from the rules of the world, why do you put yourselves under the authority of orders

²¹Which say there may be no touching, tasting, or taking in your hands,

²²(Rules which are all to come to an end with their use) after the orders and teaching of men?

²³These things seem to have a sort of wisdom in self-ordered worship and making little of oneself, and being cruel to the body, not honouring it by giving it its natural use.