Colossians 1-2

Colossians 1

¹Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus, by God's will, and Timotheus the brother,

²to the holy and faithful brethren in Christ which are in Colosse. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

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

⁴having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have towards all the saints,

⁵on account of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens; of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the glad tidings,

⁶which are come to you, as they are in all the world, and are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day ye heard them and knew indeed the grace of God, in truth:

⁷even as ye learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-bondman, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,

⁸who has also manifested to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this reason *we* also, from the day we heard of your faith and love, do not cease praying and asking for you, to the end that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

¹⁰so as to walk worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God;

¹¹strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy;

¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light,

¹³who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love:

¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins;

¹⁵who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;

¹⁶because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by him and for him.

¹⁷And *he* is before all, and all things subsist together by him.

¹⁸And *he* is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that *he* might have the first place in all things:

¹⁹for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell,

²⁰and by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross -- by him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

²¹And you, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it reconciled

²²in the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it,

²³if indeed ye abide in the faith founded and firm, and not moved away from the hope of the glad tidings, which ye have heard, which have been proclaimed in the whole creation which is under heaven, of which *I* Paul became minister.

²⁴Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly;

²⁵of which *I* became minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to complete the word of God,

²⁶the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints;

²⁷to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory:

²⁸whom *we* announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

²⁹Whereunto also I toil, combating according to his working, which works in me in power.

Colossians 2

¹For I would have you know what combat I have for you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in flesh;

²to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God;

³in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.

⁴And I say this to the end that no one may delude you by persuasive speech.

⁵For if indeed in the flesh I am absent, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

⁶As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him,

⁷rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

⁸See that there be no one who shall lead *you* away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.

⁹For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;

¹⁰and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority,

¹¹in whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ;

¹²buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead.

¹³And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences;

¹⁴having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;

¹⁵having spoiled principalities and authorities, he made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it.

¹⁶Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of feast, or new moon, or sabbaths,

¹⁷which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

¹⁸Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,

¹⁹and not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.

²⁰If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?

²¹Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,

²²(things which are all for destruction in the using of them:) according to the injunctions and teachings of men,

²³(which have indeed an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body, not in a certain honour,) to the satisfaction of the flesh.