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

² to the saints in Colossae, and to the faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

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

⁴ having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that [is] to all the saints,

⁵ because of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, which ye heard of before in the word of the truth of the good news,

⁶ which is present to you, as also in all the world, and is bearing fruit, as also in you, from the day in which ye heard, and knew the grace of God in truth;

⁷ as ye also learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful ministrant of the Christ,

⁸ who also did declare to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹ Because of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

¹⁰ to your walking worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the knowledge of God,

¹¹ in all might being made mighty according to the power of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering with joy.

¹² Giving thanks to the Father who did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the light,

¹³ who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love,

¹⁴ in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of the sins,

¹⁵ who is the image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation,

¹⁶ because in him were the all things created, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible, whether thrones, whether lordships, whether principalities, whether authorities; all things through him, and for him, have been created,

¹⁷ and himself is before all, and the all things in him have consisted.

¹⁸ And himself is the head of the body -- the assembly -- who is a beginning, a first-born out of the dead, that he might become in all [things] -- himself -- first,

¹⁹ because in him it did please all the fulness to tabernacle,

²⁰ and through him to reconcile the all things to himself -- having made peace through the blood of his cross -- through him, whether the things upon the earth, whether the things in the heavens.

²¹ And you -- once being alienated, and enemies in the mind, in the evil works, yet now did he reconcile,

²² in the body of his flesh through the death, to present you holy, and unblemished, and unblameable before himself,

²³ if also ye remain in the faith, being founded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the good news, which ye heard, which was preached in all the creation that [is] under the heaven, of which I became -- I Paul -- a ministrant.

²⁴ I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,

²⁵ of which I -- I did become a ministrant according to the dispensation of God, that was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God,

²⁶ the secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested to his saints,

²⁷ to whom God did will to make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations -- which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory,

²⁸ whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,

²⁹ for which also I labour, striving according to his working that is working in me in power.

3 If, then, ye were raised with the Christ, the things above seek ye, where the Christ is, on the right hand of God seated,

² the things above mind ye, not the things upon the earth,

³ for ye did die, and your life hath been hid with the Christ in God;

⁴ when the Christ -- our life -- may be manifested, then also we with him shall be manifested in glory.

⁵ Put to death, then, your members that [are] upon the earth -- whoredom, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and the covetousness, which is idolatry --

⁶ because of which things cometh the anger of God upon the sons of the disobedience,

⁷ in which also ye -- ye did walk once, when ye lived in them;

⁸ but now put off, even ye, the whole -- anger, wrath, malice, evil-speaking, filthy talking -- out of your mouth.

⁹ Lie not one to another, having put off the old man with his practices,

¹⁰ and having put on the new, which is renewed in regard to knowledge, after the image of Him who did create him;

¹¹ where there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, servant, freeman -- but the all and in all -- Christ.

¹² Put on, therefore, as choice ones of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humble-mindedness, meekness, long-suffering,

¹³ forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any one with any one may have a quarrel, as also the Christ did forgive you -- so also ye;

¹⁴ and above all these things, [have] love, which is a bond of the perfection,

¹⁵ and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye were called in one body, and become thankful.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing each other, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, in grace singing in your hearts to the Lord;

¹⁷ and all, whatever ye may do in word or in work, [do] all things in the name of the Lord Jesus -- giving thanks to the God and Father, through him.

¹⁸ The wives! be subject to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord;

¹⁹ the husbands! love your wives, and be not bitter with them;

²⁰ the children! obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord;

²¹ the fathers! vex not your children, lest they be discouraged.

²² The servants! obey in all things those who are masters according to the flesh, not in eye-service as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God;

²³ and all, whatever ye may do -- out of soul work -- as to the Lord, and not to men,

²⁴ having known that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance -- for the Lord Christ ye serve;

²⁵ and he who is doing unrighteously shall receive what he did unrighteously, and there is no acceptance of persons.

2 If, then, any exhortation [is] in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

² fulfil ye my joy, that ye may mind the same thing -- having the same love -- of one soul -- minding the one thing,

³ nothing in rivalry or vain-glory, but in humility of mind one another counting more excellent than yourselves --

⁴ each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others.

⁵ For, let this mind be in you that [is] also in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, being in the form of God, thought [it] not robbery to be equal to God,

⁷ but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

⁸ and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death -- death even of a cross,

⁹ wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that [is] above every name,

¹⁰ that in the name of Jesus every knee may bow -- of heavenlies, and earthlies, and what are under the earth --

¹¹ and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹² So that, my beloved, as ye always obey, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling your own salvation work out,

¹³ for God it is who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

¹⁴ All things do without murmurings and reasonings,

¹⁵ that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse, among whom ye do appear as luminaries in the world,

¹⁶ the word of life holding forth, for rejoicing to me in regard to a day of Christ, that not in vain did I run, nor in vain did I labour;

¹⁷ but if also I am poured forth upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and joy with you all,

¹⁸ because of this do ye also rejoice and joy with me.

¹⁹ And I hope, in the Lord Jesus, Timotheus to send quickly to you, that I also may be of good spirit, having known the things concerning you,

²⁰ for I have no one like-minded, who sincerely for the things concerning you will care,

²¹ for the whole seek their own things, not the things of the Christ Jesus,

²² and the proof of him ye know, that as a child [serveth] a father, with me he did serve in regard to the good news;

²³ him, indeed, therefore, I hope to send, when I may see through the things concerning me -- immediately;

²⁴ and I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall quickly come.

²⁵ And I thought [it] necessary Epaphroditus -- my brother, and fellow-workman, and fellow-soldier, and your apostle and servant to my need -- to send unto you,

²⁶ seeing he was longing after you all, and in heaviness, because ye heard that he ailed,

²⁷ for he also ailed nigh to death, but God did deal kindly with him, and not with him only, but also with me, that sorrow upon sorrow I might not have.

²⁸ The more eagerly, therefore, I did send him, that having seen him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful;

²⁹ receive him, therefore, in the Lord, with all joy, and hold such in honour,

³⁰ because on account of the work of the Christ he drew near to death, having hazarded the life that he might fill up your deficiency of service unto me.

4 So then, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand ye in the Lord, beloved.

² Euodia I exhort, and Syntyche I exhort, to be of the same mind in the Lord;

³ and I ask also thee, genuine yoke-fellow, be assisting those women who in the good news did strive along with me, with Clement also, and the others, my fellow-workers, whose names [are] in the book of life.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice;

⁵ let your forbearance be known to all men; the Lord [is] near;

⁶ for nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer, and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God;

⁷ and the peace of God, that is surpassing all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

⁸ As to the rest, brethren, as many things as are true, as many as [are] grave, as many as [are] righteous, as many as [are] pure, as many as [are] lovely, as many as [are] of good report, if any worthiness, and if any praise, these things think upon;

⁹ the things that also ye did learn, and receive, and hear, and saw in me, those do, and the God of the peace shall be with you.

¹⁰ And I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye flourished again in caring for me, for which also ye were caring, and lacked opportunity;

¹¹ not that in respect of want I say [it], for I did learn in the things in which I am -- to be content;

¹² I have known both to be abased, and I have known to abound; in everything and in all things I have been initiated, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.

¹³ For all things I have strength, in Christ's strengthening me;

¹⁴ but ye did well, having communicated with my tribulation;

¹⁵ and ye have known, even ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the good news when I went forth from Macedonia, no assembly did communicate with me in regard to giving and receiving except ye only;

¹⁶ because also in Thessalonica, both once and again to my need ye sent;

¹⁷ not that I seek after the gift, but I seek after the fruit that is overflowing to your account;

¹⁸ and I have all things, and abound; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you -- an odour of a sweet smell -- a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God:

¹⁹ and my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus;

²⁰ and to God, even our Father, [is] the glory -- to the ages of the ages. Amen.

²¹ Salute ye every saint in Christ Jesus; there salute you the brethren with me;

²² there salute you all the saints, and specially those of Caesar's house;

²³ the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [is] with you all. Amen.