Read the Bible

¹ Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the divine appointment, and Timothy our brother, ² to our faithful brethren the christian converts at Coloss. favour and peace be to you from God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ In our prayers we continually give thanks to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ upon your account, ⁴ having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the affection you have to all christians; ⁵ for the sake of that happiness, which you hope for, and is reserv'd for you in heaven, of which you have already been inform'd by the preaching of the truth, that is, the gospel: ⁶ which is not only come to you, but to all the world; where it produces its effects, and increases, as it does also among you, ever since you sincerely embrac'd the divine favour, ⁷ which you heard was offer'd to you, by the instructions of Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is to you a faithful minister of Christ: ⁸ who also declared to us the love you bear to us upon a spiritual account.

⁹ For this cause, ever since we heard of it, we incessantly pray for you, requesting that you may be endued with respect to the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual discernment: ¹⁰ that your conduct may be worthy of the Lord, in every respect agreeable to him, being friutful in every kind of virtue, and increasing in divine knowledge: ¹¹ being fortified in so effectual a manner, as to sustain your trials with constancy and joy:

¹² giving thanks to the father, who has qualified you to share in that light he affords to his people: ¹³ who has deliver'd you from the state of darkness, and has translated you into the kingdom of his beloved son. ¹⁴ It is by him, that we have obtain'd the redemption, even the remission of our sins: ¹⁵ he is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of the whole creation. ¹⁶ for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are on earth, both visible and invisible, the thrones, and the sovereigntys, the principalitys, and the powers: all were created by him, and for him: he is before all things, ¹⁷ and by him all things consist. ¹⁸ he himself is the head of the church, which is his body. he is the prince, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might be chief. ¹⁹ for it seemed good to the father to inhabit the whole body of the church by Christ: ²⁰ and having made peace by the blood of his cross, to reconcile all things to himself, both those in heaven, and those upon earth. ²¹ You then that formerly were alienated from God, and were enemies by your imaginations and wicked practices, even you has Jesus Christ now reconciled to the body of his church, ²² through his own death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his own sight: ²³ provided you continue well-grounded and settled in the faith, and do not abandon that hope which has been offer'd to you by the gospel, and is proclaim'd to all mankind; of which I Paul am made a minister. ²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and am filling up the measure of those remaining afflictions, which in my turn I am to suffer in this life, in the cause of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church: ²⁵ of which I have been established a minister, according to the charge which God has given me to preach his gospel faithfully among you. ---²⁶ that mystery, which has been hid from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to his saints: ²⁷ to whom God does disclose the glorious advantages of this mystery to you Gentiles, to wit, "that by Christ you may have the expectation of glory." ²⁸ he it is that we preach, exhorting, and instructing men in every part of divine knowledge, that they may all be perfectly acquainted with the doctrine of Christ Jesus. ²⁹ this is what I earnestly strive to effect, by virtue of that power, which effectually operates in me.