Greeting 1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints and faithful brothers
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.
9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;
The Preeminence of Christ
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
23if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation
Paul's Ministry to the Church 24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.