The New Testament / Translated From the Original Greek, With Chronological Arrangement of the Sacred Books, and Improved Divisions of Chapters and Verses.

by Unknown

CHAPTER I.

PAUL'S PRAYERS FOR THE COLOSSIANS, THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST, PAUL'S MINISTRY, FALSE TEACHERS, ETC.

1 ^1:1PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, ^1:2to the saints in Colosse and the faithful brothers in Christ. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father.

2 ^1:3We thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ^1:4having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints, ^1:5on account of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the true word of the gospel ^1:6which is present with you as also in all the world, and is fruitful and increases, as also with you, from the day that you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; ^1:7as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, ^1:8and who made known to us your love in the Spirit.

3 ^1:9Therefore we also, from the day that we heard, cease not to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ^1:10that you may walk worthily of the Lord in all that is pleasing [to him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ^1:11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy; ^1:12giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit for a portion in the inheritance of the saints in light, ^1:13who delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, ^1:14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, ^1:15who is the likeness of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, ^1:16for by him were all things created which are in heaven and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and for him, ^1:17and he is before all things, and in him all things consist, ^1:18and he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that he might himself be preeminent in all things, ^1:19for in him [God] was well pleased that all fullness should dwell, ^1:20and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens. ^1:21And you, formerly alienated and enemies in mind by evil works, he has now reconciled ^1:22by the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blame and without fault before him, ^1:23if indeed you continue founded and established in the faith, and not moved from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached in all the creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

4 ^1:24Now I rejoice in sufferings for you, and supply the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the church, ^1:25of which I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God given me for you, to complete the word of God, ^1:26the mystery concealed from ages and from generations, but now it has been manifested to his saints, ^1:27to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, ^1:28whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; ^1:29for which I also labor, striving with his power which operates in me with power.

5 ^2:1For I wish you to know what a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, ^2:2that your hearts may be comforted, being united in love and [raised] to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, ^2:3in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ^2:4But I say this that no one may mislead you with persuasive words. ^2:5For if I am absent in the flesh, still I am present in spirit with you, rejoicing and beholding your order and the strength of your faith in Christ. ^2:6As therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, ^2:7founded and built up in him, and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

6 ^2:8See that no one leads you off as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ, ^2:9for in him dwells all the fullness of the Deity bodily ^2:10and you are made perfect in him, who is the head of all principality and power, ^2:11in whom you are also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, with the putting off of the body of the flesh, with the circumcision of Christ, ^2:12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you have also been raised together through the effectual faith of God who raised him from the dead; ^2:13and you being dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made you alive with him, having forgiven us all sins, ^2:14having blotted out what was written by the hand in ordinances which was against us, and has taken it away from between [us], having nailed it to the cross; ^2:15[and] having subjugated principalities and powers, he made a public exhibition of them, leading them in triumph by it.

7 ^2:16Let no man therefore judge you in eating and in drinking, or in respect to a feast, or new moon, or sabbath, ^2:17which are a shadow of things that were to come; but the body is Christ's. ^2:18Let no one wishing [it] deprive you of your reward by humility and a worship of angels, intruding into what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his carnal mind, ^2:19and not holding the head, from which all the body being supplied and compacted by means of joints and tendons grows with an increase of God. ^2:20If therefore you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why do you practice ordinances as living in the world,— ^2:21you shall not touch, you shall not taste, you shall not feel,— ^2:22all which are to perish in the using—according to the commandments and instructions of men? ^2:23Which have an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship and humiliation, and in a rigorous treatment of the body, [which is held] in no respect for the surfeiting of the flesh.