Colossians 1-2

21st Century King James Version

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, who are at Colossae: Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have for all the saints,

⁵ for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel,

⁶ which has come unto you, as it has in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.

⁷ Ye also learned of it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ,

⁸ who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

⁹ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

¹⁰ that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, in all pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

¹¹ strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

¹² giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

¹³ He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son,

¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

¹⁶ For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him.

¹⁷ And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.

¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell,

²⁰ and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself — by Him, I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven.

²¹ And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, even now hath He reconciled

²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight,

²³ if ye continue grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am made a minister.

²⁴ I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body’s sake, which is the church,

²⁵ of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God—

²⁶ even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.

²⁷ To them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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

²⁹ for which I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.

2 For I would that ye knew how great is my conflict for you and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

² that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may acknowledge the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ,

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

⁴ And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words;

⁵ for though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

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

⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

⁸ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.

⁹ For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

¹⁰ And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power,

¹¹ and in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

¹² Ye are buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye also are risen with Him through the faith wrought by the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.

¹³ And you, being dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

¹⁴ blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross;

¹⁵ and having despoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶ Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect to a holy day or the new moon or the Sabbath days,

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

¹⁸ Let no man beguile you of your reward by feigned humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹ and not holding to the Head, from whom all the body, having nourishment ministered and knit together by joints and bands, increaseth with the increase from God.

²⁰ Therefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to its ordinances

²¹ (“Touch not, taste not, handle not,”

²² which all are to perish with the using), according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

²³ These things have indeed a show of wisdom in willworship and humility and neglecting of the body, but are not in any honor against the satisfying of the flesh.