Colossians 1:12-29

12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

13He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

14In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him.

17He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

18He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

20and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.

22But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him  —

23if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church.

25I have become its servant, according to God’s commission 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.

27God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

29I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.