Colossians 1 (NMV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all those who are set apart for God,
5 because of the confident expectation reserved for you in heaven. You previously heard about in the word of truth, the gospel,
6 which has come to you. Just as in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been doing among you since the day you heard and came to truly know the grace of God in truth.
7 You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be completely filled with the real, experiential knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.
11 Being empowered with all strength according to His glorious power and dominion, so that you may have great endurance and patience with joy,
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has made you fully capable to share in the inheritance of those set apart for Him in the light.
13 He rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,
14 In whom we have release through the payment of a ransom, this is the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the visible image, the exact and living expression, of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might be first in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,
20 and through Him to bring all things back into right relationship with Himself, whether things on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you were once excluded and enemies in your inner thoughts because of your evil actions.
22 But now He has fully restored you to favor through His physical body by His death, so that He might present you set apart for God, without a single fault or blemish, and legally beyond accusation in His presence,
23 if indeed you remain in the faith, firmly established and unshakable, and are not dislodged from the assured promise of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a servant.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, that is, the church.
25 I became its servant according to the commission entrusted to me by God for your sake, to fully carry out the word of God;
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to those set apart for God.
27 To them, God chose to make known among the non-Jewish nations the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the confident expectation of glory.
28 We proclaim Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
29 For this I labor tirelessly, striving with the strength that He powerfully works within me.