rsv Colossians:1:1-25 SEEK
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Paul ,
an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God ,
and Timothy our brother ,
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To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colos '
sae :
Grace to you and peace from God our Father .
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We always thank God ,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ,
when we pray for you ,
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because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints ,
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because of the hope laid up for you in heaven .
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth ,
the gospel
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which has come to you ,
as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--so among yourselves ,
from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth ,
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as you learned it from Ep '
aphras our beloved fellow servant .
He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf
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and has made known to us your love in the Spirit .
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And so ,
from the day we heard of it ,
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 ,
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to lead a life worthy of the Lord ,
fully pleasing to him ,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God .
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May you be strengthened with all power ,
according to his glorious might ,
for all endurance and patience with joy ,
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giving thanks to the Father ,
who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light .
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He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son ,
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in whom we have redemption ,
the forgiveness of sins .
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He is the image of the invisible God ,
the first-born of all creation ;
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for in him all things were created ,
in heaven and on earth ,
visible and invisible ,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created through him and for him .
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He is before all things ,
and in him all things hold together .
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He is the head of the body ,
the church ;
he is the beginning ,
the first-born from the dead ,
that in everything he might be pre-eminent .
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For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell ,
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and through him to reconcile to himself all things ,
whether on earth or in heaven ,
making peace by the blood of his cross .
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And you ,
who once were estranged and hostile in mind ,
doing evil deeds ,
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he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death ,
in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him ,
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provided that you continue in the faith ,
stable and steadfast ,
not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard ,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven ,
and of which I ,
Paul ,
became a minister .
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Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake ,
and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ '
s afflictions for the sake of his body ,
that is ,
the church ,
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of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you ,
to make the word of God fully known ,