Study Desk

Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ, by ye will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

To the saints and faithfull brethren in Christ, which are at Colosse, grace be vnto you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Iesus Christ.

We giue thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, praying alwayes for you,

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Iesus, and of the loue which yee haue to all the Saints,

For the hope which is layd vp for you in heauen, whereof ye heard before in the word of the trueth of the Gospel,

Which is come vnto you as it is in all the world, and bringeth foorth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day yee heard of it, and knew the grace of God in trueth,

As yee also learned of Epaphras our deare felow seruant, who is for you a faithfull Minister of Christ:

Who also declared vnto vs your loue in the spirit.

For this cause wee also, since the day we heard it, doe not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisedome and spirituall vnderstanding:

That ye might walke worthy of the Lord vnto all pleasing, being fruitfull in euery good worke, & increasing in the knowledge of God:

Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, vnto all patience and long suffering with ioyfulnesse:

Giuing thanks vnto the Father, which hath made vs meete to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light:

Who hath deliuered vs from the power of darkenesse, and hath translated vs into the kingdome of his deare Sonne,

In whom we haue redemption through his blood, euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes:

Who is the image of the inuisible God, the first borne of euery creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heauen, and that are in earth, visible and inuisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And hee is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the first borne from the dead, that in all things he might haue the preeminence:

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell,

And (hauing made peace through the blood of his crosse) by him to reconcile all things vnto himself, by him, I say, whether they bee things in earth, or things in heauen.

And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minde by wicked workes, yet now hath hee reconciled,

In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy & vnblameable, and vnreprooueable in his sight,

If ye continue in the faith grounded and setled, and be not moued away from the hope of the Gospel, which yee haue heard, and which was preached to euery creature which is vnder heauen, whereof I Paul am made a Minister.

Who now reioyce in my sufferings for you, and fill vp that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake, which is the Church,

Whereof I am made a Minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is giuen to mee for you, to fulfill the word of God:

Euen the mystery which hath been hid from ages, and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,

To whom God would make knowen what is the riches of the glory of this mysterie among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Whom we preach, warning euery man, and teaching euery man in all wisedome, that we may present euery man perfect in Christ Iesus.

Whereunto I also labour, striuing according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.