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Colossians 1

Thankfulness for Spiritual Attainments

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 aPaul,  ban apostle of Jesus Christ  1 cby the will of God, and  dTimothy  2our brother,

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To the  1 asaints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae:  bGrace to you and peace from God our Father.

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 aWe give thanks to God,  bthe Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

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 asince we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the  blove which you have  1for  call the  2saints;

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because of the  ahope  blaid up for you in  1heaven, of which you previously  cheard in the word of truth,  2the gospel

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which has come to you, just as  1 ain all the world also it is constantly bearing  bfruit and  2increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you  cheard of it and  3understood the grace of God in truth;

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just as you learned it from  aEpaphras, our  bbeloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

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and he also informed us of your  alove in the Spirit.

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For this reason also,  asince the day we heard of it,  bwe have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the  1 cknowledge of His will in all spiritual  dwisdom and understanding,

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so that you will  awalk in a manner worthy of the Lord,  1 bto please Him in all respects,  cbearing fruit in every good work and  2increasing in the  3knowledge of God;

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 astrengthened with all power, according to  1His glorious might,  2for the attaining of all steadfastness and  3patience;  bjoyously

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giving thanks to  athe Father, who has qualified us  1to share in  bthe inheritance of the  2saints in  cLight.

The Incomparable Christ

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 1For He rescued us from the  2 adomain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of  3 bHis beloved Son,

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 ain whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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 1He is the  aimage of the  binvisible God, the  cfirstborn of all creation.

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For  1 aby Him all things were created,  aboth in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether  bthrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- call things have been created through Him and for Him.

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He  1 ais before all things, and in Him all things  2hold together.

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He is also  ahead of  bthe body, the church; and He is  cthe beginning,  dthe firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

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For  1it was  athe Father's good pleasure for all  bthe  2fullness to dwell in Him,

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and through Him to  areconcile all things to Himself, having made  bpeace through  cthe blood of His cross; through Him, I say,  dwhether things on earth or things in  1heaven.

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And although you were  aformerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,

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yet He has now  areconciled you in His fleshly  bbody through death, in order to  cpresent you before Him  dholy and blameless and beyond reproach--

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if indeed you continue in  1the faith firmly  aestablished and steadfast, and not moved away from the  bhope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed  cin all creation under heaven,  dand of which I, Paul,  2was made a  3 eminister.

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 aNow I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh  bI  1do my share on behalf of  cHis body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking  2in Christ's afflictions.

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 aOf this church I  1was made a minister according to the  bstewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might  2fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

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that is,  athe mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His  1saints,

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to whom  aGod willed to make known what is  bthe riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is  cChrist in you, the  dhope of glory.

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We proclaim Him,  aadmonishing every man and teaching every man  1with all  bwisdom, so that we may  cpresent every man  2 dcomplete in Christ.

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For this purpose also I  alabor,  bstriving  caccording to His  1power, which  2mightily works within me.



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(Produced: Sat Dec 22 11:24:27 2007)

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