American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any {Or, persuasion}consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions,
make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, {Some ancient authorities read of the same mind.}of one mind;
doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself;
not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a {Greek: bondservant.}servant, {Greek: becoming in.}being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;
that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and {Or, things of the world below}things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not {Some ancient authorities omit as.}as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
Do all things without murmurings and questionings:
that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as {Greek: luminaries. Wisd. 13:2; compare Revelation 21:11}lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain.
Yea, and if I am {Greek: poured out as a drink-offering.}offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all:
and in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.
But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
For I have no man likeminded, who will care {Greek: genuinely.}truly for your state.
For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.
But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child serveth a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the {Greek: good tidings. See marginal note on chapter 1:5.}gospel.
Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me:
but I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come shortly.
But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your {Greek: apostle.}messenger and minister to my need;
since he longed {Many ancient authorities read to see you all.}after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick:
for indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor:
because for the work of {Many ancient authorities read the Lord.}Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
Let {Or, every house}all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made himboth Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears {See verse 9.}, let him hear.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are {Some very ancient authorities omit at Ephesus.}at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be {Or, God and the Father See Romans 15:6 margin}the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before {Or, him: having in love foreordained us}him in love:
having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, {Or, wherewith he endued us}which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:
in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
{Or, wherewith he abounded}which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
unto a dispensation of the fulness of the {Greek: seasons.}times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things {Greek: upon.}in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say,
in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;
to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who {Or, have}had before hoped in Christ:
in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the {Or, good tidings. See marginal note on Matthew 4:23.}gospel of your salvation,— in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is {Or, in}among you, and {Many ancient authorities omit the love.}the love which ye show toward all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this {Greek: age.}world, but also in that which is to come:
and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy {Greek: the brother.}our brother,
{Or, to those that are at Colossae, holy and faithful brethren in Christ}to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ that are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have toward all the saints,
because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the {Greek: good tidings: and so elsewhere; see marginal note on Matthew 4:23.}gospel,
which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on {Many ancient authorities read your.}our behalf,
who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
to walk worthily of the Lord {Or, unto all pleasing, in every good work, bearing fruit and increasing &c.}unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing {Or, by}in the knowledge of God;
{Greek: made powerful.}strengthened {Or, in}with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all {Or, stedfastness}patience and longsuffering with joy;
giving thanks unto the Father, who made {Some ancient authorities read you.}us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;
in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him;
and he is before all things, and in him all things {That is, hold together.}consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; {Or, that among all he might have &c.}that in all things he might have the preeminence.
{Or, For the whole fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him}For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell;
and through him to reconcile all things {Or, into him}unto {Or, him}himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.
And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
yet now {Some ancient authorities read ye have been reconciled.}hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him:
if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the {Greek: good tidings: and so elsewhere; see marginal note on Matthew 4:23.}gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church;
whereof I was made a minister, according to the {Or, stewardship See 1 Corinthians 9:17}dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God,
even the mystery which hath been hid for {Or, from all the ages &c. Greek: from the ages and from the generations.}ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ;
whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me {Or, in power}mightily.
For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Look to yourselves, that ye {Or, destroy}lose not the things which {Many ancient authorities read ye.}we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.